East Lothian shopper tells how Hermes left her husband's Christmas present in a pile of leaves and forged her signature

Sales manager "horrified" after her signature was forged

STRESSED shoppers have told how botched parcel deliveries are risking ruining Christmas in Edinburgh.

One buyer told the Evening News how her signature was clumsily forged and her husband’s gift left in a pile of leaves doors away from their East Lothian home.

Others have taken their frustrations out by posting exasperated experiences with German delivery firm Hermes online.

Tina Evans tracked the parcel online

Sales manager Tina Evans, 52, said: “I’m disappointed at their service and horrified that someone’s forged my signature.

“I was tracking it online and it kept saying it was on its way and then that it had been delivered but it hadn’t.

“I was thinking I was going to have to find another Christmas gift for my husband.”

The package and handwritten note from her neighbour

Hermes’ online tracker confirmed the firm had received Mrs Evans’ parcel last Wednesday night, with a further message pledging further updates.

A third declared it was being processed before a fourth stated: “We've got your parcel and it’s on its way but a road closure is slowing us down. We'll get it to you as soon as we can.”

Into Friday, and confirmation the parcel was at the local depot and then that it was on its way.

Two more messages that day promised delivery attempts between 4pm and 8pm and then between 5pm and 9pm but still nothing arrived.

Another shopper told how her parcel was left stuffed between two bins

Then came the message: “There's been a slight delay with your delivery, we'll get your parcel to you as soon as possible.”

Into Saturday and the pledge “your parcel is on its way to you today” and then a further message promising a “friendly local courier” will try to deliver between 2pm and 6pm.

Again no sign of the parcel before a message on Saturday evening which read: “There's been a slight delay with your delivery, we'll get your parcel to you as soon as possible. Check back again in the morning for an update!”

“Everytime I get a delivery from Hermes, it never goes smoothly”

Yet Sunday came and went with no updates before a now all-too-familiar pledge on Monday lunchtime of “your parcel is on its way to you today.”

A further message promised again a friendly local courier would try try to deliver between 5pm and 9pm.

Finally, a message shortly before 4.30pm on Monday triumphantly declared: “Your parcel has been delivered and signed for at the delivery address.”

Yet there was no sign of it at Mrs Evans’ East Linton home and the signature on the tracker bore no resemblance to Mrs Evans’ or her husband’s.

Some 24 hours passed before an elderly neighbour hand-delivered it with a note reading “found in the leaves” outside her home.

Mrs Evans said: “There’s no obvious contact details online for Hermes which doesn’t make it very easy and I hadn’t got time to keep chasing them.

“My neighbour hadn’t noticed the parcel at first because it wasn’t in an obvious place on the doorstep.”

Personal assistant Lisa White said she spent over an hour on the phone chasing her last Hermes delivery before it eventually arrived up to 48 hours later.

“Everytime I get a delivery from Hermes, it never goes smoothly,” said the 27-year-old from Leith.

“I couldn’t get through to a human being on the phone and I’d paid £4.99 for next-day delivery.

“It happened to a friend too. She got a picture saying it’d been delivered and put between two wheelie bins on a street she hadn’t seen before - it was £90 worth of clothes.

“It’s really stressful. There are memes online of people posting crying faces when they realise it’s Hermes and their parcel doesn’t turn up or it’s late.”

Hermes have been contacted for comment.