PSA: Hermes/Packlink warning

JohnCordy

Just thought it was worth noting that according to Packlink/Hermes - Musical Instruments are on the non-compensation list of items (i.e. are not insured in case of Loss/Damage).

This is not immediately obvious from the eBay Packlink/portal, and the ability to add enhanced compensation for 3% of the item value served to make me complacent in assuming that it was in fact insured....

Luckily the item value is only £175 but I'd hate for someone to have the same experience with a more valuable item?

HAL9000

I can sort of understand not covering damage (which could ostensibly be due to poor packaging), but surely loss can only be down to the courier's negligence or incompetence.

JohnCordy

@HAL9000 yes I thought something similar. Worth being aware of?

handsomerik

I would never EVER use Hermes for anything. Every experience I’ve had with them has been rubbish service and I’ve never heard anything good about them from anyone else either. 

JohnCordy

@handsomerik can't say I've ever had a problem, but that's pretty lucky considering all of my gear sent with them it turns out is uninsured?

Epsilon

Packlink/Hermes have been pretty appalling recently. I've switched to using UPS and paying a little more for the peace of mind.

chrisj1602

It’s quite disgusting the whole damaged/missing parcel situation. You pay for an item to get from A to B and it should get there! It should also get there in one piece.

You are expected to pay for a service and then have to pay another fee on top to ensure you got the service you already paid for!

Imagine ordering a nice meal and when you call the server as it hasn’t arrived, they tell you they dropped it 10 minutes ago but tough shit because you didn’t insure it.

JohnCordy

@chrisj1602 ; the other thing that is irritating to me is that for every time I sold a guitar and shipped via Packlink/Hermes - I've pissed any money spent on insurance up the wall, as it was never valid in any case?

Whitecat

The last three times either me or my wife tried to use Hermes they just didn’t show up to collect the parcel, ever. Cancelled the shipment by day 3 at the latest and went with a sensible normal courier. The modest savings just isn’t worth the hassle and risk. 

TeleMaster

JohnCordy said:

Just thought it was worth noting that according to Packlink/Hermes - Musical Instruments are on the non-compensation list of items (i.e. are not insured in case of Loss/Damage).

This is not immediately obvious from the eBay Packlink/portal, and the ability to add enhanced compensation for 3% of the item value served to make me complacent in assuming that it was in fact insured....

Luckily the item value is only £175 but I'd hate for someone to have the same experience with a more valuable item?

Like a FM3 eeeeek

JohnCordy

@TeleMaster good Christ I didn't even think of that

TeleMaster

JohnCordy said:

@TeleMaster good Christ I didn't even think of that

To be honest, I don't insure anything I send. The chances of things going wrong are in fact very low and instruments are rarely insured. I've got like 700 feedback on ebay and I've never insured anything.

The money I would have spent on insurance would be in the thousands by now and I've never sent anything worth the amount I would have spent by now. 

I've sent multiple guitars to refinishers and never had an issue either. I'll probably get burned now but like I said, they aren't insured anyway and I've saved more than I would have ever had to repay.

I also rarely send anything super expensive, I'll keep it on ebay and offer local collection. I did send a Carol Ann amp worth £2k last year uninsured and it was fine, but that's a rarity. 

mbe

I have used Parcelforce a couple of times via Parcel2Go.

They will only insure against loss so the first time I paid it, cost £6. I also insured it for guaranteed delivery for 93p and it arrived a day late so I got the carriage costs refunded but they kept the £6.

The second time I didn't pay the £4 insurance against loss but they attempted delivery twice then took it back to the depot for the weekend. I heard bad things about goods being 'lost' over the weekend but the buyer picked it up on the Monday, cue sigh of relief.

sgosden

I'll never miss an opportunity to agree that Hermes are a bunch of crooks . 
Cannot stand them . 

Adey

As someone else on the forum said recently, their t's & c's don't trump consumer rights. When providing a service they must provide that service with reasonable skill and care. They can't just lose or damage items and then say " they aren't covered in our t's & c's so hard luck"

I can never understand why I should pay insurance to indemnify them against loss or damage claims.

If you were driving a car you wouldn't say to someone you hit that they should have insured themselves against injury because you didn't want to be responsible.

pintspiller

I sent a Marshall Power Brake by Hermes years ago and didn't realise their insurance didn't cover musical gear until I went to post some pedals to Italy during Lockdown.

I used Royal Mail in the end as I didn't want to research other forms of delivery.

skunkwerx

I’d rather have Herpes. 

Babones

If I know a company uses Hermes, i don't use that company. It's become that simple. Trawl Hermes UK twitter for accurate 'feedback' rather than the fake trustpilot stuff.

merciful-evans

Ditto for Hermes. Rippoff merchants.
Does any courier insure for accidental damage though? Full value insurance is likely prohibitive. Most of the deliveries I have taken just seem to chance it.

HarrySeven

Talkling of "lost" parcels...of late, I've noticed a huge rise in ads by resellers hawking cages full of undelivered/lost items from Royal Mail, etc...

JohnCordy

@HarrySeven is that a thing?

Somewhere in a royal mail warehouse is a zendrive sitting sad...that one has been there for like a year ha