I used my Hermes for the very first sale I made and they lost the parcel, I had to remake the order and sent it by UPS, it eventually turned up with my customer three weeks later! I have since used UPS for large parcels and they are cheaper than Royal Mail and will collect from me.
As a buyer I’m not bothered who delivers my purchase as long as the postage charged is reasonable and I receive my purchase in a reasonable amount of time.
As a seller, I always use Royal Mail, I find their costs are ok and in my experience the items are delivered within a reasonable time. I only charge the postage amount, (1st class) as I try to reuse mailing bags and the few pence on additional attractive wrapping I put down to customer service.
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I’m currently awaiting a parcel which tracking says they’ve made 3 attempts to deliver - but I’ve been in 2 of those days and they didn’t call and I haven’t had any cards posted through either. So I wouldn’t rely on their tracking information as proof of delivery. I live on estate in Cambridge so my address is easy enough to find and other couriers don’t seem to have a problem. Judging by the online reviews I don’t expect any useful follow up from my email enquiry or have any hope of my parcel arriving.
It really depends on who the delivery driver is on the day.
I have had a run of appalling results in ordering items - from various retailers - and being delivered by Hermes. Our local driver was hopeless. Threw items over the gate, And I kept getting items for other addresses…Literally postcodes away.
Now, We appear to have a new driver and I haven’t yet had a problem.
Now, To those wondering why they don’t get asked to sign or get a signature on delivery. This is an additional service, with a fee attached. It is not standard.
With regards to Royal Mail, again, It is all down to the postman on the day/route. However, personal experience leads me to think they can be worse than private couriers.
Since Folksy and craft is a part time job, I also deliver leaflets for a living. I cover a really wide area of the west midlands and Let me say that I have seen countless small parcels and packets shoved into standard sized letter boxes with no thought for the condition, nor the safety of the items. On certain postcodes I cover I can say with certainty that should I follow a postman I can expect 6/ or 7/10 letterboxes to be jammed full with damage to the items be they parcels or letters.
It really is a lottery who delivers your items.
I’ve just had a parcel sent 1st class signed for with Royal Mail go missing. I posted it on 5th September and only found out it hadn’t been delivered when the customer emailed me asking where her order was. Have tracked it and it still says “your parcel is being processed” so not signed for. Now having to put a claim in with Royal Mail 
well, myhermes changed the tracking to address query and got back to me to suggest I had moved house. I have confirmed my address (and the fact I have lived there 16 years!) so hopefully my parcel might actually find me at some point.
I’ve just been reading reports of items not received on the auction site, this seems to have happened on 5th and 6 September for most sellers. Something went wrong somewhere. Just a thought.
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How interesting, thank you for that. I really hope it turns up as the customer stills wants it. It was a lovely blanket I made and is a one off. We shall wait and see.
Only tried a courier for a larger order once and it ended very badly (glass items have the potential to be very bad). Royal Mail have never let me down to date so I use them every time.
As a buyer, I bought a silk scarf from another site. It was sent MyHermes and I was charged £3.55 for it, it took a week and could have been sent large letter second class, would have been about £1 and arrived much sooner. I wasn’t given the option of changing and really wasn’t impressed with that.
I go back on all i SAID about My Hermes…I had three sales on here last week and booked my Hermes to collect on Monday…paid my fees and waited…
no one came…went to their chat line, they promised that someone was on their way…
No one came
Tuesday…no one came…went to their chat line, they told me that someone would be with me before the close of day…
No one came…went on chat line just before 8pm (when they close) and they just said sorry but someone would definitely be with me on Wednesday…
No one came…went on their chat line and they promised me that the parcels would be collected yesterday…
No one came…
They told consistent lies and I had promised my customers that their parcels would be on their way on Monday.
Today, (Thursday) I took them to the post office.
Now I have to try to get my fees back !!!..all my profits gone with having to pay twice.
I will never use them again.
The problem for me is that I am a carer and cannot get out very often. I also live up high and the roads get bad in the winter and so I cannot drive to the post office when it is dangerous. I had listed larger paintings and crochet in the hope that I could have the parcels collected no matter what the weather.
NOW I am having to delist my crochet and my larger paintings and just stick to items that will go into the local postbox…where if necessary I can get someone to go to the postbox for me.
Very angry…
I wouldn;t have minded if they had told the truth…everyone gets held up or takes days off sick but they had my email address and could easily have contacted me to see if I wanted my money back or to re-arrange a new collection date…
I have sent many complaints and they just keep saying sorry…
I asked for my money back and ha ha, they have just sent me an email telling me that someone will come for the parcels tomorrow…no chance…
Last year I took in over 300 parcels for our neighbours who all work full time…so now I have told them that I won’t do that any more…which means the courier will have to keep coming back…many times…Not fair on our neighbours but I always bend over backwards to help and My Hermes just take the mickey
I am sorry you had problems with MH.
Also had more problems with them when purchasing from a company recently. Their tracking information was very different to the info they gave to the vendor. Only after speaking with the vendor who chased up MH did they discover that allegedly the driver broke down - for three days! Vendors were very good and sent my item Special Delivery as I needed for the weekend. They told me that I could ask for their alternative courier, UPS, in future which I did a week later and the item arrived the next day. [The driver has been to me before so she knew where we were.]
The difference with these vendors and you is that they are a big company so can do things like that but as small traders it is like banging your head against a wall!
I know what you mean about having to go to the PO to post items. As I said in previous posts, I live in a rural area and up a hill so try to plan my trips to the PO to coincide with other journeys.
FYI the original parcel arrived the day after the Special Delivery one. Left on my doorstep and again, no signature required even though the value exceeded £50.
Maybe Royal Mail or Parcelforce should consider offering a collection service for small traders! Perhaps the postman who delivers mail to your door could also collect from you at the same time. It would definitely be do-able where I live as our postman uses a small van to deliver our mail. I know it’s not the case for everyone.
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I wonder if royal mail would consider a collection service for small businesses, it would be such a boon for me…(also high up on a mountain)…I am also a carer and so getting out can be difficult, so now I am having to delist larger items from my shop and just stick to things that fit in the post box…what a shame.
I don’t know if this is of use to anyone but I use Despatch Bay for my parcels. I initially used then for my large albums as they were cheaper than RM plus you get a tracked service with a choice of 24 or 48 hour. You can get the parcels collected from you or take them to the post office already paid and you choose which courier you prefer.
You can choose Parcel Force. Yodel, DHL & others.
I have used them for around 4 years without any issues at all. They have great customer service and if you are unsure how it all works (I was a bit reluctant to sign up at first) they will talk you through the process on the phone.
If you send a volume of small parcels you can ship them all off together as well and again they will collect.
I have a code https://despatchbay.com/signup/1GA3C that gives you £25 of free shipping when you sign up, so maybe worth a try to see what you think!
I have only good things to say and at this time of year use them to send parcels to family/friends too as the weight restriction on the parcel size is huge (like you could send a person lol!)
Hope this helps 
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Yes, Royal Mail do offer a collection service for businesses. You’ll need to sign up to one of their online business accounts and then depending on which account is best for you, you can get your mail collected for free or you’ll need to pay a yearly fee of around £750 + vat
I’m waiting for a curtain pole that I ordered online last week- went to the My Hermes tracking page, where it said it was due for delivery last Thursday, 1st December! Glad I didn’t stay in specially. I don’t know where it’s been since then. If it doesn’t arrive today, I’ll have to get back to the seller. I want to get my new curtains up!
Hi
£750+VAT is a lot of money to find up front for a small user like me. Do you know if they offer a monthly fee?
Know that one. If I had £1 for everytime I have been told my address doesn’t exist I could retire! LOL
I checked out their website but at the moment it wouldn’t work for me. The up side is that they collect from you [providing they can find you]. I can take it to the post office which is what I am doing now anyway. The down side seems to be that their list of partners does not include Folksy. Maybe one to keep an eye on if they extend their partner base.
Susan that sounds very interesting but I would only be sending maybe one parcel a month (ish) so I doubt it would work for me. If I had to take items to the post office then I might as well post them there myself. My issue is getting TO the post office…I wish I could hand them to my lovely royal mail postie. In fact my MY HERMES courier is a lovely young chap but it is their admin that is useless and then of course there is the concern about the courier the other end. I think for me I will just have to stick to paintings and cards that fit into the local postbox…then I never need to have to go to the post office. I even order my postage stamps online !! I am now carer for hubby and so getting out is difficult for me…