To be fair hermes here are really good its been the same lady for quite a while she knows where she can leave stuff safely out of sight, I feel sorry for these hermes workers that have to shift a hell of a lot of stuff to make not that much money all in their own car.
The big problem with Hermes is that it is all down to the local delivery driver as to whether you get good service or parcel theft. The system itself does nothing about it.
Most of the decent companies do socially distanced delivery with a photograph. You can see where your parcel was left, or there is a photo of you next to it. Hermes just log that they delivered the parcel and call that 'proof of delivery'. They also log that the delivery vehicle has been nearby to the right GPS location.
I ordered some plastic wrapping film ten days ago and deliberately chose a company which stated they delivered using Parcelforce 48hrs. I got Hermes. I was sat working at my computer, 2 metres from my front door, when I got an email notification to say the parcel had been delivered (12.32). I immediately checked outside the door in case it has been quietly left without knocking - nothing. I tried to notify them but they have disabled the phone and email contact details and cancelled customer services. There is an automated thing on their website which just lets you enter the details and then happily tells you they have proof of delivery. 50mins of swearing at their useless service later I finally found a way through the loop to get a message to them. 8hrs later, back came an email response from a call centre in India, telling me that my parcel had been delivered and had a checked with a neighbour. As it happens, my wife had gone shopping 2mins before the parcel was supposed to have been delivered and saw the white van parked in the layby opposite. My neighbour had been working in the front garden at the time and had also seen the van. The driver didn't even bother to get out. Having followed this up by rapid email response, including comment to the effect that I would not be letting this drop, my parcel got dropped off 24hrs later with no further comment.
Parcelforce are annoying around here as the driver usually dumps the parcels at the post office rather than attempting to deliver, but at least we know where they are, the post office rings us (knowing that no card will have been left) and we get the parcels within 48hrs of when we should have done.
Contrast this with DHL and DPD who both delivered items to me last week. One was some bulbs from the Netherlands - I was notified as to when they were dispatched, when they got to the port, when they arrived in the UK and when they would be delivered, within a 1hr window, and it was a day early. They recorded photographs of the delivery so no room for confusion.
It's not that hard, is it.
Alec
Author
Topic: Useless delivery company. Rant (Read 4441 times)
