Just need to get this off my chest before my head explodes.
I was lucky enough to sell 3 items over the weekend to two different buyers. Because my items can be quite bulky I automatically booked delivery with MyHermes, never been a problem. Until now.
Booked online on Sunday for Monday collection. Well, Monday came and went. Contacted customer support who promised re-attempt collection would be made today, Tuesday. Excuse me? Re-attempt? For there to be a re-attempt there has have to have been an attempt in the first place, which there wasnāt. Me sat in all day with the kids on the sofa in the living room, facing the window which overlooks the front path and with a dog that does an absolute ditzy if anyone even walks past the house, never mind comes down the path.
Anyway, waited in all day today again. No attempt to collect whatsoever so about 4pm I contacted them via live web chat, when I was told to wait until after 8pm and if still no collection to contact them after that. Peeved at such a response, no helpful āwe will contact the courierā at all. Iāve contacted them again tonight to get the standard āplease wait until after 8pm tomorrow and if still no collection please contact usā. Iāve told them what I think of their ācustomer serviceā in no uncertain terms and told them that I will get the parcels into the delivery system myself tomorrow.
My plan is to take the parcels to the nearest Parcel Shop tomorrow morning. Its out of my way but I have a business to run, customers to keep happy and a reputation to uphold, unlike them who donāt really have a great reputation overall. I am just hoping that they accept the parcels but I see it that if I can actually speak to a person I may actually get some help. There shouldnāt be a problem really but the thing is, and what really peeves me is, that on the system they have marked it that the item has been collected by the local courier and so I canāt cancel the order now, which was my original plan and then send it with Royal Mail instead. I just hope that the person at the Parcel Shop doesnāt think that I have re-printed the labels and am trying to send out second items on the same booked delivery.
I suppose if I do run into problems and they wonāt accept them I will have to pay to send by Royal Mail and then claim my money back for the MyHermes booking via Paypal/Credit Card. I wonāt let them get away with it.
I had a similar problem with a collection about 2 months ago. It was supposed to be collected on the Monday and eventually got collected on the Wednesday after contacting them a couple of times. It certainly is a bit off putting and makes you wonder if its worth risking them.
So far Iāve (touchwood) had fab service from myhermes. But I usually drop off - the drop off is our local dry cleaners, which is great cos I can drop things off outside of normal hours between 7 in the morning to 7 in the evening. Iāve never used their collection service.but theyād have to let me down really badly to push me in the direction of the high prices Royal Mail charge.
Disappointing to hear youāve had poor service from them.
The people at the drop off points dont have much to do with MH other than they are a drop off point os you wont get any info form them. Im sure you can still use RM and cancel the MH courier(phone to get your money back). āVote with your feetā as my old boss said, if a service isnt working for you, walk away.
I must admit, I use My Hermes and have found them wonderful, but I do undesrtand your frustration.
On the odd occasion where I have had a problem - usually with information not updating - I will always contact them via Twitter, because I find the response time is consistently quick, and their customer service excellent.
They have always been helpful, and on the one occasion a courier didnāt pick up a parcel they rang him immediately and he got in touch with me less than half hour later, offering to pick up the parcel there and then!
If it helps, Royal Mail have a special offer on at the moment and doubled the size of their small parcels. I sent a very heavy item for Ā£2.80 (2nd Class) the other day.
So I think MyHermes have done some good as theyāve made Royal Mail think again about how much theyāre charging.
Do you have the same driver who picks up and drops off? If you live in a populated area then perhaps itās Hermes giving the poor driver too much to do and not having a good backlog clearing system.
I have to add that theyāre not all bad though. My Hermes guy is the same that drops off and picks up and has done for years. Iāve never had him not show up when promised. I guess itās just the luck of the draw
I discovered that there is a Parcel Locker at the petrol station of my local Morrisons, which I didnāt know about. I have taken the parcels there this morning and they were accepted when I scanned the barcode. Iāve also have an apologetic message from Customer Service at MyHermes after my rant at them last night and they will be investigating the local courier.
Normally my local courier is very good, stressed out due to her kids/working for MyHermes/Avon/goodness knows who else, but she always show up. I know for a fact that she isnāt at home right now cos the house is silent, no one about so I am guessing that there is a relief person on or she has asked her friend to to cover for her, which she did when her dad passed away. The fact that someone had marked the parcels as having been collected is not on, and is the reason why I couldnāt cancel the order.
I know that Royal Mail has a special offer at the moment as I have an account with them also and so I got an e-mail a few weeks ago about the offer. I generally only use Royal Mail now for really small items, like a pair of gloves, that I can pop in a post box or for International deliveries. Whilst the offer is on I can pretty much choose either of them for UK deliveries as most parcels will be the same price, I think.
Now that I know that there is a Parcel Locker at the local Morrisons, which is about a 2-3 minute walk passed my kids school, I can drop the parcels off there myself in the future, straight after dropping the kids at school, and I save a little bit of money by doing so as well.
DO NOT USE MYHERMES. They are worthless. Do not even think about using them. I bought and paid for an item fourteen days ago and it still isnāt here. For some bizarre reason (which they have refused to explain) they deleted my name from the address label and replaced it with that of a company which used this address but went bust eight years ago. They have refused to advise me of the whereabouts of my parcel, explaining that they have no contractual obligation to do so. In fact, not only are they totally incompetent, they are blatantly dishonest. They are now claiming that they delivered the item yesterday, and have updated their site stating that to be the case. The item has not been delivered. I am consulting a solicitor this afternoon and am going to war with this shower on social media. The delivery is a vitally needed computer part and I am now losing income because of this incompetent rabble. Incidentally, here is a tip when calling them at their head office on 0330 333 6556. Do NOT choose Option 1 - that will get you fobbed off with a recorded message and the call terminated. Use Option 2, then Option 5 and you will get an operator who will tell you what you need to know about your missing parcel, demonstrating rather nicely that the ācontractual obligationā not to give you information about your delivery is just a load of old Betty Swollocks. Donāt put yourself in this position anyway - DO NOT USE MYHERMES FOR ANY REASON, AT ANY TIME.
I agree. Iāve had a terrible time with MyHermes, and I have added my experience of that to other threads about couriers, but itās up to each person who they use. What doesnāt work for me (sending breakables) might be perfectly fine for other people. Because on the other hand Iāve got nothing but praise for Royal Mail and they seem to get quite a slating from others, so I think you just have to try each thing in your area and see how you get on.
Well the local courier delivered a parcel for my husband today but I didnāt get chance to get to the front door before she was gone. She knows that the porch door is left unlocked so that she can collect/delivery parcels. Not sure if she was just really busy or just didnāt want to run the risk of a confrontation but I still deserve an explanation and apology. MyHermes have applied a 20% off do-dah on my account for the next time I book parcels and are investigating the local courier.
This isnāt the first time that Iāve had problems this end but the other time was when her dad died so I fully understand that one. Normally everything is OK and Iāve never had any reports of items arriving damaged or anything so I will continue to use them but I will just use the parcel locker option from now on.
I have to say Iāve had nothing but good service from my hermes, Iāve been using them for years and theyāve never mangled a parcel and in 3 years only 1 has gone missing and they refunded me for it right away. I wish I could say the same about other services.
Donna x
Iām another one who has always found Hermes to be good. Iāve used them loads of times to send things I sell on Ebay, like old baby clothes and toys. I would never use them for anything breakable though after reading the horror stories about certain couriers throwing parcels over fences! Although, just because Iāve had good service I think it very much depends on which courier you get and it only takes that one poor service occasion which is enough to put you off forever - so maybe Iāve just been lucky!
To be honest, if I was in customer services I would have found this comment offensive.
If Iād sent a parcel out from Folksy and it was missing in the post/couriers I would bend over backwards to re-assure the customer, chase it up and/or refund, as would all of us.
However, if the customer asked me if I had a brain during this process it would certainly get my back up!
I feel that weāre becoming quite judgemental in the forums, and quick to judge - criticizing poor English, poor photosā¦shoddy customer service.
Weāre losing the positivity that used to be here.
I am with Sarah here. Why shoot the messenger? (a bit of a pun here). I would find that question incredibly offensive and would have put the phone down. Personally, I have had good experiences with myhermes. The local courier lives in the village and I suppose wants to keep his reputation intact. He even responded to a call about 8pm one night as I couldnāt determine where he had left the parcel - I had left a note that I would be out and they could leave the shipment in a safe place. I sent off a huge box of consignment goods a few weeks ago from Derbyshire to Essex and it got there in 2 days. Intact. So I am pretty pleased with them.
Leslie
Good on you Joy
Sometimes you get idiots on the ends of phones who have no idea how to use their brains and itās like hitting ones head against a brick wall. You do wonder how they got the job in the first place. A bit of lateral thinking never comes a miss.
I think the problem stems from companies that have prescriptive (set written down text) and have no way of know how to deal with something thatās not on the script. Itās lazy and shoddy service.
We do have to complain otherwise nothing is ever done. For far too long we British have apologized to companies and I mean company employees for their lack of service rather than make a complaint. But as we see we are finally standing up as consummers and demanding proper customer service. The sort of customer service we as business people aim to give our lovely customers.
Donāt ever be afraid to complain when a compliant is valid. Donāt let standards slip.
Donāt ever be afraid to give praise and say thank you either when you get great or even standard customer service.
I can only assume that those among us who think belittling customer service representatives is a constructive way to solve a problem have never actually worked as one!
That person is, just as their title suggests, a representative of a company. Theyāre probably not the one who ballsed up whatever it is youāre ringing to complain about.
Thereās standing up for yourself and then thereās just being plain rude. One does not require the other to be effective.
Sarah Yes I agree it was mildly offensive but it only came after 10+ minutes of total brick wall, condescension, Jobsworth, blank refusal to do anything at all to assist and everything else which is not what one would like to expect, but what one often gets, from āCustomer Servicesā.
If I were to ever speak to one of my customers in the way she had spoken to me and without offering anything at all by way of resolving the situation, then I would find it quite acceptable for that customer to ask if I had a brain the size of a pea.
But thatās just me
