Thanks both - I am amused with the idea of getting back to Hermes.... maybe. They did seem to cave in very quickly - must be simpler in Scotland And I will ring the sherrif's court up - did try earlier, but nobody was around/they were busy on other calls. Thanks for all the advice on this group - it really helped me with the claim.

So, it went like this: I rejected Hermes offer of £26.69 saying: Arguments based on dates in the Hermes contract were unenforceable under UK consumer law I wanted the full value of my claim as per the simple procedure - £26.69 for the game and postage; £19 to cover the costs of simple procedure; interest calculated at the Sherrif Court standard rate Given this was down to the dishonesty and obstructive behaviour from Hermes, I wasn't interested in compromising I wanted confirmation of the payment date, as I expected interest to be paid every day up to that date. Got a very swift response offering me all that and confirming a payment date a few days later - Interest calculated at 8% per annum (which is what I believe the court standard rate is). I accepted and payment has gone through. So, once again, Hermes will fold if you stick to your guns. The fact that they try to deter you with their nonsense and make you take them to court is just awful. Never going to use them again. Interestingly, Hermes say their payment is a "gesture of goodwill" and also ask that I "inform the court that this matter has settled". Looking at the Simple Procedure Advice and the Civilonline system, I can find form 7a, but this seems to be applicable when the respondent (i.e. Hermes) admits the claim. I'm not sure they have "admitted" anything, so I'm not certain if or how I tell the court I've got my money.

I've never been through the Simple Procedure, so I don't know if mediation is a part of it - the help on the website implied you should try mediation *before* you start the Simple Procedure. The process must have kicked-off as Hermes "legal department" just emailed me with an offer of £26.69 in compensation (the usual "gesture of good will" tosh). However, there's no mention of my £19 fee for starting the Simple Procedure, so I assume they're hoping I won't realise that isn't included. I also believe the Sherriff's Court would add interest, at about 8%, but truthfully, that's going to be about 40p (though I'm not sure what period it would be applied to). I'm guessing my next step is to get back in touch and say their offer also needs to cover the £19 cost of initiating the Simple Procedure (and maybe also the addition of the interest), so it matches the outcome which the sheriff's court would reach.

I don't think this is particularly different from many of the sorry stories on this site, but will share in case it is of help/interest. I was sending a parcel (ebay sale - a boardgame worth £20) from Scotland to England. After it not moving for over 3 weeks, raised a support ticket with Hermes. The next day they said it was lost and pointed me at their claims form. Filled in the claim form (on 28th Sep) and on 27th Oct Hermes updated asking for proof of value etc. However, they didn't send a notification to me, so I didn't discover this until I logged in on 27/10 to chase them. Provided the required info, but they now state that as I didn't reply within 14 days, I've broken their T&Cs. As an aside, I do wonder if not sending you a notification email is a deliberate business practice so that they can then invoke their "14 days" rule to try to avoid liability. I replied stating that their 14 day rule was irrelevant and gave them 14 days before I started the small claims (as it's in Scotland, The Simple Procedure). No reply (in fact, they marked the ticket as resolved - looks like this was done by an automated process). So, I just submitted the SImple Procedure process online. It was very straightforward and cost £19. The only tricky bit was there's a statement around interest, but Citizens Advice suggested you could say you want the sheriff to "apply interest at the judicial rate". Thanks for all the advice and stories on this forum - it helped me understand they really are just a bunch of unethical chancers trying to scare you off. I'll provide updates once things have slowly moved forward.