Channel 4 investigation catches Hermes couriers sending customers' 'missing' packages straight to AUCTIONEERS to sell despite being labelled with correct addresses

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It is the second biggest delivery company in the UK, shipping 400million packages a year.

But it has been revealed that Hermes has been sending parcels directly to an auction house despite having the correct delivery details for the intended customers.

In tonight's episode of Channel 4 show, Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back, the comedian and his team investigate several missing parcels and find that they are being sold at an auction house in Birmingham.

According to the show, a delivery schedule said that Hermes dropped parcels off at JBiddle and Webb auctioneers three or four times a week.

Joe Lycett and his team in Channel 4's Joe Lycett's Got Your Back discovered that Hermes were sending parcels directly to auction, despite them having the correct delivery details 

The team went to the ‘lost in transit’ auction four times during October 2019 and December 2019 and found that 60 per cent of the items up for sale came from Hermes.

Delivery companies can sell items but can only do so after a reasonable amount of time and effort has gone in to track down and contact rightful owners.

However, in the episode, the team find packages with clear address labels on, as well as parcels with dates showing they were only sent three or four weeks earlier.

Some even had sender information on and could therefore have been returned to the owner.

Pictured: crates with packages from various delivery companies at the auction house awaiting the lost in transit sale – the yellow crates contain Hermes products

One company that had been affected was Premium dog bed company, Barka Parka.

Ten per cent of their packages sent via Hermes were lost during May and September last year - which was over £1,000 of orders.

In June, the business complained to Hermes after a £142 dog bed was never sent to the intended customer, but they said the order could not be found and that they could only claim £20 compensation.

Just weeks later, the dog bed was found on Ebay with the customers delivery note in one of the photographs on the site and it was later discovered the bed had been bought at an auction house.

Pictured: The crates with packages from various delivery companies at the auction house awaiting the lost in transit sale – the yellow crates contain Hermes products

Following the investigation, Hermes paid back more than £1,000 to Barka Parka, as well as giving compensation to other customers whose complaints the programme had passed on to Hermes.

Hermes told the programme: 'We have a full-time team checking every parcel to ensure it's delivered or returned to the sender.

‘There may be occasional errors and we apologise for these exceptions. We keep all parcels for 28 days before sending them to auction, and only send a tiny percentage of deliveries to auction, and every time we do, we lose money as a result.

‘The auction house says numerous staff check every item before it goes on sale to ensure there’s no identifying information. They apologise and are retraining and re-staffing.'

The programme's team found that Hermes were delivering parcels to auction three to four times a week (pictured, a company van on the way to the auctioneers)

A statement from Biddle and Webb read: ‘We began in 1958 and operate nationally with a client base of PLCs, retailers, the police, national parcel carriers, small and medium size businesses and the general public.

‘We pride ourselves in our high levels of security and diligence in all the goods auctions that we are responsible for.

‘Our services for Hermes include providing an additional check for information that could identify the sender or recipient of any item we receive from them.

One of the Hermes package labelled with clear address labels on that hadn’t been delivered and had been sent direct to the auction house

Other parcels found in the auctioneering house having been delivered by Hermes featured both the address and a return address 

‘In fact, each item is checked by numerous members of our team before going to auction. Hermes has effective processes and almost always sends items for auction that are truly unidentifiable and undeliverable.

‘On the rare occasion we find identifying information, we return the item to Hermes so it can be delivered.

‘We apologise to Hermes for any that we have missed and to any of their clients that have been affected. We are undergoing a process of retraining and re-staffing to address these issues for Hermes.’

Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back airs tonight at 8pm on Channel 4.