Hermes undercover: Parcels manhandled and customers mocked | Times Investigation

Couriers working for one of Britain’s largest delivery companies mishandle parcels, routinely fail to complete next-day orders and are encouraged to lie to customers, an investigation by The Times has found.

This month an undercover reporter worked for Hermes, which delivers online orders for retailers including John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and Next, amid a surge in complaints about packages being late, damaged or lost.

Managers watched as workers threw parcels across a depot to save time while sorting them, sending many of them clattering into hard cages, against walls or on the floor. One manager admitted that in the chaotic run-up to Christmas shoppers were paying for next-day deliveries with no chance of these being fulfilled. Couriers were encouraged to mislead customers and “act stupid” if faced with complaints.

Hermes has begun a “full investigation”. Retailers that use the company for their deliveries said they were “alarmed” at the findings and have asked it for urgent explanations.

[davidcoleman]

Companies should stop using Hermes/Evri. I won’t buy from a company that does use them.

[tegwyntwmffat]

I am a Hermes courier and the stuff in this video is just the tip of the iceberg. Couriers are constantly scammed by the company. Shame the reporter did not mention the 'Packet Racket' where the company have allegedly defruaded couriers by millions of pounds with mis-banded parcels. More recently, and this is a typical example of their behavior, we had a phoney 3.5% pay rise that only lasts until May and only covers some of our parcels and not others whilst we were promised that all parcel rates would be increased. Come May the company will have free reign to slash our parcel rates back to whatever they like. Rotten, exploitative, company making record profits in the last year.

[moriandavis]

I only had issues with Hermes so far and I would rather collect or deliver parcel myself than using this company.
We may agree that Christmas time is insane for warehouses too, but this does not justify damages to customer's property.
Sad to hear that employers still manage a way to pay less then minimum wage.

[cannyexplorer]

Now boycotting any company that only uses this useless company to deliver their goods. Gave up with Hermes since 2019 after they lost yet another parcel being sent to me. If the company does not care about its staff or its clients then it’s up to the companies that only use them to take action. Dump them or loose your customers. Being the cheapest delivery company never means a good service. When a company gives me a choice of delivery companies I NEVER tick Hermes even if it cost me more to choose another.

[mrcoolsdream]

4:27 they are not paid until they start delivering, how is that legal. Sorting parcels is part of the job and they should be paid for that. I work in a bar that would be like my boss telling me, we are not going to pay you for preparing the drinks but only when you bring the drinks to the table.

[AndyMcKell-Author]

We sent my daughter's university notes via Hermes. She was out when they called, so they left the package in the recycling bin. It was recycled before she got home from work. Invaluable material trashed by Hermes. No real apologies. Had no cash value, but was invaluable to her. No-one gave a damn.

[ainsleycordell]

I used to work as a Hermes Field Manager, back in the day when they were called that, and can confirm everything in this video is true. Your parcels are treated like sh1t and nobody cares (especially at 'peak' (Christmas))

When this reporter stated his 'packet rate' my immediate thought was "that's not a bad rate". In my time I had couriers who were on .47p and .55p per packet and those rounds didn't yield many parcels at all. If you wanted a decent paying round, you needed to sell an organ or two or be 'in' with the RDM (essentially an area manager).

Field Managers were often encouraged to squeeze every last drop out of the couriers and to pressurise them and threaten to take their rounds if they didn't comply. I'm ashamed to say that for a period of time I tried to do that, so that I could earn my bonuses and be on top of our KPI board, but I found it extremely difficult as I am not horrible by nature. Treating the couriers the way we were expected to went totally against the way I was brought up and how I chose to conduct myself as an adult.

The fact I didn't tow the line, and in the eyes of middle managemen's wasn't performing, led to me being taken into PIP meetings, investigations and allegations that I was in cahoots with couriers and was either stealing parcels or overpaying them and splitting the proceeds.

Eventually the stress, pressure and toxic environment took a serious toll on my mental health and I had to leave.

In my opinion there are three fundamental issues at Hermes:
- The Top is clueless as to what really happens at the bottom: This is either an inherent flaw in design or its by choice
- nobody takes responsibility: There are/were no internal helplines to help Field Managers find parcels. I spent my first 7 weeks trying to find a customer's parcel. In the end I was told to tell them to contact the shop they bought it from as 'our job isn't to find their parcel' (go figure that out)
- they genuinely don't care enough about the couriers: if they did, they'd pay better 'Simples'

The only thing I enjoyed working for Hermes was knowing my couriers. They were a hard working bunch of individuals who were just trying to provide and get a bit more for their families.

I worked at Hermes for 3 years. After 5 months I stopped 'selling the dream' of how convenient a job it was and that if you worked hard you could make a mint, as it was all a huge lie. I just couldn't look people in the eye anymore and lie about what they'd get in their wage packet. I could no longer lie and tell them that they had such poor pay because they were too slow or weren't 'compliant'.

They were being paid poorly because that's how the system was designed.

[rashadmahmood]

Never ever give 100% at any job. They can replace u the next day be smart

[dyslexiksteve]

I have had 2 packages that went missing from Hermes. Customer services for absolutely useless. I didn't even get the price of the postage back from them. I would never ever use them again

[Lil_VampireCJ]

I love how like, Hermes only response to dealing with it was to go undercover & literally just do a entire rebrand and rename their company to Evri to evade the past backlash tho nothing has changed, they're still the same and as bad.

[albert]

Sounds like Hermes should be shut down. NO ONE should use them for shipping, period.

[raymondbedborough]

Dreadful company best avoided now called Evri

[davegreen]

I am avoiding using anyone shipping with evri/ hermes. They are absolutely useless. Avoid at all costs

[HannaHexagon]

I've had 4 parcels in a row from different retailers go missing. I've been waiting MONTHS for an update. Never been able to get through to a human and I'm honestly at a loss. 100s of pounds down with no outcome.

[alexbond]

I used to work for John Lewis years ago and we were told the never to use the hermes delivery option on the computer. It was well known then that they couldn't fulfill the delivery time and quite often lost items. I had my own run in with them when I set up a return pickup with a online retailer who used hermes. They didn't turn up on the selected day on two occasions and turned up randomly a day before and 2 days later while I was at work.

[SolarErazer]

Purchased many expensive items like Macbook and other on Ebay when delivered by Hermes, I always received either a empty package or replaced by t shirts. Worst courier is Hermes how is it even allowed to run?

[johnhemming]

I sent three parcels out with Herpes two took five weeks to get to my customers and one never got there .Trying to speak to anyone was impossible.

[neilsaxton]

Stolen 3 of my paintings and you can't do anything about it

[averagemodernmale]

they are so crap. I sigh so loud when I see that a company has used them to dispatch an item. I think there needs to be some sort of law that forces e-retailers to provide at least 2 choices of couriers for customers to choose from.

Hermes and the like will soon step up their game then.

[superglo]

There is no customer service for this company