Just googled and found this

**LINK**

or this

https://www.myhermes.co.uk/help-and-support/contact-us

Stuart

Edited By Stuart Smith 5 on 12/12/2020 10:42:37

If it's Hermes,and you have a Hermes parcel number, then they have a contact 'phone number on their website. After going through the auto responses, and after a wait, you should get to speak to a human. I did this only last Monday and, in my case, the problem was sorted efficiently. I had to wait on the 'phone for about 15 minutes.

I've had two 'pre Covid' Hermes parcels go astray sent to me by individuals, both untracked they were also discovered after 14 days

I have to say that, over many years, I have never had a problem with Hermes. Having spent a portion of my working life in market research I can tell you that people have a much greater tendency to complain than to praise. I'd be surprised to find that Hermes are significantly different to other couriers with the occasional failure. In the present circumstances I would expect some increase in the failure rate.

It’s very worrying that increasingly parcels from Amazon are now being delivered by Hermes, my experiences of Hermes in my local area are not good with lost and misdelivered parcels, definitely proportionally more problems with Hermes than other carriers.
Dave W

Hi there, all,

A couple of years ago, I sent a parcel via Hermes. The experience was stressful for a time but had an amusing component.

The parcel disappeared into 'Hermes-space' – the tracking facility froze. In this particular case, the recipient was the holder of the relevant Hermes account so he had to liaise with Hermes. After a few days of perseverence, he managed to achieve phone contact with a real Hermes Human.

The Hermes Human asked for a description of the parcel, adding 'PLEASE don't say it's in a brown cardboard box secured with brown tape'. The poor chap was obviously a bit harassed and surrounded by lots of lost parcels, all visually similar!

Before sending any more parcels I equipped myself with several rolls of luridly coloured Gaffer tape including a roll of fluorescent pink!!

The original parcel did turn up eventually, undamaged but a bit dusty. Subsequent parcels all beat their delivery forecasts.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Dave, take heart in the fact that Amazon won't put up with any buggering about.
Many hate Amazon but, if you want something NOW, they do deliver reliably in my experience. That's their forte – and anyone who can't perform isn't with them for long!

In the interest of balance, my daughter must be well over a thousand parcels over the last 10 years and has never had a problem with Hermes or the others. And the Hermes people who deliver to my doorstep are all normal human beings – friendly and efficient.

Last time we had a problem it was one of mine, from Warco about 5 years ago. Warco replaced it with no fuss. Doesn't mean Hermes or Warco are paragons of virtue, absolutely incapable of making a mistake or never themselves being victims of an accident.

Chaps on the forum do love a brand-name, imagining that large organisations handling transactions by the million can be universally damned or praised on the basis of a few personal experiences.

In the real world performance depends hugely on local circumstances, making 'big picture' assessments untrustworthy. For example the Post Office are doing well in my area, but 30 miles away my sister is suffering late and intermittent deliveries. She knows an employee who explained my local Sorting Office is a spacious modern facility, while hers is in a cramped older building scheduled to be replaced because it's too small, and now it's struggling due to covid. Staff are forced together and in consequence have a high sickness rate. And the need to keep people physically apart means the office can't process at full volume, causing backlogs build up.

Samsaranda mentioned another problem with brand-names: he's noticed Amazon parcels being delivered by Hermes. Me too, and other unexpected arrivals indicating they are sharing the load. Fact is, carriers aren't obliged to shift stuff themselves – it's not unusual for them to offload work to a rival, though Covid makes it more likely. Not a new idea. Fans of pre-nationalisation railways will have noticed goods wagons belonging to many different owners being pulled by the same engine. A mix of privately owned and railway owned wagons. This picture, taken in Birmingham, shows a jumble of Midland Railway, GWR, LNR and LBSC wagons, plus at least 4 privately owned wagons:

The railway system didn't usually take a load then return the owners empty wagon. Instead, it allowed empty wagons to be used by another customer, who would pay the owner via the railway company. Wagons were despatched in the general direction of home earning money on the way.

General purpose wagons could take years to return to their owners, who in the meantime would use someone else's wagons. Considerably cheaper, but who is to blame if a loan wagon breaks down en-route and the cargo is delayed, rots, or is nicked? Answer: insurance. It's impossible to guarantee delivery, it's only possible to arrange some form of recompense.

For that reason I agree strongly with Paul L: 'The acid test though is how they handle the failures. In my experience companies that deliberately make it difficult for their customers to contact them effectively, are not the best ones to do business with.'

Dave

Had an interesting experience re parcels being delivered by someone other than who you thought. Before Christmas we sent several parcels- one to London and another to Hastings went very reasonably via parcel 2 go and UPS. Tried to do the same with a similar one to Aberdeen and they tried to slap on a "remote destination surcharge" of £20. Honest- Aberdeen is not all that remote. Anyway, I took it down to the Post Office and sent it for a couple of pounds more than the UPS price but when I told the chap about the UPS surcharge, I was flabbergasted to find out that UPS actually get the Post Office to deliver for them up there! So beware.

sandy