Always get a signature...

[GoNz0]

I think I have now totally given up on eBay for selling, the fact you pay fee's for shipping takes the pee. I know people abused it with 1p buy it now and £10 postage that required a 1st class stand but they could work round it...

Anyway, I used MyHermes to ship some baby clothes, I got it a little wrong on cost so I would have lost out if I paid £1 more for a signature, I did not specify a safe place so this should point out they knock on the bloody door and if they do not get an answer try twice more before holding at the depot (and carding the customer each time)

But no card was left and the delivery stated left in outbuilding.

The customer contacted me to say she had been out all day and could see via email it was delivered, she had no outbuilding and couldn't find it anywhere.

Hermes came back to my query and said it was left behind the gate (must have asked the driver who gave a 2nd canned response)

She has no gate.

I filed a claim and refunded the customer, after 3 weeks they agreed it was not my fault and they would pay up the shipping and ebay costs, it states within 14 days.

So far a months past and not a penny.

Just a heads up and a rant, what a shoddy outfit they turned out to be!

[jimborae]

My Hermes are truly awful mate. Wife bought some clothes online delivered by them, they just slung them over the gate at side of the house on a day that we had torrential rain. Package was ripped and the clothes were ruined so had to be returned.

[Lil-Diabo]

Strange. I always thought myhermes was okay. I've used them once or twice without too much hassle. Although the tracking was a bit weird


But don't get me started on yodel...

[Saracen]

It's hard to tell sometimes whether it's a bad driver, or a bad company, at least until you get a lot of similar comments from others.

Some drivers are just a rule unto themselves. Quite some years ago, while expecting a delivery, I heard a heavy lorry-type diesel while I was busy (phone call, IIRC). I expected a bell ring, but no. After a few minutes, I went to the door anyway, to find my ordercjust stacked there. This was about £4.5k worth, and 20 years ago. On checking with the supplier, they told me it was "signed for". I said, the hell it was. They said someone else must have signed, until I pointed out it's a home office, and there isn't anybody else.

It turned out the driver just dropped the order, which was mainly laser printers etc, forged the signature and cleared off.

The company were furious, and apologetic. The driver was fired.

[TeePee]

My Hermes are truly awful mate. Wife bought some clothes online delivered by them, they just slung them over the gate at side of the house on a day that we had torrential rain. Package was ripped and the clothes were ruined so had to be returned.

The gate you say? Were they Baby Clothes?

[KeyboardDemon]

The company were furious, and apologetic. The driver was fired.

Was the driver actually fired? or do you you think, as I do in cases like this, it's possible that you were told that he was fired just to give you the impression that they had dealt with the matter?

[Saracen]

Was the driver actually fired? or do you you think, as I do in cases like this, it's possible that you were told that he was fired just to give you the impression that they had dealt with the matter?

It's possible, yeah.

But when I rang the company, I spoke to the Sales Director, explained what had happened and asked, semi-rhetorically, what she thought the outcome would be had I claimed the goods hadn't showed up? As I pointed out, prior to my acceptance of the goods, they still belong to her company, while they were stacked in a pile outside my property where anybody walking/driving past could seem them and .... liberate .... them. She said drivers had to get proof of delivery, i.e. signature, and did indeed get the supposed signature the driver collected, faxed it to me and asked for written confirmation from me that :-

1) It wasn't my signature,
2) No such person was here
3) An example of my signature.

This all took a couple of days of exchanges to organise, and she showed all signs of being VERY unhappy about the whole incident, because as she said, no proof of delivery meant they'd have had to replace the £4500 order.

So as I wasn't there to personally witness the dismissal, yeah, she may have been lying. But I'm not sure why she would. I didn't ask for the driver to be fired. I simply reported to the company that the goods had been dropped without signature. The Sales Director's attitude was that, first, the driver had totally ignored company procedure, second, had acted fraudulently by not doing the job he was paid for and exposed the company to thousands of pounds of liability in the process, and third, actively sought to deceive THEM by pretending to have got a signature and forging someone else's. Her attitude was that that amounted to a complete breakdown of trust, and gross misconduct. She told me she was "taking action", and rang about a week later to say that after a disciplinary meeting, the driver had been dismissed, and she once again apologised for what happened. She might have just been playing me, but if so, she was a world-class actress.

[GuidoLS]

One of the more 'interesting' things going on here lately has been people following (discreetly, or so they think) UPS or FedEx trucks (which I guess would be the analog to MyHermes here in the US) and, once a delivery was dropped, they'd wait a minute and then run up to the porch, or through the back gate, and 'liberate' the dropped packages. One of the benefits of the home security craze is everyone seems to have some sort of camera mounted everywhere, so these stories show up on our local news broadcasts at least 4-5 times a month.

As a side benefit, they've also caught the 'rogue' actions of some drivers - using smaller packages for football practice (choose your version of football - both apply). Throwing/dropping larger packages over fences. Signing the digital delivery ledger themselves, instead of having the customer sign for the package. Needless to say, dismissals, law suits and arrests have happened from all of this.

Just makes you wonder - is this just a few bad people, or a reflection on society today?