What courier service?

[400yrds]

Anybody else noticed the cost of Royal Mail postage has become ridiculously expensive? £12 to post a dummy launcher ***!  Might have to reconsider using Royal Mail and move back to using Hermes. What other couriers do other members use as I've had problems with Hermes in the past?

[Rim Fire]

Dose it use  a 22 blank round if so that might be your answer 

[Walker570]

Still waiting for a  consignment from Scotland via Parcel Force two days ago..  Amazon I can order now and almost be sure it will arive tomorrow and maybe in the morning.

[London Best]

1 hour ago, Walker570 said:

Still waiting for a  consignment from Scotland via Parcel Force two days ago..  Amazon I can order now and almost be sure it will arive tomorrow and maybe in the morning.

I used Amazon for the first time ever last month. The “two day delivery” took ten days. Useless.

[sam triple]

Went to order off Amazon last night £10 delivery for something that weighs nothing and would fit in an envelope, that got cancelled, all as bad as each other in certain respects 

[Dave at kelton]

I use Hermes for all my parcels and never had a problem. Prepay on the internet and drop the parcel at the shop in town.

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, I just had a parcel posted Monday came Wednesday via Hermes, self employed courier who pick up from Hermes depot, 

[Yellow Bear]

1 minute ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello, I just had a parcel posted Monday came Wednesday via Hermes, self employed courier who pick up from Hermes depot, 

We should have had one from Hermes - posted 10 Dec. - left in safe place 19 Dec. The picture showed a field with a stock and post and rail fence.   No such place within half a mile if the house but the tracking showed them near us that day so it was "Delivered" according to Hermes.   A neighbour had a delivery the same day.  the picture showed the package still in the van.     We are aware of at least 30 such instances in the village in the 2 weeks before Xmas.

If I could specify no Hermes I would.

[Scully]

I can’t recall the courier now, but OH received a picture via text of her jumper she had ordered ‘left in your shed’. Only trouble was we don’t have a shed! 😂

We knocked on doors for a few days asking folk to look in their sheds but no joy. She was in the process of ordering another ‘free’ one as the company agreed the courier was at fault, when a local who knew her called by with her jumper, saying ‘found this in one of my sheds’. He only lives 100 yds away. 🙂

[oldypigeonpopper]

10 minutes ago, Yellow Bear said:

We should have had one from Hermes - posted 10 Dec. - left in safe place 19 Dec. The picture showed a field with a stock and post and rail fence.   No such place within half a mile if the house but the tracking showed them near us that day so it was "Delivered" according to Hermes.   A neighbour had a delivery the same day.  the picture showed the package still in the van.     We are aware of at least 30 such instances in the village in the 2 weeks before Xmas.

If I could specify no Hermes I would.

Hello, mine went ok but had I known it was Hermes delivering I might have bought the heating jacket off a different seller, 

[Walker570]

Again lost almost all of what I was typing and did not press any other key on here and it vanished. This has happened so many times. Is it a fault on the forum?

[Fabhui]

Two weeks before Christmas, my sister had around £300 worth of goods go missing. The courier was Hermes, they sent a photo saying the items had been successfully delivered at 2pm and the photo was of a pure black screen.

She checked her CCTV and no one had come to her house all day.

Obviously the driver had stolen the items which meant she didn't have some Christmas presents to give to people.

If I know something is going to be delivered by Hermes, I always go elsewhere.

 

[Diver One]

I drive past a Hermes "final mile" delivery hub on my way to,work.

to see all the self employed drivers trying to cram 20 washing machine sized parcels into a Saxo is laughable. Most cannot see through the side windows when they set off. I'm surprised anything gets delivered

[Bigbob]

I went to my place of employment today as M&S, Tesco donated all there frozen turkeys to the students but as the students are fed up of them they are dishing them out got a £70 turkey and 2 £25 crowns with sausage meat no relevant  but good news 

Anyway while i was there the warden showed us the front of his office it looked like a royal mail depot couriers if they can be bothered are just dumping parcels there for the 14 halls of residence if they cant there just dumping parcels outside any hall because they cant gain access one courier even dropped parcels outside the main reception that closed for 2 weeks there's a lot of disappointed students and a lot of parcels going missing 

i dont think Hermes stand out there all as bad as each other 

[hedge]

I use Collect+ https://www.collectplus.co.uk/

You get a choice of couriers and can be cheap and cheerful or pay more for a premium service.

Hermes/Yodel - cheap but variable service. As most of their delivery folk are owner drivers, you take your chances. Our local driver is very good but I've heard plenty of horror stories. I've sent 4 items in the last 6 weeks via Hermes and all arrived on time, so I've not had an issue. You can pay extra at time of booking for tracking and signature on delivery etc.

I have an Amazon Prime account and most stuff arrives next day. Again, it relies on owner drivers and most are fine, but the odd delivery gets delayed. On the whole, not had an issue and I order a lot of stuff. 

Personally, I find DPD very good. Excellent tracking, text/email updates and delivery windows. 

Parcelforce used to be good but I find them a bit hit and miss now. 

Overall, I do think you get what you pay for. Also bear in mind that over Xmas, some delivery times are extended, even if the adverts are not updated. 

 

[powler]

Wife had an order before Xmas for 3kg of pick n mix that turned into a total fiasco with Hermes after three weeks they finally admitted to the sender of the parcel that it was damaged beyond repair and sent it back to the sender, my wife got fed up with it all and it was to late to give out for Xmas so asked for a refund which the seller did.

So seller has lost 3kg of product and a potential future customer due to poor courier service.

Got a pair of trousers from Cotton Traders expected delivery today(maybe) Hermes are delivering them but with tracking so we will see what happens.

Royal Mail order for new Bino's from Optics warehouse shipped Wednesday morning delivered less than 24hr later with no issues, not had issues with Royal Mail here.

[old man]

18 hours ago, Dave at kelton said:

I use Hermes for all my parcels and never had a problem. Prepay on the internet and drop the parcel at the shop in town.

Me too.

[JTaylor91]

Hermes is dependant on how good your “final mile” person is. The one we had in the previous village was brilliant. When we moved a couple of villages over he gave the new Hermes delivery person our names and she introduced herself when we moved in. The mrs mistakenly had a parcel delivered to the old address. Dropped him a quick message and he passed it over to the new driver no bother.

[Scully]

We have a local courier, Hart Distribution, which OH and me have used many a time. Dead easy and never any problems. 

[Cranfield]

15 hours ago, hedge said:

 

Hermes/Yodel - cheap but variable service. As most of their delivery folk are owner drivers, you take your chances. Our local driver is very good but I've heard plenty of horror stories. I've sent 4 items in the last 6 weeks via Hermes and all arrived on time, so I've not had an issue. You can pay extra at time of booking for tracking and signature on delivery etc.

I have an Amazon Prime account and most stuff arrives next day. Again, it relies on owner drivers and most are fine, but the odd delivery gets delayed. On the whole, not had an issue and I order a lot of stuff. 

Personally, I find DPD very good. Excellent tracking, text/email updates and delivery windows. 

Parcelforce used to be good but I find them a bit hit and miss now. 

Overall, I do think you get what you pay for. Also bear in mind that over Xmas, some delivery times are extended, even if the adverts are not updated. 

 

This sums it up for me.
All services work better with a good local courier.

[rectifier]

removed

 

 

Edited January 4, 2022 by rectifier
.

[London Best]

Had a parcel delivered this morning by DHL. The label said ‘next day delivery’. It was ordered last Monday.

[udderlyoffroad]

1 hour ago, London Best said:

Had a parcel delivered this morning by DHL. The label said ‘next day delivery’. It was ordered last Monday.

But when was it despatched by the sender?

[London Best]

1 hour ago, udderlyoffroad said:

But when was it despatched by the sender?

Who cares? 
For next day delivery they should send it immediately.

[udderlyoffroad]

22 hours ago, London Best said:

Who cares? 

If you can’t see why that’s an important consideration when discussing courier services, I’m not sure there’s much point discussing it.

You really can’t blame DHL (or whoever) if the organisation sending you the package took 9 days to hand it over – at the moment all we know is the total time from you ordering to it being on your doorstep T.  What is being discussed here is Y, the time it took the courier company to deliver.  You’re telling us you don’t care about X, the order processing/despatch time of the company.

X + Y = T

Of course, in the end all we care about is T, but to relay an anecdote with only T and no consideration to X or Y, is no help to anyone when choosing a courier service.