A week or so ago I placed an order with my favourite porn kitchen store, Lakeland. I love their products and their service.
On Wednesday I had a card through my door from Hermes Delivery Service saying nothing but that they had missed me and would try again on Thursday. No phone number to call, despite there being a space for it on the card.
Thursday I was home for a good part of the morning but, alas, came home from picking Adam up from school and found another card from Hermes through my door. This one had a phone number and a name and, more or less, said if I didn’t get in touch they’d try one more time and then return it to the sender. I immediately rang the number, getting a generic answer phone rather than a specific one, asking them to re-deliver Friday afternoon, as I’d be out all morning.
Friday afternoon I get home to find a third Hermes delivery slip. This one said ‘Luckily your neighbour at number 15 was home and we don’t deliver to your area except in the morning.’ So my lovely neighbour had taken in my box and I finally got it.
And so I went looking for a way to complain to Hermes, not just for the lack of phone number the first time, but the tone of the final note. That is not good customer service. If a customer rings you and says ‘I can only be home in the afternoon.’ you say ‘Okay, then I’ll deliver in the afternoon.’
However, if you go to the Hermes website you learn something. You learn that all Hermes drivers are contractors. And that they have no complaints procedure. Really?
So I went to MyHermes, made up a tracking number, as it wouldn’t let me fill in the form with out it, and made my complaint that way.
I also told them I would be contacting the vendor to let them know how unhappy I was with their delivery and to suggest they find a better company.
I received replies from both companies today.
Lakeland fell all over themselves apologizing and assuring me they would speak to their delivery firm and they hoped I’d give them another chance. Which, of course, I will. They are the Good.
Hermes fell all over themselves blaming the driver and explaining that they are trained but are on their own beyond that but they’d try to speak to them. The Bad.
Here’s the thing. I have a voice. I have a computer. I have a Twitter. Granted, Hermes has no social media presence that I can find, although if you search Twitter from them you’ll find hundreds of complaints. There is one local Hermes franchise delivery page on Facebook but nothing for the general company.
But I will be hash tagging this as Hermes and @LakelandUK.
So people will know: Lakeland is The Good. And Hermes is The Bad.
And Hermes? It’s time to come into the 21st Century, improve your service, and use the internet. I know a really great company that could help you…