Metropol

The merging of these two businesses clearly didn't go well, although their price point was good enough for major chains to use their 'service' which is frankly the worst of the lot. They once delivered a PC smashed up here.

I would suggest that myHermes is actually the worst courier service out there, for the simple reason that if you miss your delivery you could end up not getting your parcel at all as it is essentially down to the courier's discretion as to whether they are contactable.

As they are using their own phones rather than being issued with company phones, they are not required to give a phone number on the missed delivery card and many do not so you cannot necessarily contact the courier to rearrange delivery. They will try twice more on later days but if all attempts are unsuccessful (maybe because you're at work or your doorbell doesn't work etc) then the parcel will be sent back to the depot. But as there is no public collection service at their depots, an undelivered item will just be sent straight back to the sender with no opportunity for the receiver to collect it first.

Their online chat support is pointless in that all the advisers do is refer you to standard information, they cannot (or claim that they cannot) either contact the couriers or their depot.

We had a wonderful encounter with MyHermes last year, when we ordered something from Amazon, we were away for a few days and when we came back the courier had pushed it behind the dustbin, where it could have been stolen, plus it rained and was soaking wet and ruined. Thankfully Amazon sent out a replacement free of charge (via a different service), but that's beyond the point.

I've always had relatively good service with MyHermes, though it's very much a postcode lottery. I've had issues with them at times, but they are sometimes by far the best option taking everything into account.

(EDIT: All the local Hermes couriers have mobile numbers on their cards. I believe at least one will also deal with people via Facebook)

Yodel are consistently crap in my experience. Missed deliveries, pretending to have made delivery attempts, silly timings for deliveries for businesses... the list goes on.

DPD are usually pretty good; Amazon's own delivery can be hit and miss; DX always seem to be rather good.

UKMail? Let's just say they managed to lose a rather large item, and took months to pay the compensation. 99% of the time, though, they were OK.

Years ago, so long I can't remember if they were called HDNL or Yodel, I had an Xbox delivered to my student residence. The courier pushed a bit of paper through the door saying they had delivered the parcel to "bin". I can only presume they put it in the wheely bin which was out on the kerb ready for collection....

To add insult to injury, they signed for the parcel as "SQUIRELS" (my surname is Squires).

Amazon had the parcel redelivered using CityLink, who did their usual trick of driving right past the house without stopping, then demanded I go to their warehouse on some far-away industrial estate inaccessible via public transport to pick up the parcel. I don't miss those guys at all.

I'm quite lucky in that I now live in a detached property with an enclosed front porch and several other places a parcel could be securely left, really does take the faff out of it. Parcel Force have proved least reliable for me recently - and frequently collecting parcels from them involves going to the Post Office which is a task I always loathe.

Citylink were pretty decent for me in London, same with DPD, MyHermes and UKMail.

I miss the old DHL domestic courier service though, it was the best of lot here, Amazon a close second.

This photo, shamelessly stolen from a local Facebook group, shows the Bunnings in Walthamstow - as of this week, a Homebase again.

No expense spared then.

Found this tweet of St Albans, which was one of the first group -

Looks shocking.

WillPS wrote: Tue 24 Jul, 2018 16.47 No expense spared then.

Found this tweet of St Albans, which was one of the first group -

Looks shocking.

I presume that's how they were layed out as Bunnings, they've just replaced the signs? Does look pretty awful and messy, no wonder Bunnings wasn't a success.

Poundworld's store in Hull's King Edward Street closed yesterday - they only had Christmas and Halloween decorations and sunglasses left - and the one on Whitefriargate (which had a bit more variety of stock, I bought 10 250ml bottles of Irn Bru from there today, at 20p each) closes tomorrow.

House of Fraser's future now thought to rely on a merger with Debenhams, brokered by everyone's favourite tosser Mike Ashley:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45031987

or Uncle Phil as I use to call him at EWM Group