Hermes "Lost" eBay £336 Lego Star Wars item, court claim raised. **WON AT MEDIATION**

[Droony19]

The mediation went ahead in the first week of January and I was surprised at how confrontational the mediator was.  The call started on time and as usual I was asked to briefly explain the situation which was pretty standard.  Item posted using Hermes – item never made it from pick up to depot, Hermes deny any responsibility.  I was asked if I understood the mediation process and to confirm that I agreed to compromise. 

 

I said I was happy to participate and that by way of compromise I would be happy to forgo the interest – but that I was looking for the full verified value of the item (sold price plus postage minus the £27 unilaterally paid by Hermes).  I went through the reasoning explaining the unfairness of the policy whereby the customer is asked to take out insurance to protect Hermes from its own negligence and criminality etc. and sat back waiting for the mediator to respond saying she would now speak to Hermes. 

 

She didn’t.

 

She explained that this wasn’t a compromise, that mediation does not work like this and that she was ending the call and that I should now continue through the court.  I insisted that she puts my offer to Hermes but she refused.  I then knocked 10p from my demand which she could then not argue was a compromise and which forced her to communicate with Hermes. 

 

I was on the call for about 30 minutes – I’ve read on here that others have ended the call and been rung back several times – I was placed on hold briefly during the mediators exchange with only a minute or so between interactions.  The frustrating thing is that every demand I made was immediately accepted by Hermes and it was the mediator who was the obstacle – at one point she even advised me that Hermes had no obligation to pay the costs and that I shouldn’t press for that.  I ended up negotiating it up to £350 which is £18 short of the total claimed; but to be honest I was past caring at that point.

 

It is of note that Hermes exploited every deadline and have made the process as long as possible.  I had to provide them with my bank details within 5 hours and they then had two weeks to make the payment which they did on day 14.  I’m happy with the outcome and that I forced them to pay but it’s frustrating that a company is obviously training their staff to treat their customers with such obvious contempt. 

 

I will never use them again and have already bought something on-line from a company but only on the proviso that they don’t use their usual shipping solution (Hermes) – to which they agreed.

 

Thanks for the great work on this forum and to all who are taking action against Hermes – keep it up!!

[dx100uk]

Well done CAG

 

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Dx

 

 

[BankFodder]

Well done. The mediator is wrong about the costs and it is disgraceful that you were put under pressure like this.

If I were you I would find a complaints number for the mediation service and make a complaint against this mediator. It seems to me that she was completely out of order.

 

And as my site team colleague is pointed out, please do consider a donation. We have bills to pay and lots of people to help