Hermes brought in four UK workers to help during the busy December period, as they struggled to recruit local staff.
Drivers not knowing their way around Jersey have been blamed for packages being lost and delivered to the wrong addresses.
Dozens of Islanders have posted on the ‘Hermes Jersey unofficial question and query’ Facebook page, which was set up by Hermes to register complaints, including claims that the UK staff were not properly trained and they experienced failures with their GPS equipment.
In response, page administrator Suzanne Broadleday issued an apology and said that the UK couriers were ‘unfamiliar’ with local addresses, which had led to some parcels going ‘astray’.
It says: ‘We apologise that you haven’t been adequately advised as to the situation of your parcels but, as some of you are aware, we have had UK contractors over helping for the last three weeks.
‘Obviously they are not familiar with all the local addresses and some of your parcels have gone astray and emails sent in error.’
On the page, customer Margeret Vining said that she was ‘totally disgusted’ that non-local drivers with ‘no idea of the Island or the postcode system’ had been employed by Hermes.
‘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,’ she said.
‘BBC watchdog ran a story about Hermes in the UK in November and perhaps we should all forward our stories to them.’
In response to the post, Natasha Powell said that the UK staff should have received adequate training before starting work.
‘If they tried to hire locally, and couldn’t fill the positions, they should have notified all the companies that use Hermes to source a new courier company over this busy period,’ she said.
‘I think it is madness that these poor guys have been brought over to do a delivery job in an island they know absolutely nothing about. They haven’t been given any training or help with directions.
‘After speaking to a couple of them, they say their sat navs don’t work.’
An official Hermes statement says: ‘For us to continue to provide a good service to everyone in Jersey during the busy Christmas period, we have brought in four 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.’
