Myhermes compensation limit decreasing

soolin

I've just got the following email from MyHermes, I'll cut and paste it in full as there is no direct link- note though that compensation will be going down from £50 standard to £25.

Advance notice of planned changes to the myHermes website
The myHermes website may function intermittently for a short period of time on Wednesday 22nd July whilst we make important changes to the site. Where possible we will continue to keep the site available to track parcels and process orders. Although we aim to minimise disruption it may be possible that we have to make the site unavailable for a very short time. The new upgrades will ensure the stability of the site going forward and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.

As part of the changes we will be changing the free compensation cover from £50 to £25 as of 22nd of July; orders placed prior to this date will not be affected. Changing the standard compensation rate ensures that we remain competitive in the parcel shipping prices we offer you.

We will continue to offer competitive pricing, tracking and free compensation cover.

We apologise in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.

Kind regards

myHermes Team

Sjb07

Well, I guess that's the end of my Hermes working relationship.

They lose far too many parcels for me risk sending my parcels with them as my average parcel value is around £40.

Royal Mail may be more expensive but in 6 years they have never once lost one of my parcels, and even if they did they would be covered for £50.

Disapointing.:mad:

soolin

Sjb07 wrote: »

Well, I guess that's the end of my Hermes working relationship.

They lose far too many parcels for me risk sending my parcels with them as my average parcel value is around £40.

Royal Mail may be more expensive but in 6 years they have never once lost one of my parcels, and even if they did they would be covered for £50.

Disapointing.:mad:

You mention RM and £50 compensation but that is for signed for, so not a tracked service so not a straight comparison.

I use MyHErmes quite a lot with virtually no issues at all and a lot I send is not insured anyway (breakable things like glass) so I'll probably stick with them but re consider for certain items.

celestius

I have just thrown in the towel and bought a zebra printer/moved to DMO!

Sjb07

soolin wrote: »

You mention RM and £50 compensation but that is for signed for, so not a tracked service so not a straight comparison.

I use MyHErmes quite a lot with virtually no issues at all and a lot I send is not insured anyway (breakable things like glass) so I'll probably stick with them but re consider for certain items.

I agree it wont effect everyone, but for me it is a straight comparison, everything I send Royal Mail is signed for to deter scammers.

So £4.40 for a small parcel or £2.36 for Large Letter size 1st class usually delivered next day with £50 compensation.

But with MyHermes new compensation levels I would need to take out extra compensation(£1), which automatically forces you to pay for a signature(£1.20) add that up and my average parcel that used to cost me £2.78 will now cost me £4.98 for a slower service that is far more prone to damaging and losing parcels, not to mention the MyHermes orders don't get me bonus points on my Amazon selling account which Royal Mail does.

I spent over £3000 with them last year, I doubt i'm big enough for MyHermes to care but I will unfortunately have to switch back to Royal mail for most of my orders.

Disappointed because I really like the Import features on the MyHermes site.

theonlywayisup

Sjb07 wrote: »

I agree it wont effect everyone, but for me it is a straight comparison, everything I send Royal Mail is signed for to deter scammers.

So £4.40 for a small parcel or £2.36 for Large Letter size 1st class usually delivered next day with £50 compensation.

But with MyHermes new compensation levels I would need to take out extra compensation(£1), which automatically forces you to pay for a signature(£1.20) add that up and my average parcel that used to cost me £2.78 will now cost me £4.98 for a slower service that is far more prone to damaging and losing parcels, not to mention the MyHermes orders don't get me bonus points on my Amazon selling account which Royal Mail does.

I spent over £3000 with them last year, I doubt i'm big enough for MyHermes to care but I will unfortunately have to switch back to Royal mail for most of my orders.

Disappointed because I really like the Import features on the MyHermes site.

You need to work out what is important. You say you send 'signed for' to deter scammers - then all you need is tracking. If you are concerned your parcels are lost or damaged, then you need insurance.

I don't use SF as it isn't tracked. It may be cheaper for you to use Hermes which is tracked but not fully insured if you are more worried about scammers. You can use the substantial savings to self insure. Have a read of the postage sticky, it may help you decide what is more important.

soolin

It is worth noting as well that the £2.80 second class RM parcel being talked about £3.90 signed for) is also subject to size limits- and for me a lot of my items will not fit into a package where one side is less than 16cm max.

Recently though I sold a bakelite object-all measurements clearly shown in both inches and cms, not one dimension of the object was less than 16 cms. I sold it with inclusive postage with MyHermes (£2.78 up to 1kg) and also showed a premium for RM 2nd class of £3.53 (the difference between 2nd class signed for medium parcel and Myhermes plus 10%). Potential buyer told me they would buy it if I sent it Royal Mail- so I told them to just pay the extra on the invoice when they used BIN and they insisted they would not pay extra as they were sure i could squash the item into the size limit for a small parcel if I was clever enough to pack item at an angle! Obviously they were blocked, but they did contact me again complaining that any idiot could pack an item approx 10 x 7 inches (measured before any packing) into a box with one side less than 6 inches.

mrcol1000

Also got this e-mail. I think the thing is that they are still providing a better service than Royal Mail standard services for around the same price. I would prefer they reduced compensation than put their prices up. I have few problems with My Hermes and normally when there is problems, the buyer is actually at fault. I often send items that are under-insured because the chance of any problems are lower than the extra cost overall.

Rotti

I got this too and like the last unannounced increase on the two middle parcel sizes we have only had 5 days notice so not enough time to change the postage amounts on relevant 10 day auctions that already have bids. Surely they know that eBay sellers need some advanced warning of these things? I lost out on a parcel with the last increase as I had charged enough to cover £5.48 and was unaware that the cost had increased to £5.99. I emailed the CEO and advised her of my displeasure and it was passed down to an underling to deal with. Her resolution was to refund the 14p I was out by but there was also nothing left for any packaging costs so I was still out of pocket. But if everyone took up their time and made them refund it might make them think twice about not notifying us.

I have looked on the website and yet again there is nothing under "latest news" and there doesn't seem to be any clear table of charges for compensation so how on earth are we supposed to know what to charge to cover the value? Most of my parcels are between £20 and £50 with a lot of combined sales with replacement china so this will be another nail in the coffin of eBay selling along with the massive drop in sales and the defect system. My stuff will also not squish into boxes small enough for the RM medium parcel price so I don't really have a good alternative - except for a career change!

Sjb07

I know what is important to me, the answer is both, I was getting ample compensation and a tracked service.

This new development means huge increase of £2.20 for the same service.

I would say that myhermes lose / damage a parcel of mine at least once a week or at least they make it easy for customers to claim they haven't received them by leaving them outside or in wheelie bins.

I have to choose between losing money when something is lost or damaged or losing money through paying for royal mail or hermes extra insurance.
Both bad choices from my point of view.

soolin

Rotti wrote: »

I got this too and like the last unannounced increase on the two middle parcel sizes we have only had 5 days notice so not enough time to change the postage amounts on relevant 10 day auctions that already have bids. Surely they know that eBay sellers need some advanced warning of these things? I lost out on a parcel with the last increase as I had charged enough to cover £5.48 and was unaware that the cost had increased to £5.99. I emailed the CEO and advised her of my displeasure and it was passed down to an underling to deal with. Her resolution was to refund the 14p I was out by but there was also nothing left for any packaging costs so I was still out of pocket. But if everyone took up their time and made them refund it might make them think twice about not notifying us.

I have looked on the website and yet again there is nothing under "latest news" and there doesn't seem to be any clear table of charges for compensation so how on earth are we supposed to know what to charge to cover the value? Most of my parcels are between £20 and £50 with a lot of combined sales with replacement china so this will be another nail in the coffin of eBay selling along with the massive drop in sales and the defect system. My stuff will also not squish into boxes small enough for the RM medium parcel price so I don't really have a good alternative - except for a career change!

Your China was not insured against damage anyway and I suspect it would be a struggle to get compensation for loss for breakables as well.

I agree though that the notice was very poor especially as they know that many people use it for ebay purchases and need time to adjust auctions.