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Delivery giant Hermes has apologised after more than 100 islanders complained that their parcels had been delivered to wrong locations or gone missing altogether.
With Christmas gifts among those failed deliveries, many are now worried that ‘Santa’ won’t arrive on time this year.
The delivery issues come despite islanders being sent email and text notifications from the firm informing them that their parcels were either out for delivery or had indeed been delivered.
Despite receiving these from Hermes, which delivers on behalf of online retailer Amazon, some have reported waiting as long as a month with “no trace” of their items.
Pictured: Hermes delivers packages on behalf of Amazon.
One woman recalled: “I have had notification of a parcel delivered at 13.22 on November 30th. It says signed for by me but it is NOT my signature… I was at home all day on the 30th and not a soul came to my house.”
A local father reported that nine-out-of-ten of his Christmas deliveries had not turned up with around a week to go until the big day.
But even for those who have eventually received their parcels, there have been problems.
One local employee told Express she was concerned to receive a message stating that the ‘Secret Santa’ gift she had bought her colleague had been delivered to her “outside porch."
“We don't have one, it's just steps going to the door open to everyone in the street,” she explained of her security fears.
Pictured: Many are worried the gifts they've ordered won't come on time for Christmas.
Although many have already been reimbursed by Amazon or are currently seeking a refund, they say they are more concerned about not being able to give the Christmas gifts they had planned in time for the 25th.
A Facebook group called ‘Hermes Jersey unofficial question and query page’ has since been flooded by comments and questions from frustrated islanders.
There have been 200 posts in the past 30 days on the group, with 247 new members – each of whom needs to show proof of a tracking number before joining – being added to the group in the same period.
The local couriers that run the group, and who are usually responsible for Jersey-based deliveries, explained in a Facebook post to all those concerned that the problem coud be due to Hermes employing additional couriers from the UK.
The usual delivery process involves self-employed local couriers collect parcels from a depot and delivering within a certain area during varied working hours, but in this instance, external hires had been done to meet the Christmas demand.
Pictured: Hermes said that employing couriers from the UK was a temporary measure to meet demand.
However, the new recruits may not be familiar with Jersey, leading to some of the delivery difficulties, the local couriers explained.
Their post added that the local team had been “pulling their hair our with frustration” in not being able to help” resolve islanders’ queries because they had apparently been told “not to interfere” with their UK colleagues’ work.
One woman described herself as “totally disgusted with the situation caused by employing non-local drivers who have no idea of the island or the postcode system”.
“It looks as though this matter continues to escalate and many people have lost their parcels which are most likely Christmas gifts and will have to be purchased again… It’s just awful how [local couriers] are now going to get the blame for this debacle,” she added.
Hermes told Express that any issues caused would only be temporary, as the measure was only seasonal.
A spokesperson explained: “For us to continue to provide a good service to everyone on Jersey during the busy Christmas period, we have brought in 4 couriers from the UK. This is to help and support the existing couriers who are at full capacity and they have been fully integrated with the existing operation.
“This is purely a temporary, seasonal arrangement that we do every year, as we often struggle to recruit enough local people for these roles. As a result the vast majority of parcels are being delivered without any issues, however we apologise to anyone that may have experienced difficulties and ask them to contact us at socialmediasupport@hermes-europe.co.uk”
For those whose parcels haven't gone missing, Christmas Day could still come – but on the 27th.
On that date, local couriers said remaining parcels will be delivered back to them, at which point deliveries can be re-attempted.
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