LATEST MOAN FROM YOU AND ME 2019

Do not use Hermes as your choice of courier, they are dreadful. I ordered something just before Christmas and unbeknown to me the sender was using Hermes. i got emails to say that Hermes had tried delivering on the 29th and 30th Dec....... LIE, there was someone here both days. Funny no card was left!
Here we are on 5th January and still no parcel which has obviously been lost or stolen. It is impossible to speak to anybody. Live chat with god knows who in outer India is a waste of time. i found out last night that at least 3 other people in my village are missing parcels from Hermes too. never again. When I order things in future I will ask which courier the sender is using and if it is Hermes i won't be buying!

 

@silu, I understand they are as useless here ... but not as bad as GLS who are owned by Royal Mail who are holding the record for appalling service here.

 

Please drive safely, in the last 4 weeks 12 people have died in road accidents on the roads in the county where i live, i know the county is big but 12 people in 4 weeks

Please be carefull and drive safely

 

I've not had a problem with Hermes up here but did living further south. Strange!

Have you contacted the company the parcel was despatched from @silu ?

 

Thanks @Sheal. Yes the dispatcher is on the case. Not hopeful now that the parcel will ever appear again

 

I've never had a problem with Royal Mail or courriers UK/France, but as Victoria will testify, I've totally given up on trying to send anything to Portugal!

 

I am not sure where the problem was between France/Portugal. It is strange because I placed 108 orders through Amazon in 2018 (don't ask) and only 2 went astray. The orders came from Amazon UK/DE, the UK, Bulgaria, Romania, Netherlands, China and the US. The problem seems to be when couriers are used here who will not deliver to a PO Box at the Post Office although Amazon UK/DE will, even for large/heavy items.

It is a mystery to me where the French/Portuguese problem is.

 

I've used Hermes quite a lot.
But I only go through a local shop, so I use them for delivery and pick up.
On the one occasion I did have something delivered to my house it was brought by a person in their own private car, not a company van.
Just wonder if there could be any difference regarding reliability in that respect.

 

As many of you know I have children in America and Canada. I find the problem with parcels going missing is due to the fact that the content has to be written on the outside. It's virtually impossible to send sweets or anything valuable to America without it going missing (probably stolen) unless it's sent recorded and tracked. Canada isn't quite so bad although I sent a parcel to my daughter that took two months to arrive.

I've found it is often the same with couriers here. A personal parcel is less likely to reach it's destination than one sent through a company. Parcels being sent from a company will be less likely to go missing as they are collected en masse and shipped/sent in a different way.

 

Why do the contents have to be listed on the outside? And if you list them as something different, does anyone check? How would they know? Listing the contents is asking to get something stolen.

 

So the delivery force particularly Royal Mail know that nothing untoward is being sent.

Parcels are scanned particularly if they are going abroad. They could contain something that will be confiscated, drugs, weapons etc.

That's what I think too, which is why I send parcels tracked and if they contain something valuable - recorded delivery.

Last summer I wanted to send a special birthday present to my son in America. A watch that was a family heir loom and a Sgian Dubh (traditional Scottish sock knife) that I'd bought. Before buying it I'd checked with one of my local post offices that I could send it and the assistant there said yes. Having parcelled it up I then took it to another post office that said it couldn't be sent because the Sgian Dubh was a weapon. Trying to find a way round this problem I spoke to someone at the shop/company I'd bought it from. The assistant said this was often the case and they would send the parcel with both the knife and watch for me, for which I was very grateful. Because it was going via the company it was considered exported goods. All we had to do was pay for the insurance and my son received it within a week with no issues.

 

But if they are going to be scanned anyway, what's the point of writing the contents on the outside? If they can't be sent after being scanned, then fair enough but I don't get listing it.

 

Sorry Laura I can't answer that, perhaps it's worth asking at the post office. The parcels will be scanned after being accepted by the Post Office or Courier. If what's inside cannot be sent it is usually confiscated.