Couriers

Fretwired

My wife ordered a couple of items last week from Boots and Amazon - not Christmas presents but expensive - one item was a large bottle of Channel No5. Both items were shipped and stolen. Amazon have an excellent system and were honest in saying they had a problem and have replaced the item with express delivery. Boots were using Hermes and are in melt down. It seems Hermes used ordinary people in their own car and pay them something like 50p a delivery. The lady on the Boots helpline was stressed - we're not the only ones. They cancelled the order and refunded the money saying they had no confidence the delivery would be made.

Maybe Amazon and Boots should have stuck with the Royal Mail ... the cheapest isn't always the best.

Danny1969

Hermes stuff is generally delivered by housewife's after they have done the school run, cheap but about as reliable as an Ashdown bass amp !

Quality service cost money but no one wants to pay it 

Fretwired

Hermes is total crap .. along with Yodel they're at the bottom of the pile .. by way of illustration:

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/apr/07/courier-yodel-hermes-delivery-fail-complaints-budget

Phil_aka_Pip

The thing I ordered from Amazon on Monday, and asked them to send straight to my mum via Royal Mail, arrived at my mum's place today It was neither big nor heavy (a paperback book IIRC). I'd be unlikely to trust anyone with fragile or stealworthy items at this time of year.

TTony

Our local Yodel delivery guy in an Eastern European.

Works till about 9pm at night, always smiles and has a bit of chat.  Never seems stressed (though he must be) or rushed (though he must be).  Just delivered a couple of the Tower of London remembrance poppies this evening with "here you are sir, your poppies have arrived" ... 

I think all couriers are pretty much the same behind the scenes.  They'll all have a big depot with parcels being chucked this way and that, shifting stuff as quickly as possible from the in-door to the out-door.  All that we see is the delivery guy, and that's what creates our impression of them.  

Our postie is similar - great guy - always stops for a chat and knows where to put things if we're not around.

Mr UPS is great.  Despite having to drive a brown van.

Mr DPD is smart and I love knowing when he'll arrive with the 1 hr slot.  

Mr Herpes is also friendly, and he's being doing the round for at least 10 years.  I've seen him go through his cars.  Which isn't surprising given the way he drives them.  

iseverynamegone

Has Herpes even been around more than a year or 2 rather than 10 @ttony?

Hermes and Yodel are a joke. That's doesn't mean that everyone who works there is , but the companies are.

Fretwired

Doesn't make great reading ... exploitation.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2878481/Internet-gift-not-arrived-Pity-drivers-paid-just-45p-deliver-no-sick-pay-pension-holiday-sacked-moment-s-notice.html

TTony

iseverynamegone said:

Has Herpes even been around more than a year or 2 rather than 10 @ttony?

I think it was re-branded or merged or taken-over or whatever.  IIRC, it was Home Delivery Network (or something similar) prior to the marketing masterstroke that created "Herpes".

Same guy's being doing it all the time though.

Fretwired

iseverynamegone said:

Has Herpes even been around more than a year or 2 rather than 10 @ttony?

Hermes and Yodel are a joke. That's doesn't mean that everyone who works there is , but the companies are.

Hermes have been Hermes for 40 years .. they are an international logistics company.

xSkarloey

In my experience Hermes of all of them are the most iffy. I believe their set up is that the drivers are self employed (probably mentioned in that article you've linked to). 

At the end of the day they're only as good as the blokes who deliver the parcel, but the husband/wife team who had the Hermes round by us and who were good seem to have given up. 

The bloke currently doing it is alright but he doesn't half make it hard for me to find stuff if I'm out and he hides it in the garden. 

I've told the missus that next year shopping is to be done in shops, with internet delivers only as a last resort. It'd probably work out cheaper anyway, with fewer things bought on a whim. 

Paul_C

Hermes were the ones who lost/nicked my iPad 2

holnrew

My local Yodel guy is actually pretty good, usually delivers my hay. Although last time it was DHL.

strumjoughlamps

I had Royal Mail security knock on the door and asked if they could come in for a chat, turned out one of my local posties had been 'forgetting' to post items (games/dvds etc) and they had finally got enough info to investigate to which he was arrested and house searched and he had a room full of opened and unopened jiffy bags, 4 of the unopened ones were mine..

doesn't matter which company/position/field there will always be wrong uns. yes the lower paid ones will probably bring out more of them as they feel they are owed.

PolarityMan

Given how cheap RFID is it should be practically impossible to steal anything without getting caught. The item is scanned into the couriers possession and then ought to be scanned and geo tagged at the point of delivery. 

TTony

Little feature on couriers - Hermes specifically - on R4's Today programme this morning.

All the delivery people are self-employed, using their own vehicles and paying all their own costs.  They're paid per delivery.  The amount varies from 45p per package (town centre) to 65p (outside towns), with an 85p rate for weekends.

£2 daily bonus if they deliver 98.5% of packages on their round.  But that generally means if they fail to deliver just one package, they miss the bonus.  Which might explain why some packages are just thrown over garden gates, etc.

Guy interviewed reckoned that he made about £30/day.

Phil_aka_Pip

@TTony yes I heard that. It would be worth paying decent money for proper carriage

boogieman

Our local Hermes lady is brilliant tbh. Never had a problem with her. Royal Mail and Parcelforce on the other hand, don't get me started, grrrr!

Just a thought, but why don't senders put stuff in more innocuous packing? It's really obvious when it's a DVD in the package and if the OP's perfume got stolen, it must have also been obvious it was something inside worth nicking.

TTony

Absolutely.

But the woman (package receiver) who was interviewed as part of the feature was pretty non-committal about the option of paying more, even when told that the guy delivering her stuff was paid 45p for the job.

To (slightly) misquote Oscar Wilde, we know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

We expect cheap, we demand cheap.  So cheap is what we deserve to get.

Fretwired

You couldn't make this up.

Knock at the door.
Open door .. man from Yodel [he had a Yodel jacket].
Man from Yodel: "Parcel for you"
Me: "Thanks"
He scans it, hands it to me and walks away.
I look at the package - wrong address. The parcel is not for me.
Me: "Hey"
Man from Yodel: "What?"
Me "Wrong address"
Man from Yodel: "You sure?"
Me: "Yes"
Man from Yodel: "Do you know where the address is?"
Me: "No"

He obviously had been driving round, couldn't find the real address and thought he'd deliver it to me. Might have been OK but a package from Miss Selfridge doesn't really float my boat.

chillidoggy

Yeah, right!

FelineGuitars

Even good couriers with a worldwide reputation can have a rogue depot that drags the reputation of the whole company into the mud.

We used UKMail/Businesspost for years but the Croydon Depot seemed to be the weak link in their operation.

Had enough let-downs in the end to switch to UPS - mainly because they don't seem to subcantract to unknown white van man and take reposnabilty for shipments from one end to the other.

I've been happy enough to,recommend them to others based on my positive experience, but others have had issues with them.

They found that their Barking depot serving most of East London is a shambles and has a bad rep if you look online.

They need to get a grip on that and maybe some new management/full crew to turn that around.

I have been impressed by Interlink/DPD of late - especially their ability to give you a one hour delivery slot.

I would look at them or DHL if I had to change from UPS.