Hermes delivery problems...a warning

[Rural lady]

Haven’t posted here in a long time although I do “lurk“ from time to time.

Don‘t buy much from QVC either...however I did order the Amazon Firestick on Saturday last week as it was a good deal.

The item was shipped on Sunday and since then it’s been a sad and sorry tale.

Hermes tracking stated delivery would be between 4-6pm on Tuesday (unusual as Hermes normally delivers in the morning).

At 5pm on Tuesday the tracking changed to advise that the parcel was delayed and they would have it “on the move in the next 24 hours”.

On Wednesday the tracking advised yet again that delivery would be attempted between 4-6pm. It didn’t happen and no further update was received. I completed a query using Hermes’ online system.

Thursday morning began with another tracking update. Yet again the parcel was delayed for another 24 hours.

Getting fed up of this by now, I contacted QVC. The advisor I spoke to was very helpful and refunded my P&P even though I hadn’t asked for this. She checked their tracking and told me it showed the parcel was out for delivery that day...clearly contradicting the tracking update I had received. Very odd...begs the question why do QVC and customers receive different information (or was this simply a ruse to get me off the phone?).

She also told me to call back the next day. If I still hadn’t received my parcel by then, QVC would send another item using a different carrier.

On Friday I received a response to my query logged with Hermes on Wednesday evening. This advised that my parcel was now subject to a further 72 hour delay. At this point I’d had enough. I rang QVC again and spoke to a less helpful advisor. Apparently the information I’d been given by her colleague yesterday was incorrect...they would not send a further item with a different courier. She checked their version of Hermes’ tracking and, yet again, stated that this showed the item was out for delivery on Friday. I agreed to wait and see if it arrived...needless to say it didn’t.

Yesterday I called again, cancelled the order and requested a refund. This, of course, was contested...”give it time, wait and see” being the order of the day. No fear! I finally extracted a refund and was told I would be sent a label to return the item to QVC when it finally turns up. This apparently needed to be done at a post office. Given that would involve a 14 mile round trip for me, you can imagine my response!

Today I would normally have ordered the Liz Earle TSV for my sister in law and niece’s Christmas presents. Obviously I haven’t as I’m not prepared to commit over £100 to this outdated delivery system.

I placed an order with Liz Earle direct on Thursday evening. No P&P and had confirmation yesterday that it’s being delivered tomorrow by Royal Mail. Ordered three items from Amazon last night. They’re being delivered this afternoon even though I don’t have Prime membership.

Will be avoiding retailers who use Hermes from now on. As for QVC...!

The QVC advisor I spoke to on Thursday told me that Hermes is having problems finding delivery drivers and this is becoming a real issue for them. So am posting my experience just to give others the heads up, particularly as we head into the busy Christmas period.

 

[Lemonpop]

Our Hermes was great when Steve was our courier. He had to finish due to severe pain whilst awaiting for hip replacement surgery. We now have a lady who is always late,never had delivery not arrived but never on time. The trouble is when you order online you have no idea which courier they will use.

 

[PennyPitStop]

Haven’t posted here in a long time although I do “lurk“ from time to time.

Don‘t buy much from QVC either...however I did order the Amazon Firestick on Saturday last week as it was a good deal.

The item was shipped on Sunday and since then it’s been a sad and sorry tale.

Hermes tracking stated delivery would be between 4-6pm on Tuesday (unusual as Hermes normally delivers in the morning).

At 5pm on Tuesday the tracking changed to advise that the parcel was delayed and they would have it “on the move in the next 24 hours”.

On Wednesday the tracking advised yet again that delivery would be attempted between 4-6pm. It didn’t happen and no further update was received. I completed a query using Hermes’ online system.

Thursday morning began with another tracking update. Yet again the parcel was delayed for another 24 hours.

Getting fed up of this by now, I contacted QVC. The advisor I spoke to was very helpful and refunded my P&P even though I hadn’t asked for this. She checked their tracking and told me it showed the parcel was out for delivery that day...clearly contradicting the tracking update I had received. Very odd...begs the question why do QVC and customers receive different information (or was this simply a ruse to get me off the phone?).

She also told me to call back the next day. If I still hadn’t received my parcel by then, QVC would send another item using a different carrier.

On Friday I received a response to my query logged with Hermes on Wednesday evening. This advised that my parcel was now subject to a further 72 hour delay. At this point I’d had enough. I rang QVC again and spoke to a less helpful advisor. Apparently the information I’d been given by her colleague yesterday was incorrect...they would not send a further item with a different courier. She checked their version of Hermes’ tracking and, yet again, stated that this showed the item was out for delivery on Friday. I agreed to wait and see if it arrived...needless to say it didn’t.

Yesterday I called again, cancelled the order and requested a refund. This, of course, was contested...”give it time, wait and see” being the order of the day. No fear! I finally extracted a refund and was told I would be sent a label to return the item to QVC when it finally turns up. This apparently needed to be done at a post office. Given that would involve a 14 mile round trip for me, you can imagine my response!

Today I would normally have ordered the Liz Earle TSV for my sister in law and niece’s Christmas presents. Obviously I haven’t as I’m not prepared to commit over £100 to this outdated delivery system.

I placed an order with Liz Earle direct on Thursday evening. No P&P and had confirmation yesterday that it’s being delivered tomorrow by Royal Mail. Ordered three items from Amazon last night. They’re being delivered this afternoon even though I don’t have Prime membership.

Will be avoiding retailers who use Hermes from now on. As for QVC...!

The QVC advisor I spoke to on Thursday told me that Hermes is having problems finding delivery drivers and this is becoming a real issue for them. So am posting my experience just to give others the heads up, particularly as we head into the busy Christmas period.

Why is it that the customer service you get from Q depends upon who you get and I guess which colour socks you are wearing at the time of order and have you washed those socks since you ordered and any other random fact they might or might not want to include.

Empathy for your situation. X

 

[boffy]

Its very hard if you don't have a reliable delivery person woking in your Hermes patch.

 

[Brissles]

I too have a good Hermes deliverer, and he's become a well known fixture in our community.

 

[stratobuddy]

Several times the tracking said it was on its way, then it changed to delayed

 

[Toril]

The whole of my Hermes team are fantastic and I have never had a problem with any deliveries from QVC or any other company I deal with. Even though the team has changed over the years they all know where my “safe place” is and always put a note through the door to alert me to the delivery.

I’ve also never had a problem with tracking a Hermes delivery either. They give a two hour window and invariably the goods arrive well within that time scale. I actually breathe a sigh of relief if Hermes, or Royal Mail, are delivering.

I hope that you get everything sorted quickly, Rural Lady, and that you don’t have to wait long for your refund.

 

[stratobuddy]

Yesterday I called again, cancelled the order and requested a refund. This, of course, was contested...”give it time, wait and see” being the order of the day. No fear! I finally extracted a refund and was told I would be sent a label to return the item to QVC when it finally turns up. This apparently needed to be done at a post office. Given that would involve a 14 mile round trip for me, you can imagine my response!

You could refuse delivery if you are in when they come, or else leave a large note by the door telling them to take it back, to avoid you returning it yourself.

 

[Silver Fox]

My Hermes delivery is OK, he knows to leave any parcel in ‘my place ‘if I am not around.With RM I usually wait because the post people change and they do not leave a parcel.Their delivery times always amuse me I.e 09:41- 13:03, obviously to the exact minute!

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

Since I stopped buying from Q I don’t have much to do with Hermes anymore. However I ordered from Woolovers last month but Hermes lost the parcel. They weren’t helpful but thankfully Woolovers were but unfortunately the items had sold out by then. Got a refund immediately which is more than can be said for Q

DPD through M&S are a nightmare so much so I will not buy anything coming by carrier.

Purchased a gift from Etsy came home to find an insufficient postage card through my door. Had to go to PO sorting office and pay another £1.50 to get item. Not best pleased as I often get items sent direct to people which would have been embarrassing.

 

[Vienna]

It`s always luck of the draw with any delivery service, good and bad in all companies including Royal Mail. I`ve had good Hermes delivery people especially a Mother and son duo who did my area but have since left and good RM staff who have also moved on. Nowadays it`s like Pick N Mix, different delivery people every time and more than one of them doesn`t even knock on the door let alone leave cards.
I ordered something a while ago and got an email saying it had been delivered, no knock, no card and eventually found the item underneath the car, if we`d used the car it would have been totally flattened because they`d hidden it behind a back wheel.
Many companies are short staffed especially as so many drivers have moved to full time driving jobs with better money ( post Brexit) or foreign drivers have returned to their own Countries also because of Brexit.
Mr V works as a part time taxi drivers and the company he works for have lost drivers who`ve moved on to better paid regular jobs.
Plus this time of year you get lots of temporary RM staff who know they may be out of work come the New Year and Amazon have lots of temp drivers too and some of them simply don`t care enough to do a proper job. Someone on my facebook posted a video she`d taken from her flat window which showed a courier parked up behind the bins in a pub carpark and he was rooting through the parcels in his van, removing some he must have thought were worth something to him and dumping others in the bins. So many companies use branded packaging it doesn`t take a genius to work out which parcels are worth more than others.
I`ve been fairly lucky and (fingers crossed ) never had a delivery go totally missing but I have had some items which had obviously been damaged in transit but thankfully the companies I bought from replaced them without a problem and I did have a Lush delivery which was left behind my gate in the pouring rain for hours and when I picked up the box it disintegrated and I had bath bombs and soap bars rolling down my drive and I was scrabbling to find them in the dark. I also had a bedding set thrown over the gate and it too was totally soaked by the time I found it.

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

My RM people are good especially one chap who has been on our route so long he has gone from a lad to a man with a grown family! He’s an absolute sweetie and goes out of his way to help get neighbours to take in parcels if no one is at home to save them going to sorting office to collect even though it probably would be easier to just shove a card through the door.

 

[Twilight]

We've always had good service; Hermes & DPD drivers are great & our RM people sound just like LATI's. It's human nature, some do the bare minimum, some do what's expected & others do so much more & make the difference. Our daughter spent most of last week in hospital with her baby who had bronchiolitis, a couple of nurses had very little time for colleagues or patients & got away with doing very little while others worked tirelessly.

 

[fwend]

My Hermes driver is really good, but I’ve noticed that their information is all over the place, I had a message that my delivery was delayed till next day, it then turned up twenty minutes later! This has happened quite a few times now, where the messages don’t match the the times of delivery. It seems like their computer system isn’t working, not the driver.

 

[alter ego]

My Hermes driver is good, too. As is our regular postie. They leave our stuff in our enclosed porch - something for which I am eternally grateful as without that and the Ring doorbell we have, I daresay a lot of our items would have disappeared without trace thanks to some of the people that cut through our lane from the small but dodgy estate close by.

I have noticed that Hermes has been sending me emails with the wrong info lately. Their systems seem to be lagging behind their drivers here.

 

[donna255]

My Hermes drivers have always been brilliant. It used to be a mother and daughter now a man delivers to me. He even offered and did carry upstairs for me a heavy cat tree.

Amazon now have their own delivery vans and drivers. The one and only time I had something go missing was a book. It left Dundee and disappeared, contacted Amazon new book sent out and a code to return the first book if it turned up? It never did.

 

[Susie Wusie]

Several times the tracking said it was on its way, then it changed to delayed

Yes l have had this happen several times also, and had texts to say would be delivered on that day , again the next day, and the next and never turned up.

 

[Akimbo]

I would have thought the fire stick is being shipped direct from Amazon using their own vans.
My Hermes courier has changed a few times, but I've been lucky to get good ones so far.

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

When you consider the zillion of parcels being sent out, particularly over lockdown, it‘s inevitable that a percentage will go AWOL. Not nice if it’s one of yours of course.

 

[MrMarple]

I think Hermes might be having issues at the moment. I've been tracking a parcel of mine that should have been here on Tuesday.
According to Hermes, they have the parcel but apparently a 'major event' is slowing things down.
And then last night I had a phone call from a guy in Carlisle who rang me to let me know that he actually has my stuff but he's missing one of his own. So, who knows when I'll get it, but thankfully it's just for me so I'm in no great rush.