Terrible service.

I booked the service for a pick up of machinery. Whilst the courier itself turned up in the wrong van, damaged my machine beyond repair and then sent me a surcharge of £70 for an audit which incorrectly found the package over weight, I am more upset with the way Parcel Hero have dealt with the complaint.

Having paid for £200 compensation, I followed their reporting/complaints process to the letter. They flatly refused to process the claim as they said courier assessed machine to be incorrectly packaged. I asked for evidence of this - no evidence provided just the courier's say so. How can you ever make a claim if this is the case? Moreover, my machinery was dropped from height bending a 15mm steel rod - no packaging would have prevented that. Terrible.

Response from ParcelHero.com:

At the time of the customer's initial appeal, we thoroughly reviewed the images sent by him. Unfortunately, looking at the images he supplied, we do not believe that the protection offered by the packaging he used met the minimum criteria given on our site.
At the time the customer booked his shipment and selected enhanced cover he was shown a text box explaining the cover does not include: ‘Goods not packaged in accordance with our labelling and packaging criteria’.
The shipment was of machinery and weighed 60kg. Looking at our criteria, we state items over 40kg need to be shipped using a rigid wooden box or pallet. While the customer correctly used a pallet, he did not follow the instructions to use ‘adequate cushioning material, and completely fill the box with packaging material, so there is no movement or space inside the box.’
Our packaging criteria also states, ‘If you're sending large fragile items such as electronic equipment or machinery, the product should be fully suspended inside the box, using moulded polystyrene that’s specifically moulded to the product you’re shipping.’
Regrettably, the photographs we received do not show any kind of packaging other than a polythene sheet, which would not protect the item on its journey. We did ask the customer to supply any further supporting evidence that the item was correctly packaged, but so far, we have not received any further information.
We strongly advise all senders to follow the packaging instructions given on our site to both protect their items and to ensure their enhanced cover is valid if they opt to take it.
(Reviewed May 2021)

Booked a collection and the parcel was not picked up. Was advised to rebook, did so and no collection. Refund not received and was charged for the cancellation

Response from Parcel Hero:

Having reviewed this case, unfortunately it seems that there were two failed collections by the customer’s chosen carrier.

• The customer booked a Hermes collection and delivery service via our website.
• Unfortunately, the collection failed on the 30th December, 2020.
• The customer then rebooked the collection, again using Hermes, for the 5th January, 2021.
• Sadly, Hermes again failed to collect the item.
• Our Customer Services team then advised the customer that, as an alternative, he could take his parcel to a local drop-off point. This would eliminate any problems with the collection.
• The customer then requested we cancel the booking, which normally incurs a cancellation fee.
• By way of a goodwill gesture, this fee was waived and a full refund was processed on the 12th January, 2021
(Reviewed January 2021)

Collection and delivery was as arranged, but 2 weeks later contacted us with a bogus 'volumetric weight' dispute and said they WOULD TAKE a nearly double the original payment for a 6.56kg difference. Their own numbers didn't even add up to the service we'd purchased. Impossible to contact and will be avoiding in future.


Business Response:
"ParcelHero is extremely sorry that a significant invoicing error resulted in our asking our customer for payment of a sum considerably in excess of the small surcharge that should have been requested. The error was introduced after a carrier's weight correction triggered an incorrect charge in our system. We have apologised directly to our customer, refunded him for the entire invoice in question and have also placed a £25.00 credit on his ParcelHero account for any future shipments he may wish to send.
We have entirely reviewed our carrier weight correction surcharge processes and systems following this case, and we also now implement additional checks on all invoices before they are issued to any customers, to ensure we never have a repeat of this incident.
We would like to point out that we did not, at any point, debit our customer's card for this surcharge. Our customer disputed the invoice; and we worked alongside him to ascertain the correct audited dimensions. No additional payment was ever taken from our customer, as we never take payment from a customer if the invoice is in dispute until all parties are happy the case is resolved.
ParcelHero ships over 200,000 parcels a year across the world. We pride ourselves on the service we offer, and we are passionate about customer care. We very much value feedback and continually strive to improve our offering. We are mortified that this significantly incorrect payment request was ever issued, and we have taken significant steps to ensure there can never be a repeat."
(Reviewed July 2019)

lost my parcel - AVOID USING THEM
lost my parcel, doesn't respond, hiding behind an uncontactable company. wait weeks for any kind of contact, shocking service (Reviewed May 2018)

Attempt to strongarm customers into taking further payment for parcel deliveries by using bogus 'volumetric' weight calculations not described in the parcel shipping purchase process.

Illegal, inconvenient and immoral. (Reviewed July 2017)