Ideally with a uk based phone centre who don’t charge you premium rate and actually answer the phone.
Hermes have just **** me off,

Honestly, they’ll all **** you off when it goes wrong.

I have never had a Hermes package go missing, but imagine it’ll be a pain in the bum if it did.

The man wouldn’t take my bike frame as he says it won’t fit in his car.
The fact that he has just delivers a soundbar which is just a bit smaller makes his claim nonsense.

I send a lot of artwork out and have tried the lot. They are all absolutely ****ing shit! I’ve had really well-packaged framed artwork, clearly marked as fragile, turn up completely destroyed. Literally smashed to pieces

With one exception…

DPD. I wouldn’t entertain using anyone else. They’re brilliant! Your stuff gets to where it wants to be, in one piece, on time. Only ever had one issue and their customer services were excellent, and sorted it straight away. Thats German Efficiency for you. In another sign that reflects perfectly the relative state of our countries respective economies, they’re actually cheaper than Royal Mail

I’m getting quite good online and UK phone based service from a company called CCL, they are a brokerage which at present offer UPS, UKmail (with the bags) & DHL (a bit pricier), they all baulk a bit at shipping stuff bigger than 120mtrs but I do get away with the occasional 1.60m long kiteboard.

EDit, interesting poster above has had good experience of DPD they were crap for me in another life, but one thing everyone is agreed on, Parcel force are the carrier from hell.

they all baulk a bit at shipping stuff bigger than 120mtrs

No shit. 8)

I just use RM special delivery as it’s not too expensive for smaller items and it has good insurance and its fast.

DPD have been very good in my experience, but only as a reciver..

I kinda go by.. If the carrier offers no insurance, you can expect the package to go missing.

DPD are the gold standard for couriers as far as I’m concerned (though I’ve received considerably more goods than I’ve ever sent).

they all baulk a bit at shipping stuff bigger than 120mtrs

Nah, you need to send that see freight in a Baulk Carrier.

TAXI!!!!

personally I think UPS are v good, always deliver next day for anything I have sent

DPD also good

never had a problem with hermes

all the rest a bit slow or poor notification system when you are wondering where your parcel is

If I want the cheapest possible service and not that fussed about how quickly they are, Hermes are my go-to, and only ever had one parcel go missing. All sorted pretty easily with the online chat system.

They certainly don’t have the best reputation though 😀

Cheers, Rich

Paisley frieght if they still exist. Although the final delivery was made by city link. As bad as they are I usually find Royal Mail to be the best.

We use TNT for big stuff and UPS for little stuff.

UPS are excellent.

TNT are so-so, but they are one of the few that will take big un-palleted boxes.

He managed to deliver the sound bar but couldn’t take my box.

I have never had a Hermes package go missing, but imagine it’ll be a pain in the bum if it did.

hermes are cheap for a reason, but I have had stuff go missing, delivered at the wrong location, but as soon as proof of value was confirmed they paid up.

DPD were an absolute nightmare on my last delivery …..

Not even a premium rate number to call… only the sender gets that.
They were meant to deliver a Thursday … I was in ALL DAY … and I taped a piece of paper over the letter box saying I’m in please ring the bell….

Instead they pulled down the paper, checked it in my garden and posted a “You were not in”

I then tried to find a contact…. non t be found but paid an extra £5 for a Saturday delivery ….
All day Saturday I waited in with the status being “Your package will be delivered between 08:00 and 16:00 today…” at 18:00 they finally changed that to “Your package is in our warehouse”

They also (I’m told) charged the sender £5 for the Saturday delivery

2 weeks LATER (yep not days weeks) the goods arrived back with the sender … who’d arranged to ship them back but they arrived back damaged… and I finally got them about 3 weeks after paying for next day + an extra fiver for Saturday they didn’t even attempt…

I’d complain and demand my fiver back + the next day but who to ???

He managed to deliver the sound bar but couldn’t take my box.

…you box is bigger though! 😀

He managed to deliver the sound bar but couldn’t take my box.

I’m not a fancy physicist, but I think your box is bigger.

Have you checked it falls within the size guidelines?

The box is an acceptable size.
Mrs Zip walked up to his car and he had room.
Posting with UPS now ,dropping it off at the news agents up the road. Let’s see how that goes!

myHermes have lost one of my parcels.

They contacted me about it and offered compensation to the sale price of the item on ebay.

Simple claim form and refund promptly.

Can’t argue with that.

Parcel2go however have refused to refund the cost of the delivery on top of the item value, and wanted to give me credit rather than money.

Not even a premium rate number to call… only the sender gets that.

Because the sender has a contract with the courier, you do not.

I’d complain and demand my fiver back + the next day but who to ???

You have a contract with the sender, they’re responsible for getting the goods to you. Any issues with the courier, that’s their problem to resolve.

I recently sent a hifi amplifier by Hermes…bad idea. It had clearly been dropped on more than one occasion and significant damage done to the internals. That said, on production of the invoice for repairs they paid up very promptly. This experience, along with the other examples above of swift payment when losing parcels, suggest to me that they are a little too practised at that problem! Never again.

We’ve never had a problem with hermes before but we have a new driver and he is a knob.

Always used Hermes, never had anything go missing / not be delivered.

I just use RM special delivery as it’s not too expensive for smaller items and it has good insurance and its fast.

The Royal Mail’s best kept secret!

Dropped parcel off at 3.50 yesterday and it’s arrived in Knaresborough at 10 am.
Well done UPS.

Because the sender has a contract with the courier, you do not.

You have a contract with the sender, they’re responsible for getting the goods to you. Any issues with the courier, that’s their problem to resolve.

I’d argue they had a contract with me as soon as they charged me the extra £5 .. though “refusing to communicate” because the contract is with the sender is just crap regardless.

The sender (a business) also told me that they got told they can’t get my fiver refunded because they got told “the contract isn’t with you” … so its just running everyone round in circles presumably because most people and businesses can’t afford the time to chase down a fiver… so by removing all avenues of communication they just make it as difficult as possible….

In theory I could take it to small claims I guess but they know it’s not worth the effort for a fiver…

More than anything it’s their way of dealing or more accurately not dealing with the end customer that’s annoying as well as the way they then get you to pay the £5 by not giving any other options.

The options were basically “Sorry we couldn’t deliver…. choose one of these options to pay more”

Must be me …

MyHermes…. scheduled for delivery today…. been checking and no update…

So I tried the Webchat

You are currently number 105 in the queue. You should be connected to an agent in about 04:51. The average amount of time a customer has to wait is 05:17

You are currently number 81 in the queue. You should be connected to an agent in about 08:00. The average amount of time a customer has to wait is 10:13

Is that hours and minutes or minutes and seconds ???

If small and not breakable, Collect+. Been fine so far.

If large and/or breakable, charge buyer more postage, use a proper courier, e.g. DHL.

I avoid myHerpes, they lost 30% of the parcels I sent with them.

I avoid any service that requires going to a post office, because they all appear to be staffed by unhelpful jobsworths who don’t want you there, cluttering up their nice stationary shop and pension collection point, getting in the way of their 10am chat with Gladys from up the road.

My favourite Post Office refusal was being told I’d written the address too large, so there was no room for the barcode sticker to go on the front. Lets not get into the physics of there being 5 other surfaces to put it on – it *had* to be put in the top corner on the address face. Jesus wept.

I’d complain and demand my fiver back + the next day but who to ???

I complained to Evans about DPD not delivering despite being in, leaving a note on the door saying please knock, I’m definitely in, and delivering an unsigned leaflet saying they called but nobody was in. And they took a photo of my door!

Evans refunded my delivery charge. I still had to call at a shop a few miles away to collect the packaged two days later.

A second delivery a few weeks later was fine.

Who do you recommend for a £1200 parcel with insurance, about 1.3m box?

Who do you recommend for a £1200 parcel with insurance, about 1.3m box?

How far is it going ?
If its not that far it might actually be cheaper paying a local (but reliable) taxi firm ?

I complained to Evans about DPD not delivering despite being in, leaving a note on the door saying please knock, I’m definitely in, and delivering an unsigned leaflet saying they called but nobody was in. And they took a photo of my door!

I’ve had that before .. which is why I taped the instructions to ring the bell over the actual letter box…

Regardless they just ripped off the instructions (chucked the paper in the garden) and posted the slip!!!

It’s going from the South East to Sheffield. Could deliver it pesonally nect week, depending on travel plans 😉

Anyone but Hermes. In fact if I find that any seller uses Hermes I’ll not use them.

They won’t deliver up our track, say it’s too rough. The last three parcels were subsequently lost in the system for a few days. One is still missing three weeks later.

. EVERYONE else will deliver

I use Fedex in the UK, UPS or TNT for international. Tried DPD for international a couple of times because they were cheap, turns out they’re cheap for a reason.

Though really with any courier you just have to factor in a percentage of problems.

Hermes are now saying they won’t refund as they are delivering the parcel even though they refused to take it.
Useless. Lucky I paid with PayPal.

Myhermes;-)

For **** sake.
Credit card bill has come through and UPS have overcharged me.
Have spoken to 3 people (all idiots) and apparently it’s because my parcel was overweight.
I had no means of accurately weighing my parcel of frame and forks so I said it weighed 15kg.
They reckon it weighed 34.5 kg..for a Spearfish frame and a pair of Rebas.
I **** despair.

I’ve been using collect plus recently. Seem pretty good and only slightly more expensive than Hermes.

They don’t collect though, you drop it to the nearest point, but there are loads about.

Anything small Royal Mail second £3.90 upto 2kg (£50 officially, although I self insure) signed for.

I like ups, tnt
And don’t mind Hermes and collectplus