Hermes!

[vandersar125]

Unfortunately I recently trusted Hermes to deliver a parcel to an Amazon distribution centre with about 28 books in it. I am a bookseller and i sell on Amazon.

 

Hermes have lost the parcel and I fully expect them to offer me 0 refund or nowhere near what I would receive for selling them.

 

Where do I stand with claiming compensation for the expected selling price of the books. I probably paid around £100 for them in total but would expect to sell them for around 4 times this.

Any help greatly appreciated.

[vandersar125]

The situation is fluid - I've now been told (after a 28 minute wait on the phone)  it was damaged as opposed to lost but that the Coventry depot is currently doing a sweep to find the parcel. Ideally I will get the parcel back and resend with parcel force and forget this whole mess. I booked with Hermes, took out their basic £20 insurance and declared the value to be £200 worth of books. Some of the books I can show purchase for, some I can't aside from shop receipts showing as a book.

[vandersar125]

Thank you I'll let you know and make sure I donate when this is all over

[vandersar125]

So Hermes have replied offering me £27. I claimed £200 but their online form didn't work properly so I couldn't add all of the receipts showing every single book's worth. I have requested several times that they resend the form but they haven't. Should I now ask them again to resend the form or begin other proceedings?

[vandersar125]

This is their email

 

Hi ,
 We are getting in touch about your recent claim.
 We’re happy to tell you that we’ve accepted your claim for £29.92 including the postage cost.

 So we can make the payment, please send us your bank sort code, account number and your name as it appears on your bank account.

 Please don’t give us your long card number as we don’t need this to make your payment.

 Once we’ve got your details we’ll make the payment, this will take around 14 working days

......

 

When sent the parcel I valued it at £200 (this was a quick guess based on what I paid for the books)

 

On the claim form I claimed £169.92

- this was precise and is backed-up with receipts but nowhere near the resale value.

 

Hermes' website wouldn't let me add more than 1 receipt, I emailed explaining this to them and requesting a new form twice (no reply) 

 

My best guess is that the £29.92 represents the postage + the basic £20 cover

 

 

[vandersar125]

Hi 

I don't have an issue going all the way - The only question I would have would be whether I could expect to recover the resale value or whether it would be best to concede this is unlikely. I can prove to some extent the expected resale value but not as readily as the prices originally paid. 

[vandersar125]

So

I informed Hermes I would give them one last chance to reconsider and received this 

 

Thank you for contacting Hermes.

First of all, I am sorry that the parcel was lost.

 

Please be advised we deliver millions of parcel a day and sometimes things go wrong in the system and parcels do go missing. This is why we have a compensation process, to help our customer financially.

 

When booking your parcel you opted for our standard £20 compensation, meaning that is the maximum amount we can pay along with  postage. I understand that this is not the outcome you had wished for, but we are unable to offer more compensation related to this parcel. As a gesture of goodwill however, I would like to offer £5 on top of the £29.92 originally offered.

 

 So we can make the payment, please send us your bank sort code, account number and your name as it appears on your bank account.

 

Please don’t give us your long card number as we don’t need this to make your payment.

 Once we’ve got your details we’ll make the payment, this will take around 14 working days.

 If you have any further question, please let me know.

 

So - My last question before I proceed is does the fact I chose standard compensation actually limit me to standard compensation? 

[vandersar125]

As far as i can see - there is no option to remove the free compensation. I've been back on their website and been through the process of booking a parcel and there are only 2 options: free compensation as standard or extra compensation with an additional fee. 

[vandersar125]

Thanks - Could you please direct me to a letter of claim template and the address to send it.

[vandersar125]

Thanks I appreciate your time

How does this sound?

 

On FRIDAY 29^TH May I used your service to send a parcel under the above reference number.
The parcel did not arrive at the destination and after several exchanges with your customer service staff, I was told that the item was lost.

I was also told that I would not be entitled to full compensation for my items despite having provided you with receipts for these items as I had only opted for the standard £20 compensation. I did not opt for this compensation – as you will know, there is no option to decline this basic cover when scheduling a parcel. Furthermore, it is grossly unfair for a consumer to have to insure against your negligence and contrary to the unfair terms provisions in the Consumer Rights Act.

I'm quite sure that you are fully aware that any term you might have in your contract which relies on customers having insurance against your negligent handling of their items causing them to be lost is an unfair term and is unenforceable.

I notice that you systematically rely on such terms to deprive your customers of the correct compensation and effectively to protect you from the consequences of your negligent handling of your customers’ sent items.

If you force this to a court hearing – you can be certain that I shall be producing evidence from many different sources to show that you systematically lose parcels and decline liability on spurious grounds which are unfair and unenforceable.

The contents of my parcel were worth £160. There was also the cost of the postage which was £9.92. The full amount I am claiming is therefore £169.92. You may email me at ____________ in order to arrange this payment.

If I do not have reimbursement in full within 14 days then I shall issue a claim in the County Court to recover this money from you plus interest and without any further notice.

Yours faithfully

_____

 

For the benefit of posterity

Most recent response from Hermes following emailed letter of claim (I will be sending hard copy too)

 

Hi _____,

I'm sorry you are unhappy with the settlement amount presented to you.

 

As you know we are a self-serve company, however we do everything we can to encourage our customers to check the compensation. We prompt our customers on three separate occasions to check that they are happy with this, and then ask them to confirm they understand and agree to our T&C's.

 

It is the responsibility of the shipper to select an appropriate amount of cover for their parcel, as this was not done you accepted the risk of not being paid out the full value of the parcel in the event of a claim.

 

We understand that this is not the outcome you were expecting and apologise for any and all inconveniences caused.

 

 So we can make the payment of £34.92 as offered, please send us your bank sort code, account number and your name as it appears on your bank account.

 

Please don’t give us your long card number as we don’t need this to make your payment.

 

Once we’ve got your details we’ll make the payment, this will take around 14 working days.

If you have any further question,

 

please let me know.

 

[vandersar125]

So, to update, I posted out the letter of claim on the 14th July which has been received and presumably binned by Hermes.

 

I'm a little concerned after having read a previous thread (linked underneath) which seems to be very similar to mine in the way that the claimant lost based on a Judge's interpretation of the consumer rights act.

 

Are there any other similar cases/threads which show the claimant has won?

It seems to me that Hermes tend to buckle when they try to defend their prohibited items clause but I can't see any evidence of them conceding when it is based on their contract only providing £20 insurance.

 

It would be nice to see whether anyone has won a similar case.

 

Am I correct in assuming that I should issue court papers on the 29th and keep my claim form succinct?