Delivery Problems

One of the suppliers is messing around with me bigtime, I won't mention their name directly in an open forum but it regards a Reilang oiler ordered on 14/09/16 with Hermes 3-5 days delivery. It transpired last night, after first emailing supplier who "would look into it" and subsequently not replying further, that Hermes had never received any such consignment into their system.

I should add that the tracking number given by the supplier in its "despatch" email had never worked, this is why I contacted Hermes via their WebChat.Very annoying, so how best to proceed ?

I would ring the dealer. Email is not always the best way to solve such issues, and bear in mind that some smaller companies are not able to answer emails on the same day, or they may be trying to sort out exactly what went wrong before they reply.

I is quite possible (if stories I have heard from suppliers are to be believed) that the problem is with Hermes.

Consider their position if they have despatched the goods in good faith and they now can't get any sense of out of Hermes either.

Issues like this usually are the result of a mistake, rather than any deliberate conspiracy.

Hopefully they will get back to you today with an explanation.

Neil

Errr....what Neil said....I posted at the same time

Edited By John Rudd on 23/09/2016 10:41:43

I just did that and spoke to the proprietor who said he was sending another one out, and, as you were saying was receiving the same nonsense from Hermes. So Royal Snail this time !

Neil

I have had this problem with Hermes. I bought off an eBay supplier who sent it via Hermes. It got as far as my street and the person whose door was knocked at said it was not for him. Then it was sent, by Hermes, to a previous customer of the supplier in Suffolk, no idea why. It then sat in a depot somewhere for three weeks and has now disappeared. My supplier has been wonderful, kept me informed, refunded my money without quibble, and we're starting again. Not with Hermes!!!

Geoff

I have used MyHermes in the past without problems, and they are much cheaper than Royal Mail. However, I have now had second thoughts since I read about the way they cut costs by imposing very poor working conditions:

https://edition.independent.co.uk/editions/uk.co.independent.issue.130916/data/7238436/index.html

Companies such as Royal Mail have costs such as pension liabilities which many cut price services evade by using zero-hours contracts. I do not feel happy about colluding with exploitation. Also, you can hardly expect staff treated so badly to give great customer service!

Niall

I use Royal Mail for their large letter and small package services but they are far too expensive for larger/heavier items so for those I use UPS. The reports of worker's exploitation by Hermes put me off using them.

Roger

On alternatives, I routinely use ParcelForce for >2kgs. There is a discount of 15% using their loyalty card.

And for the largest, I still use Parcelforce - but access it by Parcelmonkey, which is a consolidator business. They have bulk discount with Parcelforce, you pay online, print a label and take it down to the depot.

Others, like Hermes and UKMail have incessant issues.

Cheers, Colin

I can't say much without it being possibly libellous, but I wouldn't ever use Hermes.

You can't libel/defame a company so feel free.

I ordered some kit via Amazon fulfilment and the supplier used Hermes for shipment. The tracker showed the package was on the van for delivery that day. At 6pm the parcel had not showed up, so I checked the tracker again. The status was "unable to deliver" and that card had been posted through the door. Bearing in mind, by pure fluke, I was near the door at the posted time I knew there was something wrong. Particularly since no card had been posted.

The instruction is to contact Hermes using the details on the card...

After a fair amount of messing around on the Hermes website, I managed to get a live chat, Herpes not interested, told me to contact the supplier. I then eMailed the Supplier, who responded quickly, telling me I needed to contact Amazon. No ownership and no idea where the package is at this point.

The package turned up the next day whilst I was out. My wife asked the driver why the package had had an 'undeliverable' status when actually we were both in the house at the time on the tracker.

The Driver said he hadn't a clue, his van had broken down the previous day (package was on the van) and had gone up to the Lakes for a day out whilst the van was fixed. He had not attempted to deliver any parcels that day.

Given the wholesale lack of ownership then a) I ain't using Herpes and b) I don't intend to buy "fulfilled by Amazon" if Herpes are in the supply chain.

Steve

I gather you don't remember the McLibel case? If I understand correctly the ECHR ruling did not completely remove trade libel from English law, just raised the bar a little.

Brian

Hermes = 'private enterprise' at its money grabbing worst. "Pay peanuts, get monkeys" so why the surprise?

Parcel deliverers vary widely but one which I find quite amazing is DPD. Don't know who they are, never seen an advert but their delivery service is quite remarkable. They email you the day before delivery, "Your driver will be XXXX, and he will be with you between XX.XX and XX.XX (usually a one hour slot) On the day, another email - "Your driver XXXX is now at >>>>>(location) and will be with you between etc." Suppliers who have used this company don't seem to have paid exorbitant postage rates, so why can't the rest be that good??

rgds

Bill

I will second that for DPD, excellent service and polite drivers. they also give you a chance to tell them where to leave you're goods if no one is in. or reschedule you're delivery. They are first rate. also find parcelforce very good In fact, I have had most of them [ deliveries ] and never had any bother. [ yet ]

cheers.

My experience was very similar to Steve's. In my case, a very expensive professional-quality paper shredder went missing in transit. Fortunately, the supplier went out of his way to be helpful, and dispatched another immediately and without any argument. As far as I know, the original item never did turn up, although the tracking system insisted that it was "out for delivery" for weeks . A relative of mine used to work in the courier business, and apparently Herpes is a name frequently used within the industry...

Nowadays when ordering on line I generally request that this courier is not used.

DPD are indeed excellent but they are relatively expensive compared with other carriers. I suppose it's a case of you get what you pay for.

I've used Hermes quite a few times without problem. Only issue is that they tend to leave it on the front doorstep instead of ringing the bell, no doubt it's quicker. This however is not restricted to Hermes, Royal Mail have been known to do it as well.

We live well off the beaten track hence get quite a lot of our "stuff" delivered by carrier. ( Hermes, DPD, Royal Mail etc etc. ) I can't recall any time that we've had a problem. When ordering "big" stuff ( furniture etc) I tell them the size of the largest lorry that can get here and they generally take note! We recently ordered a new sofa and it arrived on a huge lorry! The guys were OK though - they grabbed each end and carried it up the steep lane, across a rough car park and down two sets of steps then placed it, just where we wanted it, in the sitting room!

Any drivers reading this, DPD included, I think you are great!

Norman

Whenver we order on line we are always pleased to see DPD as the carrier, superb service, trouble is you don't have much control over what carrier the vendor uses.

Bill D

Had a package delivered by DPD on Sunday - it should have been here on Thursday, but Friday was promised.

Reason for delay? It had been sent for a little trip to Glasgow on its way from Yorkshire to Lancashire - a distance of about 80 miles.