Hermes destroyed my parcel, and wont compensate because its on their non compensation list **WON**

[mynamenotjeff]

Hi all

Being the fool that I am i thought in would use hermes to return an amazon parcel (being a poor student and having a hermes parcelshop nearby).

Used next day insured upto £300 delivery and was meant to be delivered saturday.
Got a notification on that day saying parcel delivery failed contact sender. With me being the sender i was confused, so i called them today (Monday), and they tell me the parcel was damaged and had to be disposed of. I cant see how this happened as I double boxed and insulated it.

Also it was a £700 laptop, so you can imagine my anger when they told me this.
The person on the phone told me to submit a claim form but i already know it isnt gonna be accepted because laptops are excluded from their compensation.

Their email and live chat service is awful and im sick of being on hold for 40 min at a time.

Thinking small claims but before i get all excited thought i would ask for some advice from you good people

 

Ive already read through a few different cases but ive also been in contact with santander (my bank) who asked me to provide proof it was destroyed and they would dispute on my behalf

[BankFodder]

It probably wasn't damaged. It was probably stolen and then logged as damaged and then destroyed - but in fact somebody has got a nice new laptop.

You returned this item to Amazon. Who organised the return? Was this done with an Amazon generated label – or did you make your own arrangements?

[mynamenotjeff]

this will probably make you laugh, made me laugh. 

A couple months ago bough some airpods, and i returned them back to amazon a couple days after coz i didnt like them. Amazon organised a collection via hermes, and they were "lost". Waited 2 weeks and several annoyed calls later and finally amazon caved in and refunded me. This time, i specifically asked amazon if i could do it myself and they said yeah. So i did (last time i used hermes dropoff it was actually great, i returned something and it was perfect). So this time i thought thatd be better. Insured it and everything. So short answer is i did it myself haha

[BankFodder]

Thank you. Big Fail, then. If you had left it to Amazon then Amazon would have been responsible.

Do you have it in writing that it was damaged and then destroyed?

You need to go through the claims process with Hermes. Hopefully they will confirm that it was damaged and then destroyed. They told you in a phone call I understand – and I suppose you don't record your calls. You won't to read our customer services guide

[mynamenotjeff]

yep i rang hermes up again and got them to say in an email that it was damaged and destroyed. Just concerned that the claim wont get anywhere since they exclude laptops. even the guy on the phone was fairly certain i was wasting my time and made sure to tell me

[BankFodder]

Okay was it declared as a laptop – and what was the declared value?

[mynamenotjeff]

yeah i couldnt declare it as anything else was as laptop as laptops get, the refund was meant to be £710

[BankFodder]

It's not clear what you're saying. You declared as a laptop. You're not saying what the declared value was. Earlier on you talk about it being insured to £300.

 

[mynamenotjeff]

sorry, the laptop was only insured upto a value of £300 as that was the maximum hermes would allow me to do. However the actual value of it is £710 and thats what amazon wouldve refunded me had it arrived. On the claims form i declared it as a laptop as it asked what sort of item it was 

[BankFodder]

So you declared it as £300 value. Is this correct?

 

You say you're a student. What you studying? Don't tell me you are studying law… Please.

[mynamenotjeff]

No i dont think so, i assume you are referring to when paying for postage, hermes ask the value of the item. Here i put £710. I only say it was insured upto £300 as the extra insurance i paid for only covers upto a max of £300. So no, i declared its price as what it was and paid for the insurance

 

Haha i wish i was studying law, make my life way easier. Nah i study medicine, so when it comes to stuff like this im useless hahaha

[BankFodder]

Okay. You should start reading around the Hermes stories on the sub- forum. You will find references to the various things that I've been asking you about – including declared value – and you will start to understand why it's important to know this.

You will also find out about our position on insurance and why it's unfair. And also there have been two recent cases one involving a good cheap a and another one on going involving a diamond engagement ring where we are referring to the tort of conversion. This tort can only be considered when an item is apparently damaged and then Hermes going to destroy it.

It's very important that you read around and understand the cases and the principles which are being discussed there. It's also important that you understand how these Hermes claims normally go – route they take which definitely involves starting a County Court claim. You will have to do this if you want to have any chance of getting your money back. The chances of getting your money back are good.

You keep getting very pessimistic about the things that you are told by Hermes – I love the innocence of people who listen to what Hermes staff tell them and then believe it. Bless!

 

You should also start reading up about taking a small claim in the County Court. It's pretty straightforward but it's worth understanding the steps in advance. You will be confident as you go through and you will become more self-reliant. This forum is about empowerment – not about spoon feeding

When you read around thoroughly, then come back here and will start to take you to the next stage.

 

[mynamenotjeff]

Perfect, I hope it made sense what I said about the declared value. i attached a screenshot, this is where i put the £710 value

Ill have a look around and get back to you soon. Ive already done a bunch of research, I feel like i just need prodding in the right direction so i dont screw up. Thanks in advance tho 

[dx100uk]

just type stop hitting quote please...

[mynamenotjeff]

Ok sorry

[mynamenotjeff]

Just been reading through a couple of the hermes cases, actually pretty interesting reads! The tort of conversion route seems like the most logical option in my case, as its quite similar to the gucci handbag case. The declared value was definitely £710 so that particular detail shouldn’t hinder anything. I feel pretty confident about the small claims process, theres a few decent templates out there. One thing that i am a little lost on is what an SAR is. I understand there is a thread, but is it just asking hermes what actually happened to the parcel? in this case anyway

[BankFodder]

Well if you follow the SAR link, you should learn a great deal.

You find that this forum is plastered with links and they are all there to be followed

[mynamenotjeff]

Ok i think I got it, just asking for personal information under GDPR regulations. In this case i presume its me asking what happened to my laptop.

What would be the next step?

[BankFodder]

I don't think nsar is it all relevant to you.

I think you still got more reading to go because otherwise you would know what the next step is.

I asked you in a previous post what you were studying but I didn't get any reply

 

 

 

[mynamenotjeff]

sorry, i edited my reply because i saw it late. Im a medical student, albeit not a very studious one but i try my best.

I would assume a letter of claim would be the best course of action if im doing this then. 

Sorry if im a little slow, spent most of my weekend revising (have an exam on wednesday) so im pretty knackered haha

Am i correct in saying i would post the letter of claim to their head office, which would be their leeds address?

[BankFodder]

Why don't we let it go for the moment. Revise for your exam and then have a couple of days off and we will sort it out next weekend.

i think that is much the best thing to do. There is no hurry it won't make any difference.

don't take this as a lack of interest or anything. It simply that they shouldn't be the highest thing in your priorities and the end result of your claim will be the same either way. Although you probably will get your money back if you stand your ground.

 

I'm going to close this thread in order to remove temptation from you and after you have finished your exam may be on Friday then click the report button at the bottom of this post and ask for the thread to be reopened

 

 

[mynamenotjeff]

Hi, hope everyone's had a good week. Got the next month off on holiday so hopefully with all your help I can make some decent progress on this. I guess from what i've gathered about similar cases, next step is a letter of action addressed to the leeds HQ. Is there anything in particular that needs to be done before this, or any other information that you need from me regarding this?

[BankFodder]

Okay, on the basis that you declared the correct value – £710, I would recommend that the easiest way to go is to sue them for breach of contract – failing to deliver correctly the laptop of that value.

However I would suggest that you put in a reference to the tort of conversion so that if it did go to court, hopefully the judge will issue some remarks about that element of it as well.

When you're ready and you are sure that you want to go ahead, then please post up a draft letter of claim

[mynamenotjeff]

Thanks for this, ive attached a pdf of my draft. Left out my name and the date as ill add them in when needed

Not the best at english so any adjustments please let me know

Letter of Claim.pdf

[mynamenotjeff]

Just another detail i thought id ask about. I started the formal claims process with hermes and still haven't heard anything back. Should I wait until i get a response before posting the letter of claim?