Hermes and Amazon parcels stolen, left on front step

Further to my fishbox saga. The next month it was left behind our next door neighbour's house, on top of a bin. The DPD driver would have see our gate, it has a bright pink sign with the house name in white letters, but chose to leave it next door.
I emailed fishbox uk to complain, and I gave them our what3words address. Whether or not it was passed on to the driver I don't know, but this month he brought it right to the house.

I used to have issues with Hermes but for a while it seems to be the same driver and he is excellent. He arrives within the times I’ve been given, rings my bell then goes back to his van but waits until he sees me open the door before driving off.

One day I was in the garden and not quick enough to get to the door and when he did not see me, he popped round to the back to find me or to leave the parcel in my safe place by my back door. He is such a pleasant cheerful man as well.

Yesterday I had my third run in with Hermes in 8 weeks. All of them involved items ordered from M&S. On each occasion I had an email along the lines of, "sorry we missed you. Our driver attempted a delivery but, you were not at home. A card has been left...etc, etc."
All a pack of lies. I was at home, nobody attempted a delivery, no sign of a Hermes driver or vehicle anywhere near my house during the 3 hours either side of the alleged attempt to deliver according to my cctv and certainly no card left.

I fired of several irate emails to Hermes and M&S and was informed that the driver had difficulty locating the property!
Funnily enough, the Amazon driver who also delivered goods yesterday, had no trouble at all. ?

Doodledog

It’s a lottery, I think. I have often had parcels left in the step in the rain, sometimes for days. They aren’t always delivered by the same people- Royal Mail do it too. I recently had a parcel shoved in a gap between two hedges at the bottom of the garden. No card, no indication that it had been delivered, nothing. I had no idea it was there, so went online to track it, and it was showing as ‘handed to resident’.

It’s maddening, particularly as we are away a lot, and can’t always time deliveries to suit. I think it comes down to the cost though. We expect free delivery and it costs money. The drivers get 30 seconds to deliver, and if they take the parcel away they have to redeliver in what amounts to their own time. It’s a rubbish job, with low pay and no thanks, so I don’t know how we can expect a more efficient service. I don’t think this should apply to Royal Mail or Parcelforce however, as their delivery charges are expensive.

I hate paying for postage (I use Amazon Prime where possible), but think that we all need to accept that if we aren’t prepared to pay more we will get a poor service.

I agree it’s becoming a lottery and I do feel for the delivery drivers - a difficult job all round. But like you, I think Royal Mail is different, and we should expect a better level of service from them than we actually get. Their services are expensive, their claims procedures are archaic and they give the impression that they simply don’t care if customers get rubbish service.

A prime example - a couple of weeks ago, 7am Saturday morning, I got a text message saying we were out when RM had tried to deliver a parcel. We were actually up and about at that time and since no one had rung the bell and there was no card left, I checked the Ring camera footage - no attempted delivery. I arranged a redelivery on their website, the day came, the parcel did not. I rang customer services who said that the online service for redelivery ‘isn’t very reliable’ and arranged redelivery over the phone !! Again the parcel didn’t arrive.

The phone number for the sorting office isn’t available to the public, and I had no calling card to collect the item, so I had to ring customer services again. After a few phone exchanges the story seemed to be that the item came via China post and they couldn’t find any record of having received it at the sorting office - even though they had supposedly tried to deliver it and had accepted the tracking details for redelivery twice !!

Despite RM’s admission that they had lost the item, and despite the sender using a tracked and insured RM service at the UK end, I wasn’t allowed to make a direct claim for compensation because the item came from outside the UK. Instead I had to contact the sender and get them to contact their mail carrier to put in a claim to RM so that I can be compensated. I’m still waiting for it to be sorted out.

Nicegranny

I’m not ordering from any company that uses Hermes for delivery because l have always had to go looking for my parcels when they are involved. I have watched Hermes go to another number in my street because they can’t be bothered to knock on the right door. Awful company check before you order that Hermes are not delivering.

I’m the same. I began boycotting them after a string of mishaps. The last straw was when I had a text message from Hermes to say that my parcel would be delivered within a two hour window. I have a ring doorbell and when there was no delivery I went through the recordings for the day just to make sure I hadn’t missed the courier - I hadn’t. When I contacted Hermes they said the parcel had been delivered at the specified time and as ‘proof’ emailed me a photo of my parcel on someone else’s doorstep !! It took an age to sort out and I vowed then I would boycott them as much as possible.

I don't understand the policy to leave the parcels on the front step, but maybe that's just because I had to deal with these thieves way too often. I'm glad that in some areas, it's totally safe to do that, and everyone trusts their neighbors, but that's not my case. I even installed a security system from Ajax because I live in a pretty disturbing area, so it's hard to predict what can happen to your house tomorrow.

think

I had two parcels out for delivery with Hermes today, one they claim was delivered at 8 pm and left in my out building the 2nd parcel is apparently still out for delivery. Neither were actually delivered and I don't have an out house unless they mean my garden shed which isn't accurate either as they'd need to go through an 8 foot double locked gate and then down to the shed which is also locked. All that an nothing on the cctv so I thing someone is telling porkies.

I found our Hermes courier the worst. I think my road must be very near the end of the round when he just wants to go home because too often my parcel would go from 'out for delivery' to 'delivered' when it hadn't been. Once when the guy knocked with it the next day I challenged him and was told it was an automatic system that did that to all parcels at the end of the day. I queried this saying it sounded stupid. The next time my parcel went from 'out for delivery' to 'resident not at home' which was a lie as I was waiting and watching for it. Of course some parcels were delivered on time and I accept it's a low wage, high volume job, but it's still frustrating. I have noticed the Prime delivery driver plops the parcel on the doorstep, rings the bell and is almost back in the van by the time I get to the door, but he's a lovely chap and obviously comes back if nobody's home because then he takes the parcel around to my back door. I love DPD, they always, always deliver in the one hour slot they text me.

Hermes driver isn’t very cheerful. But he always delivers on time.

Amazon always good where I live excellent.

Our local facebook page always has loads of posts saying 'Parcel for xxxx delivered to me by mistake. Please get in touch' or a picture taken of a front door saying 'Is this your front door? Do you have our parcel?' They do usually get tracked down.

I buy a lot from Amazon because of their fast (and free) delivery. Parcels are usually delivered by Hermes, Parcel Force or Royal Mail. We have a large Parcel Box by our door and all the delivery services know that if our car is not on the drive we're out, and to leave the package in the Box. It usually works.

Hermes are excellent. Our local courier lives just a couple of miles away so we're usually one of his last deliveries on his way home. He puts the parcel on the doorstep, takes a photo, then hands it to me so I don't have to bend down to pick it up.

Our Royal Mail postie rings the bell even if a small package will go in the letterbox as he likes to see us at least once a week and check we're OK. He's a really nice young man.

FedEx are also very speedy and efficient.

Parcel Force deliver promptly, but they won't leave parcels in our parcel box because it doesn't lock. So they just dump them on the doorstep and run! Very secure I'm sure !

DPD is the very worst local delivery service. They never ring the bell or knock the door. Parcels are never put in the box just left on the drive, path or doorstep. I once witnessed him carry my parcel across the drive to the edge of the path and throw it at the doorstep. I whipped the door open and shouted at him. He looked at me, jumped in the van and was off. I phoned 6 times to complain and each time I was cut off. I try not to buy from places that use DPD delivery but many don't say which service they'll be using.

My daughter has just been in touch, the ASOS parcel she'd ordered was also stolen, they are sending her a replacement. Luckily the other gifts I've sent will go through the letterbox!

I got a message this morning to say that I'd get a FedEx delivery today. I had planned to do a couple of things, but decided against, as when the item arrives I want to use it.

When it got to 3.00pm I decided to check the tracking, and it's been delayed until tomorrow. This morning it was supposedly leaving the depot which is in a town no more than 20 minutes away (not allowing for delivery stops of course). I am cross, as I have wasted a chunk of today thinking it will come, and now the same is likely to happen tomorrow.

It's bad enough that it's happening, but they didn't bother to let me know, and they have both my email address and phone number. If I'd taken today off work to wait for it I'd be fizzing.

Our Hermes courier is good, never had a problem. Royal Mail is the problem here.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there’s a problem over a wide area Yammy. The depot the driver who was convicted worked from was Norwich, however I also had a parcel go missing when we lived in Essex. Our current Hermes man is good but it’s clear they employ some wrong ‘uns too. I have never heard of a delivery driver returning to retrieve a parcel, sounds like you’re being fobbed off there. It’s worth checking the T&Cs of the company you bought the present from, that box we always tick to accept without reading, as sometimes they say the courier is deemed to be the customer’s agent not the company’s. Grossly unfair I know but have a look at that. Good luck!

Germanshepherdsmum

A Hermes driver from our local depot was recently convicted of stealing people’s parcels, and his wife of handling stolen property. In my experience Hermes aren’t one of the companies which photograph your parcel where it’s been left.

Thanks for your information it might help in something I am following up.
I have no trouble with our Hermes delivery person in fact brilliant.
I am in the middle of negotiations about a parcel sent to DD well before Christmas. She was out and a card was put through the door and a photo saying where the parcel had been left. When she went to pick it up she was told the courier had been back for it. We have complained to Hermes and the original company it was sent from without any luck . A month on and a lot of fob offs we are still no nearer and yet again it was Christmas PJ's someone must be nice and cosy. I think she might live in the next county to you I wonder if it has been a wide scam?

Anything out for delivery with Hermes just disappears into thin air here. Then they expect you to wait a week so that you can assume it's lost. Apparently 2 separate parcels with Hermes have disappeared this week.

They do here Germanshepherdsmum. Previously mine showed parcels in rubbish bins, under a bush, and one so blurry you couldn’t decipher it, anywhere except my front door. Happily that has changed and will stay so.

A Hermes driver from our local depot was recently convicted of stealing people’s parcels, and his wife of handling stolen property. In my experience Hermes aren’t one of the companies which photograph your parcel where it’s been left.

It all goes down to the courier. After 12 months dreadful experiences by everyone in our village and not ordering from companies who use Hermes their local courier has GONE, tg. The replacement used to do here and he is brilliant so hope he stays. I can order from Damart, Cotton Traders, Holland & Barrett again.
The problem is carriers have no contract with the buyer so when something goes wrong we only have recourse to the seller.

I too am thankful for the photo taken of where my parcel is left. DPD were supposed to leave my fishbox in my porch. It wasn't there.
The photo showed the box on my neighbour's front doorstep.
The current DPD delivery driver here us not very careful or respectful of people's property.

It’s a lottery, I think. I have often had parcels left in the step in the rain, sometimes for days. They aren’t always delivered by the same people- Royal Mail do it too. I recently had a parcel shoved in a gap between two hedges at the bottom of the garden. No card, no indication that it had been delivered, nothing. I had no idea it was there, so went online to track it, and it was showing as ‘handed to resident’.

It’s maddening, particularly as we are away a lot, and can’t always time deliveries to suit. I think it comes down to the cost though. We expect free delivery and it costs money. The drivers get 30 seconds to deliver, and if they take the parcel away they have to redeliver in what amounts to their own time. It’s a rubbish job, with low pay and no thanks, so I don’t know how we can expect a more efficient service. I don’t think this should apply to Royal Mail or Parcelforce however, as their delivery charges are expensive.

I hate paying for postage (I use Amazon Prime where possible), but think that we all need to accept that if we aren’t prepared to pay more we will get a poor service.

I have a fantastic Hermes courier. He has been three times to collect a QVC parcel, for which QVC still haven't sent the return label, but have asked him to pick up.
He has been extremely patient and uncomplaining.

On a couple of occasions, he has tracked down missing parcels, the responsibility of the weekend courier, who is not so efficient. All my neighbours feel the same.