Problem with Hermes Delivery Services

kamm44

arcon,she said "only to find it had been sub-contracted out to a self-employed courier which in my area is one woman in a car covering all these companies!! "

i am pretty sure dhl or yodel or hermes would not share a van.

arcon5

kamm44 wrote: »

yes,any courier or delivery driver should leave a calling card if there is no answer,and hermes should be able to take some sort of feedback from the recipients(as you are not their customer). Tbh if you could see inside any given delivery depot you would be surprised at what goes on in them,just remember if a company posts out 50,000 items and 4,000 make it to the destination on time and undamaged,thats good to them(i am talking about large,bulk parcel delivery companys),but that still leaves 2 ,000 unhappy customers .

Are your numbers right? that would mean a damage rate of 92%.......
i'd be surprised if their official figure was above 1%. This year i've sent out circa 3.5k parcels with Hermes, damaged = 1; lost= 6 = circa 0.1%.

Maybe i'm lucky or in a good pickup area or something, but I can't imagine the average being much different. I imagine your basing your projections on air?

Also as far as i'm aware, when a calling card is left the barcode is scanned with the handheld devices. Not sure though how well enforced that is, but I know our region do it.

arcon5

kamm44 wrote: »

arcon,she said "only to find it had been sub-contracted out to a self-employed courier which in my area is one woman in a car covering all these companies!! "

i am pretty sure dhl or yodel or hermes would not share a van.

No, nor would they need to make visits back to the depot to get more parcels as they couldn't fit them in a van.

The argument that one woman in a car is better for the environment is very weak due to many other factors.

Flyboy152

lodatta wrote: »

Yes I understand where you're coming from, but I'm very careful to only order things online when I know I'll be in. And as I said I supplied my phone number and a code, I didn't state that I wanted it left with a neighbour.

But that is all depending on whether your supplier passed that imformation to Hermes. Why would you expect the courier to telephone you? It could cost him up to twenty pence to call you, when he only earns thirty or forty pence to deliver the parcel.

And regarding t&cs, should the courier not be obliged to leave a calling card if the item is undelivered? I'm happy to go along with the t&cs myself, but I don't see how claiming that my parcel was 'securely delivered', not leaving a calling card or even attempting to contact me is sticking to that!

It is of course entirely possible that it was delivered to the wrong address. Mistakes happen.

My bugbear is that there seems to be no communication allowed between the customer and the courier, yet how can the retailer provide information to me when the courier isn't providing it to them!

Have you asked that question to your supplier? Because in most circumstances it is on their insistence that Hermes do not engage with their customers.

In the meantime the whereabouts of my parcel is still a complete mystery. I've emailed someone at Hermes but as yet no reply and I'm not expecting much.

But why are you even dealing with Hermes, it is your supplier you need to contact.

Flyboy152

arcon5 wrote: »

Unfortunately a 'you get what you pay for' situation. Hermes don't want to be spending another few hundred thousand pound/year employing more agents to deal with queries from recipients. Hence why they deal with their customer only (the seller).
Admittedly annoying, as when I have a customer having delivery issues i'd love to give him their number and cut out the middle man (me) -- unfortunately I can't -- but if I wanted this i'd pay an extra couple quid per parcel.

Regarding the courier receiving phone calls early/late/inappropriate times, the solution is simple = buy a cheap 2nd hand phone + get new sim card (free) and give out this number. When at home turn it off.

Only then to be complained at that their telephone is switched off.

arcon5

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Only then to be complained at that their telephone is switched off.

It's a loose loose situation whatever route the courier decides to take really. Personally i'd rather deal with people moaning the phone is off than being interrupted at home where you have to deal with customers wanting deliveries at unreasonable times or to visit your home and collect. All you need to say is 'sorry, you need to call during business hours: 9-5 Mon-Fri'.

Perhaps one of those rubber stamps will suffice, with the telephone number and times. That way just refer them to the card left

kamm44

damage rate of 92%?, silly me didnt press the 8 button.i dont think it would have taken a genius to figure out that,given that i said it left 2,000 unhappy customers.all i was trying to get across was that to some large businesses that send items out(like amazon) its all a numbers game, and will only make changes when the numbers start stacking against them.

kamm44

really arcon5,is this what this site has come to,trying to flame an off the cuff remark? i guess sarcasm passes some people by.
but you are right about having 2 phones,if only to claim the tax back on using a business phone.

Anyway,i see some quotes saying that hermes pay 45p per parcel,is this right? as i understand yodel are paying 75p per parcel.

arcon5

kamm44 wrote: »

really arcon5,is this what this site has come to,trying to flame an off the cuff remark? i guess sarcasm passes some people by.
but you are right about having 2 phones,if only to claim the tax back on using a business phone.

Anyway,i see some quotes saying that hermes pay 45p per parcel,is this right? as i understand yodel are paying 75p per parcel.

Not sure how i'm flaming :huh:

Even with the 8 thats 4%, which is still exceptionally high, even for the worst couriers. I wonder what the success rate infact is as I struggle to believe a company like Amazon or Next would use them if the impact was that bad. Whether using Hermes, RM, Yodel ect you will always experience the same issues with regards to lost & damaged parcels.

The prices you refer to for deliveries sounds about right for deliveries. As far as i'm aware collection prices is the same. And where the parcel to be delivered has a selected day or time frame (morning or afternoon) (e.g. for next deliveries) they get a bonus.
I'm not sure how some of them make a living tbh. The courier we use says he delivers/collects about 80 parcels/day so £36/day :eek: less costs

lodatta

flyboy152, I don't know if you read my first post, but I have been dealing directly with the retailer.... The form on which I provided my number was for Hermes, it included any instructions and other information that the courier should be aware of, so I would assume this would be passed on to Hermes.... Yes it's possible the item was delivered to the wrong address, but I live in a huge 'named' building so it would be difficult to mistake my address for a house, and it was marked as having been 'securely delivered', so this not mean someone would have had to sign for it? The retailer has had no response from Hermes on the matter, and yes I have been dealing directly with them, I only tried to contact Hermes myself when nothing more was being done on the retailer's part.