I used Hermes to send a bike from Chester to Sheffield.

Hermes missed collection, lied about the date arranged.
Hermes wouldn’t accept the parcel saying it was too large. It wasn’t.
Hermes then accepted the parcel at a different collection because funnily enough it wasn’t too large.
Hermes didn’t deliver it to the specified safe drop location (neighbour), instead taking it to another neighbour.
Hermes then charged me for the (not) oversized parcel.

Hermes are shocking. Crap service. Crap customer service. Lies and an inability to follow basic instructions.

Always been very good the couple of hundred times I’ve used them. One item damaged in transit, full refund in about 48hrs.

I didn’t think they carried anything that size though. A pair of wheels was too big when I tried.

Hermes say

We can carry parcels that weigh up to 15 kilos each and up to 120cm in length, but we cannot accept parcels that weight more than 15 kilos. If you add the two shortest dimensions and multiply them by two, add the length, the total calculation needs to be under 225cm.

You’re gonna struggle to get a bike under that, unless it’s a kids bike.

I’ve just measured a fairly standard bike box and it come out WAAAAAAY over Hermes maximum.

I’ve never had a problem but I’ve always used drop off not collection and nothing bigger than a frame or wheels.

More importantly, you have a new bike?

It’s a kids bike. Hermes have been terrible from start to finish.

Hermes terrible here as well – I would not buy from someone who uses them.

Lied about attempted delivery twice and then returned the parcel to sender rather than even attempting to deliver

I sold five 26″ wheels last year, always sent in identical wheel boxes, then I get an invoice for £10.80 saying that they will not release the parcél until paid due to parcel being oversize wtf?
Anyway I refused to pay (at the risk of my 100% ebay feedback) & they delivered anyway but they’ve lost me as a customer.
read this

Used them countless times without issue, piss all over Yodel.

Used them loads of times (30ish at a guess) including sending abroad and never had a problem (touch wood I’ve got some rims on the way to Germany!)

Awful when I tried to use them. Failed to collect. Failed to collect on re-arranged date. Cancelled and sent with someone else. Couple of days later a chap came to collect 2 parcels. Sorry, should have been collected on xxx and then again on xxx. There was only ever one parcel. He claimed he came to collect on both of the previous dates (was sending from a business address, we have cctv, I offered to show him the recordings). He left. Same chap came back next day to collect 2 parcels and had to go through the same thing again. Mental!

Only ever used them for parcel returns with a RMA label provided by online store.
Store is liable for basically everything due to distance selling rules, and online store is liable for shipping both ways. So if Hermes screw up, it’s their problem.
Strange that they ship via DHL and do returns via Hermes. The companies fighting their way to the bottom must have some good incentives.

There are worse couriers, IME.

They’re totally fine, until they’re not – then they’re a nightmare and don’t GAF.

Gone back to RM for small items myself despite it costing more and being less convenient.

Fine delivering, young lad is genuine and nice enough and will bring stuff as quickly as he can. Sending with them though!! Tried em in their early days. Of 4 things sent 2 were never seen again! Never used since

All Hermes local delivery folk are self employed so your quality of service will likely depend on whether the delivery guy/gal in the area you live in or are sending to is a ****t or a decent Human being.If it’s the former your parcel will have a high chance of arriving damaged or not arrive at all.

To add to this the accepted parcel dimensions on their website are contradictory depending on which page you are looking at, so I’m not surprised they change their minds about this depending on which way the wind is blowing. If they can’t tell us the accepted dimensions in a consistent fashion then how do they know?

I’ve sent loads of stuff with them as my in-laws have worked for them for years and it’s convenient. The few occasions that parcels have gone “missing” have been settled in my favour as long as they were insured, so the lesson here is to make sure you insure anything of value fully.

Herpes were supposed to collect a parcel from me on Monday. It’s still here in the hall. Used live chat to check whether my local courier is dead. They don’t know anything. Will be using DPD from now on.

Pay peanuts get monkeys is the basis of it. The drivers are so poorly paid that they usually don’t provide the service. As I said in my case they claimed to have attempted delivery twice. An outright lie

They’ve been OK for me, although they did try the oversize trick on me. I knew it was under the size limit as I’d actually repacked it to shave a few cm’s off to give a little leeway.

They sent me an invoice and stated the parcel would be disposed of in X days. I online chatted and then sent a stroppy email stating the exact dimensions, it was all in vain as the parcel was delivered a few hours later despite ‘being held at the national hub’, miles from the delivery area.

They never responded, I think they just sent me an invoice on the off-chance I paid up and the parcel carried on its merry way in the meantime!

I’ve posted just over a thousand parcels with hermes, quite a lot are slightly late- 3 days instead of 2- but I’ve only had real issues with about 5. One damaged by a courier, 3 lost, one where they said it was oversized when it probably wasn’t (which I told them to bugger off when they invoiced me, and they did). That’s pretty bloody good tbh. And the lost ones were really easy to claim compensation for, I got a payout in a day.

The damaged parcel was annoying- the courier threw a car stereo over an 8 foot fence, it was well packaged but it had no chance. Turns out, you’re not supposed to send electronics by hermes so they refused to pay out for accidental damage. I pushed the case since it wasn’t accidental at all, and they did pay out but it was a pain in the arse and could have gone the other way.

Not entirely sure i’d use them for high value, any more than I’d use macdonalds for a dinner date, but I’ve been surprised by how good they are. I thought they’d be cheap and shit, but they’re better than most couriers.

I was quite impressed with something noncustomery a while back- I work for a university and we’re a courier’s nightmare, everyone struggles with it- 9000 people in one postcode with confusing building and street names, and no central mail drop. A Hermes manager phoned us up and spent about half an hour sorting out maps, directions, procedures and contacts so they could make the service more reliable. DHL are the only other company that’s done that, and we have a corporate contract with them, everyone else leaves their drivers to deal with it. Pretty cool I thought. Our driver’s ex-DHL and says he prefers working for Hermes- though, he is a parcel ninja.

Pay peanuts get monkeys is the basis of it. The drivers are so poorly paid that they usually don’t provide the service. As I said in my case they claimed to have attempted delivery twice. An outright lie

Very important point there, after reading how bad their employment practices were I was feeling guilty using them anyway.

Can hardly blame the poor drivers for pretending to have tried to deliver, if it stops them getting penalised.

3 deliveries
3 nightmares
3 lies about proof of delivery
3 no one to speak to

No 4s
lesson learned

Had an acquaintance who worked for Hermes.

She left a parcel on our front door step whilst we were away on holiday for two weeks. Whilst knowing that we were away, and having instructions to leave the parcel safely should there be no reply.

Fortunately, a friend picked it up for us.

I saw aforementioned ‘Hermes Delivery Agent’ the week after my return and asked her to leave it in a safe place in future, if we weren’t at home to take receipt.

She didn’t.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t then complain. She died.

The new Hermes agent is excellent.

Not sure what my point is. But it’s Hermes related and therefore relevant

I avoid hermes like the plague.

Our local hermes delivery lady is as surly as they come.

It isn’t really worth trying to save a few quid sometimes when it comes to couriers.

Had a phone call from a friend once to say he had a parcel for me. Strange, no idea why you have it. The driver assumed that as we lived about half a mile from each other and the parcels were from the same place, they must have wrongly addressed one of them. Thankfully, delivery number one was my mate or I could have been £300 down. The useless eejit I tried to complain to couldn’t have cared any less. My herpes would be more likely to get repeat business than my Hermes.

Have been way better than RM for me, as said above, mostly down to your local person.

I don’t get them ti collect though, far more convenient to take stuff to the many local places they use….

Paisley freight for bikes.

I saw aforementioned ‘Hermes Delivery Agent’ the week after my return and asked her to leave it in a safe place in future, if we weren’t at home to take receipt.

She didn’t.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t then complain. She died.

You are clearly not someone to cross.

Had similar horror story with company called P4D. About a week late for collection, therefore a week late for delivery, no one to talk to and little contact about the parcel. Turns out their Ts and Cs basically give them zero responsibility and explain that there is not actually any guarantee of delivery!!

Never use p4d!!

I visited one of our contractors in Telford, next door to them is the Hermes depot. All the parcels spread out over the yard in the rain whilst thrown, sorry packed in to private cars.
At least the RM hide their bad habits.

It isn’t really worth trying to save a few quid sometimes when it comes to couriers.

No, but to me, prices seem much of a muchness between companies and you can find horror stories about every company online so who to choose?

I wouldn’t say there is a fully reliable company that costs a bit more. They all bugger it up seemingly now and then.

I’ve had bad experiences with a couple of couriers but so far, not Hermes thankfully.

Use them all the time with only one problem, they damaged a turbo trainer in transit and fully refunded in 48 hrs.