Hermes, how do they continue to operate?

rousetafarian

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Ordered 2 items from an online retailer earlier this week and was advised that Hermes would be the courier. Due to their tendency to be generally abominably awful IMO I chose for them to deliver to an Inpost collection box, at a local petrol station.

Ordered Tuesday
ETA Saturday
Arrived today according to Hermes tracking, a day ahead of ETA which is nice so I thought
Went to Inpost collection ‘wall’, needed a QR code or 6 digit pin neither of which I’d been sent and didn’t realise until I got there.
Came home empty handed with just my tracking number…..

Still no text or QR, will it arrive tomorrow? Do I have to guess……?

Any clues as to the inner working of Hermes….please advise

Peace!
 
Most of the 'cheap' courier companies are trash. Yodel are bloody awful too, as are TNT

I'd rather pay a bit more then use those ****s
 
Ordered 2 items from an online retailer earlier this week and was advised that Hermes would be the courier. Due to their tendency to be generally abominably awful IMO I chose for them to deliver to an Inpost collection box, at a local petrol station.

Ordered Tuesday
ETA Saturday
Arrived today according to Hermes tracking, a day ahead of ETA which is nice so I thought
Went to Inpost collection ‘wall’, needed a QR code or 6 digit pin neither of which I’d been sent and didn’t realise until I got there.
Came home empty handed with just my tracking number…..

Still no text or QR, will it arrive tomorrow? Do I have to guess……?

Any clues as to the inner working of Hermes….please advise

Peace!

They're waiting on Sue Grey's report to determine whether they're a delivery company or not.
 
They're waiting on Sue Grey's report to determine whether they're a delivery company or not.
Or whether I was there for 25 minutes wondering what the fudge was going on before going back to work
 
Most of the 'cheap' courier companies are trash. Yodel are bloody awful too, as are TNT

I'd rather pay a bit more then use those ****s
That’s not an option with the e-tailer I was using
 
As will I
A lot of people use them because they are cheap but they are so bad.

Don't know your situation with regards to the transaction, but yeah, avoid if possible

I had such a terrible time with TNT recently with my passport which I think you replied to so probably remember.
 
I think Hermes along with Amazon Flex, Yodel etc have very very low entry requirements to work for them. So it kind of attracts the drivers the likes of DPD weed out with their upfront franchise costs. Last time I spoke to a Hermes driver they were on 60p a parcel driving a beat-up old Micra to do their 'round' with. The customer service is non-existent and I am surprised they still are around in 2022.
 
I think more of these couriers should do what Amazon do for expensive items. You get sent a one time PIN (6 digits), and when the delivery driver turns up they're required to enter the PIN before they can hand it over. They don't know the PIN, and because the package has to go back into the van if there's no PIN, they can't just dump it on your doorstep or hand it over to a random bod. The only time it almost fell apart was when I had something redirected to my mum's work place, and I had to ring and tell her secretary what the PIN was otherwise it would have been taken back.
 
I think more of these couriers should do what Amazon do for expensive items. You get sent a one time PIN (6 digits), and when the delivery driver turns up they're required to enter the PIN before they can hand it over. They don't know the PIN, and because the package has to go back into the van if there's no PIN, they can't just dump it on your doorstep or hand it over to a random bod. The only time it almost fell apart was when I had something redirected to my mum's work place, and I had to ring and tell her secretary what the PIN was otherwise it would have been taken back.
Yes I agree. Only a small percentage of my Amazon deliveries require a pin. They are still happy to leave parcels in a “safe” place. Surprisingly very few of those have gone wrong over the recent years. Hermes were dreadful but improving a bit now I think.
 
One time a Amazon driver decided that my safe place was under the front door mat. I took a photo of it then complained to Amazon, I say complained but Amazon dos not have a complaints procedure you deal with their Asian call center staff.
I got a rather perfunctory apology and that was that.
 
Whilst we have to rely on the overall system for a package to make it to your area...the end delivery drivers counts for a lot.

Our local delivery drivers is amazing. She's very kind, courteous and thoughtful. So much so that we give her a Christmas tip.
 
Locally Hermes use a taxi firm for small parcels and we've got to know him and he knows roughly when we are in and leaves with the neighbour as they work from home.

With Amazon we rarely see the same driver twice and it is a lottery if the neighbour is considered and lately they have been hiding parcels behind the wheelie bin.

Royal Mail just tap the door and return the parcel to the main office 90% of the time.

DPD Send a text with a delivery window and the option to leave with a neighbour.

All observed over the years on CCTV and Ring.
 
This isn’t to do with the driver as such it’s down to the system failing and me not receiving a 6 digit pin or QR code to either my mobile or email which I need to access the items behind a Inpost locker door.

I’ve never had a problem with using Amazon locker, which annoyingly is right next to the Inpost one, almost mocking me.

I’ve had a ‘chat’ with ASOS and they said it will take 48 hours for Hermes to produce a text or QR code, meaning Monday (almost a week after placing the order and 72 hours after it was held captive behind a locked locker door).

1st world problems I know, but still a waste of my time and energy/fuel
 
Hermes must be the worst delivery company to ever roam the planet!!

I've never had a parcel arrive on time / undamaged when using Hermes. If I know a company uses them now I will ask in advance if they can use another courier to ship or try to find somewhere that uses a reliable courier.

I know it sounds a bit extreme but I can literally guarantee I'll end up having to prove the item never arrived / was damaged / turns up 1 - 4 weeks late!!!

I ordered a MAC (make up) advent calendar in the middle of November for the wife and it turned up with HERMES the week before Christmas!!

I'm currently waiting on a £400 light from JL (Didn't realise they used HERMES) which was supposed to come between 15.00 - 17.00 Wednesday and didn't turn up then it was due yesterday and again didn't turn up and now I've had another e-mail saying it'll be here Monday!!!
 
Ah the good old days, when you had to send a cheque then wait up to 28 days for delivery. My last online order was received I less than 24 hours. That was with Parcel Force. Had the dispatch info in less than 30 minutes.
 
So I used my own initiative and downloaded all 3 apps, ASOS, Hermes and Inpost….which has pissed me off no end as it is so unnecessary If their systems worked.

Nothing visible on the first 2 apps, but success on the Inpost locker app, so off I go happily back to the wall of lockers eagerly anticipating the remote opening off the door and the bastard terminal is down so yet again I am leaving empty handed.

Called the phone number on the locker, the call handler couldn’t reboot the terminal so have raised a maintenance ticket……Christ only knows when it will be fixed but my items need to collected by me, by Monday or the courier will collect and resend them back to ASOS.

All this for a pair of fudgeing slippers!!
 
I have had plenty of deliveries via Hermes, and had very few problems, thankfully.

They have all been direct to my home address or to those of family members.
 
I have had plenty of deliveries via Hermes, and had very few problems, thankfully.

They have all been direct to my home address or to those of family members.
I don’t have any family close nor neighbours I’d want to use for various reasons
 
Which? carried out a survey on the best and worst courier firms in Dec 2021 and Hermes came 2nd from bottom with 82%, guess who yes Yodel came last with 80%. Top dog was Amazon Logistics with 90%, narrowly beating Royal Mail into second place with 88% - link.

They also featured a story in the current (Jan 2022 p59) issue of the members' mag about a NHS physician living in Hertfordshire whose last 6 attempted deliveries by Hermes all ended up at different locations, none of which were his address, and several previous deliveries were all made to the same wrong address. Even though he sent Hermes a picture of his house they still failed to find it.

The photo evidence supplied by Hermes showed that his last 6 deliveries were all made to random locations.
 

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