Reliable and Cost effective Courier. Hermes Courier Hell!!

[kwam-iT]

Evening, UKBFers, I run and own a laptop recycling business which people from all over the country use to sell and recycle their old laptops. Part of the service I offer is a free postage option which involves me sending out an empty cardboard box which has inside it a free-post Return label which they use to post the device back to us. Currently use Hermes Courier 1) For their Low cost 2) for their online dashboard system, each parcel outgoing and incoming can be referenced and status of each one can be determined and 3) Their parcel shop option makes it easy for customers to drop off these parcels at their own free time as against the 'Courier pick up' service alot of my competitors offer.

Well they have now cocked up and frustrated me. 2 high value parcels have gone missing in the past 2 weeks and its high time i find someone reliable.

I have 120 parcels through them in the last 4 months and only 3 have been missing, 2 happen to be high value items worth £1500. Their compensation is pretty rubbish too max £300!

I have been looking into DPD and I just want to know if anyone has any experience with them. I know they have a drop off service which is a important.

Do they have a simple efficient online dashboard for their clients to view their parcels and track them accordingly.


Regards.

 

[The Byre]

There is no such thing as cheap and good!

 

[kwam-iT]

A wise old man told me a better substitute for cheap is 'Low Cost'

So 'Low Cost' and 'Cost Effective'

 

[The Byre]

So you have to add the cost of the lost items to the overall cost of delivery - it ain't so cheap then!

https://www.bjshomedelivery.com/ is the best I have come across so far, though I am sure that there are others that do as good a job.

They are ideal for high value items that must get to the customer in one piece, but of course they cost money!

 

[Deleted member 226268]

....."each parcel outgoing and incoming can be referenced and status of each one can be determined"......

I find it incredible how Logged and Tracked parcels suddenly go.... "Missing"...."Lost".
There must be warehouses full of "Lost" parcels...

And just before Christmas too....

Or they were just blatantly stolen by the low-breed-low-paid courier employees, and the courier companies will not do anything about it.

Try not to write ..."This is a nice Laptop inside"
on the packaging

.

 

[deniser]

DPD are good as a whole provided the individual driver on your route is good. They have drop off points in many locations including Halfords stores. The tracking is superb and things don't generally get lost. It will cost more though but if you factor in the value of your losses, you will probably find that the overall cost is less.

 

[quikshop]

Cheap operators take on van owner-drivers which increases the risk of theft. It's not just private couriers, we had entire postal bags stolen by Royal Mail workers in Wolverhampton years ago, and high value special delivery returns stolen - one turned up on our doorstep but only after I'd requested a copy of the signatory sheet and threatened to go to the Express & Star!

Not surprisingly the signatory sheet for the Special Delivery return was redacted!!

 

[NuBlue]

As a very recent recipient of a DPD delivery, I can say their online tracking is good. Items can be tracked through an app or online and when no one was in, there was a photo of our front door to prove they'd tried and an offer to reschedule, deliver to one of their drop-off points or for us to confirm it could be left somewhere around the house (at our risk). Re-delivered when they said it would be and left where we asked.

 

[bharris]

Agree with deniser and nublue DPD are good, although not low cost. The only concern i would have is that you need to check you can get full compensation for the loss if a parcel gets damaged/lost. I think their standard only covers you for £10 per 1kg plus they might have exclusions on high risk items (i think most couriers have the same limits buried in the t&c's) They do offer enhanced cover, but i would really check this to make sure you can actually make a claim. Having said that obviously the object is for nothing to go wrong and we have found them to be very good. One damaged parcel in over a year. None lost.
How do you send the box out to the customer, Royal Mail might be the cheapest option, as it is probably very light?

 

[Pish_Pash]

UPS are the best (IMHO), DPD are good (I echo the point 'just so long a your local driver is good'). Of late I've used inPost - they've been excellent for a low cost courier (but you need to be positioned near one of their 'pickup' lockers).

Hermes are the pits.

 

[The Byre]

Hermes are the pits.

Well, My Herpes in our area were so bad that on one occasion, the driver was caught by the customer peeing on the package, another, when the customer tried to talk to him, threw the package at him and ran away.

Now, we have a mad old couple who do this My Herpes gig to get out of the house and get some social contact. He drives a banged out old van and she delivers.

She likes to talk . . . and talk . . . and talk. I once made the mistake of signing for a parcel - it took nearly half-an-hour! If she cannot talk to a human being, then she talks to the dogs, she talks to the horses, she talks to the birds and it would not surprise me if she talks to the trees.

But amazingly, come hell or high water, they actually deliver!

 

[bharris]

UPS are the best (IMHO)

Never had a problem (a few late deliveries about a month ago, all ok now) with UPS the only issue is they charge an additional £2 for a domestic delivery, Perhaps they might wave this if you create an account with them. Others might know?

 

[Pish_Pash]

Never had a problem (a few late deliveries about a month ago, all ok now) with UPS the only issue is they charge an additional £2 for a domestic delivery, Perhaps they might wave this if you create an account with them. Others might know?

If you use UPs's drop off points (normally a local newsagents) you can avoid that (it saves being hemmed in to), but for me it's not a problem as UPS are Amazon's prefered courier, & I'm pretty much having UPS collections for stuff going to Amazon daily...so I just get them to collect a non Amazon destined box when they come.

 

[Thermodynamic Man]

UPS are only Amazon's preferred courier because they are cheap. They used to use Yodel but they priced themselves out of that deal

 

[14Steve14]

As with any courier there are going to be some that get problems. I have only once had a problem with myhermes with a collection, and have only once received a complaint from a customer about a delivery. Both were easily sorted and myhermes even paid out for a lost parcel. I now take the parcels to a drop off point that is close so have removed one area for errors to happen. I know people that have more complaints about UKMail or UPS. I have found that its best to use a signed for service with myhermes as the drivers cant just leave the parcels, or throw it over a fence.

 

[nightmare99]

DPD have a swap it box service which might be useful for you, they will basically collect an item in a pink padded container and deliver it to you, would save you shipping out cardboard boxes. I know ASUS use this service for collecting laptops for repair.

 

[Plumb Spares Direct]

We have used Interlink which is a subsidiary of DPD and have had few problems.

Our courier service was the very weak link in our chain when we first started and we got to the point where we thought the business couldn't be viable because the original courier services were just appalling.

 

[gibby]

DPD are very good although things do still go wrong from time to time and it always gets worse at busier times.
The main problem is when things go wrong as the phone support is hopeless. Often we can be advised that the parcel is at x and its promised to be at y tonight, and it just dosen't happen.
If they could sort a better system for when things go wrong it would really improve the service.
The other issue is damages & losses. DPD just don't like to pay out at all. The paperwork is a pain, the time restrictions are also a pain.
Last year we wrote off £600 of damages/loses with DPD.
This year has been far better at about half of that.

 

[japancool]

Not to hijack this thread, but I created this petition for the government to regulate the parcel delivery industry:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/175789

Sign it if these clowns have screwed you over. Their T&Cs are not fit for purpose.