Hi everyone,
i have just got back into the hobby bigger than ever after a few years away from it.
I recently sent a tracked package through myHermes since they offer a collection service at a competitive price ( this seemed like a good idea rather than going to my crowded post office during this pandemic).
I sent a handful of cards to GradedGem to be sent for PSA grading. After a few weeks i noticed on the tracking it said it was still in delivery, even when i rang up the Hermes automated customer service it would tell me this item is still in delivery.
Eventually i got hold of a real person on the phone at Hermes customer service, only to tell me the item is LOST!
I asked to speak to a manager and was told there is no manager and wont be contacted back by a member of a higher department. I also asked if they could contact the depot it has been delivered to where the tracking stops, i was told they cant do that. so basically they lost my mail and do not even have a department that can investigate it.
I was devastated as i have never experienced anything going missing in the mail when using a tracked service! some of the cards in there were worth a high value including a mint shining Raichu and mint base set Blastoise. its not only the monetary value , its knowing that a little piece of history i value emotionally is lost not just to me but to the Pokemon market as a whole.
I did not pay for the extra cover, but looking into it now it wouldnāt of made a difference. There terms and conditions on excluded items for compensation practically lists everything known to man.
Doing further research, there was an under cover filmed investigation by channel 4 into the company. The footage showed and proved that they sell off there so called ālostā items to a auction house in Birmingham. Many of the packages clearly had there postage labels visible or return addresses intact ( this is surely theft!)
further under cover footage revealed the appalling state of there sorting facilities with packages being tossed around including fragile items.
i honestly wont be using myhermes ever again as they are incompetent at providing secure postage.
Hopefully this information can be useful to some and that you can learn from my mistake.
overall i have learnt a very hard, expensive but valuable lesson!
please refrain from telling me this is my own fault, as i know this is the case. i just want a community that will understand my pain
which leads me to my actual questionā¦ does anyone know the best postage courier in UK that provides insurance for Pokemon cards i.e collectable items???
Iām so sorry this has happened to you. I donāt have much experience with MyHermes but they sound like complete shit.
I honestly wouldnāt drop it there, although I know chasing couriers can be extremely time consuming. I canāt find an item on their prohibited or restricted item list that refers to trading cards, or even ātoysā:
Why exactly are you unable to open a claim with them? You may not be entitled to the full value of your cards back, but it should be worth pursuing to try and recoup something. I hear tweeting at a company publicly normally helps, if youāre able to do that.
In terms of other delivery services - Royal Mail Special Delivery has a maximum insurance value of Ā£2500, and I have very rarely experienced lost packages with Royal Mail. I donāt think Iāve ever had a Special Delivery item go missing. The only lost item claims Iāve made have been for things that have been seriously delayed (but later turned up), or for international packages that went missing in the destination country (i.e., outside of Royal Mailās control). On the whole I think theyāre the safest bet.
Other options are DHL and FedEx, but I donāt have much experience using them. Perhaps someone else in this forum can help you there.
Iām so sorry to hear that. People joke about how bad Hermes is but this does sound especially crap.
I donāt have a suggestion of a courier that actually covers your items (Iām currently finding out how useless Royal Mailās insurance is), but consider your pain understood. Would love if someone has an answer.
@gen2whore , very sorry about that; I had a terrible experience with MyHermes in the past, wherein I ordered a Harry Potter TCG base set and when it arrived the package had been opened - although, the weather was wet and the seller clearly didnāt package it properly. I eventually got a refund through PayPal as the seller was ignoring most of the messages etc ~ But you only need to look on MyHermes Twitter page to detect the animosity towards said service ~
The only good thing about MyHermes is that they photograph the door of where the item is delivered too, but I agree with @goldcrest and @caughtatpoint in their references to Royal Mail - though Iād go one better: itās better than MyHermes by a long-shot, but thatās not saying much.
But do Ludkins always use MyHermes, or can you select a shipping return service? I mean did you use Ludkins?
@gen2whore , Royal Mail and Parcelforce may seem expensive or incompetent at times, but in over 4 years dealing with them both as a sender and receiver and with thousands of items sent through their services, my package loss rate is below 1%.
Also, in the very rare instances in which it happened, Royal Mail had a check sent to me within a week of me filling the claim for compensation. Just make sure you keep your proof of postage.
MyHermesā¦ Oh dear. I donāt think Iāve ever had a good experiance with them.Iāve never sent anything but receiving stuffā¦ Jeez. After seeing how they handle parcel no wonder everything arrives fooked.
Iām so sorry to hear that, but thanks for sharing. Shit can always happen but a State postal service is usually better imoā¦ Royal Mail is the way. If you need a faster service within Europe you can try also UPS, itās expensive but Iāve never had a problem with them (Iām in Italy).
Can confirm: MyHermes is an awful company. They work like another delivery company in the UK called Yodel which is also awful. Basically their drivers are āself employedā and simply get paid based on the number of items they deliver - this means they quite literally cram their vans/cars/whatever full of as many packages as they possibly can from the depot and aim to deliver them as quickly as humanly possible. This leads to packages going missing and being damaged all the time.
I once had an item marked as delivered even though I was home at the time and hadnāt received anything. I lived at 3 Cā¦ Road and when I contacted them they told me it had been delivered to 72 Mā¦ Street which was almost 2 miles away. They advised that the best thing I could do was go and pick it up myself - fortunately that building was an office which had a reception; the receptionist was just as confused as I was about why theyād been delivered this parcel - there had apparently been no other deliveries from MyHermes to them either, just that one parcel.
I would happily pay more to avoid using MyHermes or Yodel.
Yep Hermes are a total crock of shit, I understand a lot of people dont bother with insurance, but as you have found their exclusion list excludes every known man made item. There is also many videos on facebook of hermes drivers throwing hundreds of parcels from distance into a lorry and so on. I learnt early on and never use them, yodel is the only other company that is actually worse.
They donāt hide the above facts, its all in their small print. I just wish companies like them would go out of business, imagine if no one used them for example. However most cheap items on ebay are mass sent with hermes.
I did used to use them for small items when I started ebay but have totaly boycotted them now. I regularly had items delayed in postage, and every time it end in a lost parcel claim. Same story, they would try to contact depots then it would end up in saying sorry its lost. It either gets there in a few days or it goes missing.
Ive also had on a regular occasion, most purchased items on ebay are sent with hermes, and often get damaged. I tell the buyer, they say oh I paid for insurance and will open a claim bare with me. Then you hear nothing back and you can tell they have found out their insurance is not valid but decide to not tell you and blank you instead. So you have to open a ebay dispute and wait for the system to refund you.
Hermes literally are one of those things in the world that just provide no good
I have to use Hermes for my Ebay business as itās the closest parcel drop off point to my house that Iām able to use before or after work. The last 100 items Iāve sent with them - theyāve lost 3. I just have to absorb the hit. If however Iām sending items worth over 50 pounds I tend to find a way to use Royal Mail signed which Iāve used hundreds of times and theyāve only ever lost one thing Iāve sent.
