Confused of Essex

We are expecting a parcel on next day delivery via DHL

It hasn't arrived so I check on their Parcel Site with the consignment number

The flowchart at the top of the page reports it is at their "sortstation facility"

Beneath that the table reports it is delayed

Underneath that "We are sorry but we don't have your consignment from the sender yet"

How can it be at the sortstation facility if they don't have it

I had a Hermes delivery that they picked up in Hatfield, Herts and tracking said it had gone to Basildon, Essex for delivery. That's 70 miles in the totally opposite direction to us, as we're 150 miles north west of Hatfield. That put paid to 1 day delivery.

We had two from M&S via Hermes. Both arrived within the notified time slot, however the text telling us when that would be arrived after the delivery.

We always get same guy from Hermes, can't remember  his name but the text tells me he likes cinema and cooking as if that matters to me. Always get text that it will be between 12 and 2 and it always is.

Hermes have a pretty rubbish reputation, I have never used them myself only had deliveries via them.

I do wonder if the parcels system for all these companies is just a little overstretched at the moment. We sent a parcel to Canada a couple of weeks ago, UPS. It went to Heathrow where it was rejected because the customs forms were not typed (that's a new one on me) and the items although specified and listed did not show the country of manufacture. Seems EU was not acceptable it had to be the actual country.

After a delay the parcel left and tracking went straight to Toronto on its way to Vancouver. Inexplicably from there it went to Chicago (USA) where it was rejected again by customs because the forms were incorrect and a duty was charged! It then went back to Vancouver where it was again held in customs and import duties imposed. Why it went to the USA where a duty was imposed when it was already in Canada goodness knows.

The recipient had to pay all the duties, wow, whatever was in the package to cause all that!

Our grand daughters birthday present of a dress and a cheap necklace plus four Easter eggs for the other grandchildren. Customs charged nearly 75% of the value of the parcel which was less than £50 to begin with

Queried it with UPS, " Nothing to do with us, the recipient will have to contact customs directly" Great help and service.

Have sent hundreds of parcels and never had a problem like this before!