Problem with Hermes Delivery Services

Lottie-B

Geeves1980 wrote: »

Well if this is really how the company operate, then they sound like a complete shambles.

Hundreds of random parcels 'dumped' on some poor single courier, no proper procesess for organisation or location of parcels.

If your little description of how things are done is correct, then you are not painting a very good picture of the company and they should not have contracts with such major retailers and be trusted with the delivery of some very expensive items if this is how they treat them.

Why would I make things up?
My description is accurate - I should know, I was a courier.
There is a process, but it cuts corners - which is precisely why the country is in a mess now. Get things cheap, go abroad, sod the ordinary working person's standard of living - undercut undercut undercut. It's the way this country has gone since the thatcherite mentality of the 80's came into being.
People don't want to pay prices which keep British workers in decent jobs with pensions - that's why Royal Mail are in such a mess as they cannot compete with the undercutting...it's also the reason why our British industry and machinery was sold down the line and moved abroad - by those that stood to gain while the workforce were made jobless.

People have only themselves to blame...each time they have voted with their purse and bought foreign goods.

Hermes is just the latest in a line of low tactics to make money for the few by exploiting the many - often whom are the most vulnerable.

I agree, they should not have large contracts until they employ a workforce properly instead of the Dickensian methods they currently use. But where does the blame lie? Hermes for doing it, or major clients for encouraging it? Someone is making a fat profit - Carole Woodhead is one but who are the others? Not the couriers at 45p per parcel. The Mirror is trying to expose the "self-employed" fiasco which incidentally HDNL/DHL also operate (now called Yodel) and there was a segment of Newsnight devoted to the plight of so-called Self-employed couriers the other day too. See here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0MgdNlIswM

I'd just like to see couriers treated properly and the only way that might happen is to raise awareness.

Lottie-B

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

This is how to operate a courier service.....

Order placed at 2pm yesterday......

23/12/2010 14:20 Order being processed SHAW DC
23/12/2010 19:30 Sorted at PRIME SORT
24/12/2010 04:08 Received at NORWICH DEPOT
24/12/2010 06:37 Loaded onto van at NORWICH VAN
24/12/2010 08:18 Parcel delivered CUSTOMER

Arrived before 9am this morning :T

:j HDNL rule!!!:j

It might have worked that day, but there are plenty who complain about HDNL/DHL too maybe that's why they rebranded to Yodel?
They also employ couriers under much the same lines as Hermes, although parcel rates tend to be higher as all items are signed for.
That tracking information is pretty much the same as Hermes - all parcel companies use HHTs to feedback the information (Hand Held Terminals - the screens you sign).

Citylink also sub-contract...I had a nightmare with one of their subcontractors the other day. They'd only been given a paper manifest and managed to mix up the deliveries to customers and they delivered the wrong thing to my house when I wasn't in (my son thought Christmas had come early and didn't notice the error as I hadn't told him what I was expecting!). Had the Sub been given an HHT it wouldn't have happened. But then again - cutting corners!! :mad:

AK_1980

Checked online today and status still "out for delivery to courier" even though when I rang H&M and they spoke to their Hermes agent, telling me I would definitely get it before xmas! It has had that status since the 10th December, how can it possibly take 2 weeks for them to get the parcel to the courier, especially when the roads were fine for a week.

~Chameleon~

Lottie-B wrote: »

It might have worked that day, but there are plenty who complain about HDNL/DHL too maybe that's why they rebranded to Yodel?
They also employ couriers under much the same lines as Hermes, although parcel rates tend to be higher as all items are signed for.
That tracking information is pretty much the same as Hermes - all parcel companies use HHTs to feedback the information (Hand Held Terminals - the screens you sign).

Citylink also sub-contract...I had a nightmare with one of their subcontractors the other day. They'd only been given a paper manifest and managed to mix up the deliveries to customers and they delivered the wrong thing to my house when I wasn't in (my son thought Christmas had come early and didn't notice the error as I hadn't told him what I was expecting!). Had the Sub been given an HHT it wouldn't have happened. But then again - cutting corners!! :mad:

This wasn't a one off but is a regular occurrence, as in 2-3 times a week. I have a high volume of orders going through HDNL and they have never let me down once!! I was merely demonstrating how even on Xmas Eve and in bad weather they can still provide a next day delivery, which incidentally wasn't requested or paid for & these items weren't technically due for delivery until Dec 31st.

The only courier I've ever had a problem with other than Hermes was DPD on more than one occasion ringing to say they'd be late but could they still sign me off as delivered before 12pm!!!

Oh, and no Hermes courier has ever turned up here with a HHT, it's always paper manifests.

Geeves1980

Lottie-B wrote: »

Why would I make things up?
My description is accurate - I should know, I was a courier.
There is a process, but it cuts corners - which is precisely why the country is in a mess now. Get things cheap, go abroad, sod the ordinary working person's standard of living - undercut undercut undercut. It's the way this country has gone since the thatcherite mentality of the 80's came into being.
People don't want to pay prices which keep British workers in decent jobs with pensions - that's why Royal Mail are in such a mess as they cannot compete with the undercutting...it's also the reason why our British industry and machinery was sold down the line and moved abroad - by those that stood to gain while the workforce were made jobless.

People have only themselves to blame...each time they have voted with their purse and bought foreign goods.

Hermes is just the latest in a line of low tactics to make money for the few by exploiting the many - often whom are the most vulnerable.

I agree, they should not have large contracts until they employ a workforce properly instead of the Dickensian methods they currently use. But where does the blame lie? Hermes for doing it, or major clients for encouraging it? Someone is making a fat profit - Carole Woodhead is one but who are the others? Not the couriers at 45p per parcel. The Mirror is trying to expose the "self-employed" fiasco which incidentally HDNL/DHL also operate (now called Yodel) and there was a segment of Newsnight devoted to the plight of so-called Self-employed couriers the other day too. See here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0MgdNlIswM

I'd just like to see couriers treated properly and the only way that might happen is to raise awareness.

Can I just say that I agree it is disgusting with the way that it these couriers are treated and I'm not slating the individual courier who has the misfortune of having my parcel dumped on them in the manner in which you describe, but Hermes as a company, the way they operate and their whole business model.

If a little bit of snow and Christmas (which lets not forget happens at the same time every year) can bring deliveries to a near standstill (3 weeks to move a parcel about 80 miles and then 'lose' it) then the whole operation is poorly devised, managed and executed.

The thing is I've had other parcels delivered from Hermes at other times of the year when these conditions don't exist and they are far the slowest.

AK_1980

I was wondering if anybody knows when Hermes are delivering again? Is it tomorrow?

Toe-Jam

AK_1980 wrote: »

I was wondering if anybody knows when Hermes are delivering again? Is it tomorrow?

I got an email today to say they had Lost both my packages !

mia01

I have also had a bad experiance with Hermes. I ordered several items from Toys r Us on the 14th December with a delivery date of 22nd Dec or earlier. Within a couple of days the order was showing as Consignment conpleted on the Toys R Us website with no way of tracking the delivery. On the 17th December my husband took delivery of of one of the items from the order. The delivery driver practically threw the item at him and told him no need to sign for it! Before my husband had time to question this the driver was of down the garden path and driving off in his van.
And still we waited for the rest of the order to arrive. Fast forward to the 21st , still no sign of the remaining order so I contacted Toys R Us and explained the situation. They in turn contacted Hermes and were told that the order had been lost! Funny as we had already received 1 of the items, but as it had not been signed for how could they know that this had been delivered!
The Toys R Us rep agreed with me that there is something fishy going on, and he is esculating the issue higher up the chain. Makes me wonder how much money Toys R Us are losing from so called "lost" deliveries that are in fact been delivered. I have to say that Toys R Us were very helpful and refunded me for the undelivered items with no hesitation.
Hermes seem to be a very shoddy operation taking my personal experiance of there services.

Lottie-B

AK_1980 wrote: »

I was wondering if anybody knows when Hermes are delivering again? Is it tomorrow?

Tomorrow is technically a bank holiday and so no, the couriers shouldn't be working. Having said that, many couriers work under the fear of having work withdrawn for not jumping when the Field Managers say "jump"...so there might be some deliveries.

Lottie-B

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

This wasn't a one off but is a regular occurrence, as in 2-3 times a week. I have a high volume of orders going through HDNL and they have never let me down once!! I was merely demonstrating how even on Xmas Eve and in bad weather they can still provide a next day delivery, which incidentally wasn't requested or paid for & these items weren't technically due for delivery until Dec 31st.

The only courier I've ever had a problem with other than Hermes was DPD on more than one occasion ringing to say they'd be late but could they still sign me off as delivered before 12pm!!!

Oh, and no Hermes courier has ever turned up here with a HHT, it's always paper manifests.

Hermes doesn't offer Next Day Delivery, their system can't cope with it unless it's an order through NEXT.

Hermes have been using HHTs for 18 months or more now.

When you're ordering from a company (not C2C) then the Hermes service, like your HDNL one will be as good as the courier in your area. You obviously have a good HDNL one. I have an excellent Hermes courier who has never let me down. I have never had an order arrive more than 3 days after ordering. It's swings and roundabouts with ALL courier firms who use 3rd parties.

As for your DPD person asking that, I presume he loses his bonus if he can't mark it as delivered before 12pm. I had RM do that to me once - when I checked the tracking it said delivered and I hadn't received it. I spent the next 3 hours trying to work out where my item had been delivered and RM were as much help as a chocolate bra. My item eventually turned up later that day - I was not best pleased as I'd wasted so much time panicking that an important car part which I needed to get my car back on the road (I was a courier at the time!) had gone missing. At least your DPD guy did call you I suppose...it's still not supposed to be done though.