MyHermes Stolen Parcel

[Swilson43]

Hi,

 

I sent a parcel via MyHermes containing an Electric Guitar,

MyHermes knew this was a guitar as I informed them of the contents and value before posting,

 

I dropped it off at the parcelshop and the last I ever heard of the parcel was it was scanned into my local depot,

 

I involved the police who said they couldn't do anything due to lack of evidence, but have suggested it's highly likely to have been stolen, but due to the item been on the excluded items list, they said I won't be able to get any compensation for a £500 item,

 

I've filed a court case and went through mediation with MyHermes who offered me a sum below £150, I politely declined the offer and said I'd rather carry on with the court proceedings, they also said to the mediation person that they're confident I don't have a leg to stand on in court and are happy to defend,

 

I want to know if this is the case?

will I lose in court?

surely they have to have broken some form of contract?

they just keep blaming me for sending the item

 

I don't know whether to contact MyHermes and see if they'll let me accept the offer if this is the case that it's highly likely I'll lose the court case,

 

Thanks

[BankFodder]

Well done on beginning a court case against Hermes. They need this kind of treatment. If you read around the forum, you will see the kind of antics they get up to in the way they try to wriggle out of their commitments.

 

Big fail on having begun the court case without knowing the steps and without understanding the arguments. This is a potentially dangerous thing to do and and especially that the County Court procedure is quite simple and well written about over the Internet, you really should have prepared your self and known what you are going to do.

 

However, we will help you.

 

Please will you post up your claim in PDF format. Have they responded with the defence? If they have then I expect it would be an approximately 32 page defence which is what they generally trot out in all of these matters.

 

It is extremely important that you declare the contents of the value of the package when you went into the contract. Presumably you have a written record of this.

 

Assuming that you do have a written record so that Hermes were appraised of the situation then it is difficult to see that they could ever defend on the basis that it was a have prohibited item.

 

However, one should also ask why do they include certain items on a prohibited item list. In the case of a musical instrument it is likely to be because of the risk of damage to the item because they considered that this is fragile. This would mean that Hermes might have a good argument if the situation was simply that the guitar was damaged. However, in this case the guitar has been lost. Clearly its fragility did not in any way affect the risk of the item being lost altogether. So in this respect also, it is reasonable to say that their list of excluded items i is not designed to protect them from the event which actually occurred i.e. the item disappeared.

 

I think you have an excellent chance of winning. I think it is entirely possible that Hermes will put their hands up once they're convinced that you're prepared to go to the hearing. As I have already said, it's about time they had a slap. Please post up your claim form in PDF and tell us about the defence. If it isn't too long and you can post that up too.

[Swilson43]

Hi, thanks for the reply, I'll post the PDF file asap,

 

I did do a lot of research before starting up the claim on how the court process works ect,

I had the arguments I was going to use against them,

such as breaching the duty of care for my parcel/negligence and failing to hold there end of the contract up to safely deliver my parcel.

 

But they have dismissed these arguments at the mediation and have said I don't have a leg to stand on, and they're confident that they're going to win the case,

 

I was hoping my arguments were good enough to use in court still,

I have evidence that I stated the contents/value of the parcel,

and they still chose to carry my parcel,

 

It seems like they're trying to convince me not to go to court by making out that I'm going to 100% lose the case,

Their defence was indeed a 32 page booklet of all their terms and conditions,

they filed an acknowledgement of service to begin with and stated that they were going to fully defend their claim.

[BankFodder]

Please will you post up with the evidence that you have that they were informed that it was a musical instrument and also the value

Did you pay extra did you pay anything extra for compensation for an item of that value?

[Swilson43]

 

I didn't pay for any additional cover, thanks

 

Did you receive the image BankFodder?

[dx100uk]

read upload to post images here

use PDF

[BankFodder]

Yes, I've seen the image showing that they had clear notice that it was a guitar and also the value. Please will you post up here in PDF format for everyone to see. Also, would like to see the claim form.

 

It's a shame that you agreed to go to mediation. Mediation is absolutely deprecated for this kind of thing. Hermes simply consider that this is an opportunity to try and dominate you and beat you down. Did they represent themselves or did they have some solicitors to do it? Who were the solicitors?

I have seen so far I guess your chances of success are much better than 90%. I suppose that you had better post up their defence as well so that we can see if it contains some nugget of a relevant argument. But we do need to see your claim – in PDF format as has already been asked.

 

Where are you now on this?

[Swilson43]

Sorry for the late reply,

 

Does this show the PDF claim form?

 

I wrote my claims particulars, I read it to the Citizens Advice employee who said it was fine to send and would do the job, I wish they'd have given me a bit more advice but they've told me their isn't much they can do now

 

MyHermes are representing themselves, they've hired no solicitors and are just defending themselves through their own legal department.

I don't have access to a scanner till Monday, so I won't be able to upload there defence until then, but it just states that they knew it was a guitar and it's value, but then they just referred to their own terms and conditions and said they are fully defending their claim, to which then follows is just their terms and conditions in booklet form from their website.

 

I only went through with mediation because I thought it would give them the chance to settle the claim, but as you said, they only used it to try and bully me into not going to court,

 

 

I hope this helps,

Thanks

Claimants claim form - MyHermes.pdf

[BankFodder]

Still waiting to see the defence please. He would be helpful if you would engage with this thread