Hermes billing me for apparent underpaid postage 10KG over what it weighed

hubb

I recently sent 2 x glass curtain pole ends in a small cardboard box to an Ebay buyer which weighed well under 1KG. Hermes just sent  this email stating that it weighed 10KG and I will need to pay an extra £9.30. This is absolutely ridiculous as again it didn't even weigh 1KG. What can I do about it as they have also sent me an invoice to pay ?

During one of our regular audits the above item was found to weigh more than was specified on the myHermes website.  Please note that the audit was conducted using EC approved fit for trade scales that are government regulated to ensure accuracy.

 

Weight paid for: 1.000 kg

Actual parcel weight: 10.500 kg

 

Our audits find that most parcels are correctly specified and only a small minority are underpaid.  Regrettably, while we pride ourselves on delivering excellent value, these underpayments have the impact of forcing prices up for all of our customers.  We therefore require that you pay the correct price for the parcel plus a fee to cover the administration costs incurred during the auditing and invoicing processes:

 

An invoice will be sent to you shortly via email enabling you to make an additional payment.  Please select the 'View & pay invoice' button.

 

Kind regards,

 

 

Hermes Customer Services

mikb

Warning: Hermes are infallible. They have lasers and stuff that measures everything, and they can't make mistakes. This is why they will not be able to provide you any kind of proof of how they came to that conclusion. (Why would they need proof? They are always right!). They will just state that it *is* over size and you have to pay.

If you can get the recipient to confirm their address, and what they received, photographs of it, pictures of the packaging, from *their* end (independent of you) -- you might get them to back down. Of course, you only have facts and common sense, they have lasers and poor customer service. Who is your money on there?

Ultimately they might block you using their service (I guess you don't care about that?) or pretend to start legal action. I don't think they'd win, do you?

I had the same problem with an item which had "grown" to be larger than their small-packet like service limits. Utter nonsense. The dimension their super-accurate, audited, measuring system came up with was larger than the dimensions of the Jiffy bag the item was put in, by some margin. I refused to pay it. They refused to back down. I provided pictures and measurements taken by the recipient. In the end, I stopped using Hermes' rip off service, I didn't pay it, and it became a "goodwill gesture" for them to waive it. "But if it happens again we will not waive it". Fine by me -- never using Hermes again, lesson learned.

In practice, I think their measuring system makes mistakes. Two packages close together get measured as one. Either that, or they are just incompetent scammers on the shakedown.

Good luck!

Norman_Castle

Send details of the ebay listing. Ask them to show you similar items weighing 5kg each.

hubb

Well if they don't back down it's goodbye Hermes, but a reluctant goodbye as I have found them very convenient to drop off the package to the local shop rather than que outside the post office (always a long one) until they let us in one at a time. I have messaged the recipient of the item for help but I doubt they will have taken a photo. The best I can do is show an image of the item  that I gave the tracking number details to the buyer. It's scary if they are trying to make extra money like this. It will be their loss as they have had a lot5 of money from me this year sending out stuff. I will just go to facebook marketplace and sell for free, pickup only.

Spank

Can you get them to take pictures of the pole ends on scales?

hubb

Spank said:

Can you get them to take pictures of the pole ends on scales?

I will try but they haven't replied yet.

olgadapolga

Just dispute it with them. If you know an approximate weight of the object (look for similar online) just tell them that they are wrong and offer them the proof. They'll come back with some rubbish about their scales being incredibly accurate and will waive the additional costs that they tried to claim, as a "goodwill gesture". That's what happened when they tried to bill me for extra. They sent a PayPal invoice which I ignored.

Unless they have a picture of your parcel on their scales of course...

hubb

olgadapolga said:

Just dispute it with them. If you know an approximate weight of the object (look for similar online) just tell them that they are wrong and offer them the proof. They'll come back with some rubbish about their scales being incredibly accurate and will waive the additional costs that they tried to claim, as a "goodwill gesture". That's what happened when they tried to bill me for extra. They sent a PayPal invoice which I ignored.

Unless they have a picture of your parcel on their scales of course...

If they had a picture of it on their scales it would prove their scales are not calibrated correctly. Even my cats would know 2 small curtain pole ends don't weigh 10kg

wary

I've just experienced a similar issue with Hermes.  I received an overweight demand for £10.80 for a package that weighed 13 to 13.5kg but they claimed was over 15kg.  Because the contents were worth over £100, I decided to pay it just to get it safely delivered and contest it after, but they ignore emails.  I paid the excess charge via Paypal.  Am I likely to have any luck raising a Paypal dispute on the grounds that they won't provide me with evidence that it was overweight, and indeed refuse to respond to my attempts to resolve the issue with Hermes direct?

MattMattMattUK

hubb said:

Weight paid for: 1.000 kg

Actual parcel weight: 10.500 kg

How big were the poles? Couriers also charge by "dimensional weight" or "volumetric pricing", essentially if the parcel is over a certain volume then the volume attracts a per kg charge in the same way that weight would (many also charge an excess length charge, usually for over 1 or 1.2m).

hubb

There weren't any poles in the box, just the glass pole ends as I stated in the OP.