The truth about Hermes parcel delivery service

[BankFodder]

The sign of a good company is not what happens when they get things right. It's what happens when they get things wrong.

Hermes gets one single star.

 

Hermes computerised systems make it almost impossible to reach any thinking reasoning human being in order to explain and understand your problem.

Hermes relies on a prohibited items list which contains over 70 items and which seems to exclude almost anything. Some of the things are quite reasonable such as glass, or fragile objects. However, other items are completely puzzling.

 

When Hermes loses items, they frequently deny responsibility on the basis that the item you are sending was in their prohibited items list. Of course this is a complete nonsense because whereas you can imagine that they include glass in order to protect themselves against breakages while in transit, the fact that an item is on the prohibited items list does not have any bearing at all on the risk that it might be lost.

It's completely unfair and also unenforceable at law to rely on their prohibited items list to justify refusing compensation for an item which is lost.

 

Secondly, Hermes – in common with all of the other courier companies require that their customers pay some insurance if they want to get compensation for items which are lost or damaged.
This is completely unfair and unenforceable. It is absurd to require your customers to to spend extra money insuring themselves against the negligence or criminality of the courier company.
It is the courier company which should be taken out insurance to protect themselves against these eventualities.
Unfortunately, many people give up their claim when they are told by Hermes that as they didn't have an insurance cover they have lost their right to any compensation.
This is unenforceable at law.

 

Even with insurance, a large number of people are still denied any compensation on all sorts of spurious grounds – but very often because the item they sent was on the Hermes prohibited items list – even though the item was fully declared in advance and so Hermes was fully aware of the risk that they were taking on.

 

Many people end up using Hermes because they buy items on eBay. The arrangements for the delivery are made using a company called Packlink and Packlink inevitably farm the work out to Hermes.

When Hermes loses or damages a parcel, they refer the customer to Packlink on the basis that there was no direct contract with Hermes but the direct contract was with Packlink.
Of course this is true, but the problem is that Packlink is in Spain and so if you decide that you want to bring a County Court claim, bringing it against Packlink in Spain is extremely complicated and pretty well impossible.
What Hermes don't tell you is that they bear equal contractual responsibility because there is an act of Parliament called the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 which provides that an official third parties enjoy all the rights of a direct contracting partner.

Hermes don't tell you this – even though they know about it and this means that an enormous number of their customers simply give up because they trust what Hermes tells them.

 

 

One of the most recent features of Hermes lost parcels is that they are now starting to tell people that their parcel has been damaged.
They tell people that their parcel is damaged and therefore had to be destroyed.
When those customers then approach Hermes and asked for evidence of the damage – there is generally speaking no reply but no evidence is ever forthcoming.
It's a mystery as to the basis upon which Hermes feels that they have the right to destroy somebody else's property simply because it is damaged.

The fact that they are able to tell you that it is damaged means that they know where the parcel is and they know who it belongs to – but despite this, they tell you it's damaged, it's destroyed – and that's it.

Destroying somebody's parcel simply because Hermes have damaged it does not absolve them of responsibility and actually amounts to a Conversion at law contrary to the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977.

 

The bottom line here is that if Hermes loses or damages your parcel then you should not accept their denial of responsibility as the final word. You should search the Internet and investigate your rights and you will find lots of help.

The same goes with all the other courier companies but Hermes is the worst.

Hermes deals with millions of parcels every year and I suppose that many of the parcels get through without any problem – but when things go wrong, Hermes attitude is shocking and you need to stand up to it.

 

https://uk.trustpilot.com/reviews/6001659e755dc1061ce92873