Barrow-upon-Soar villagers report missing Hermes parcels

Kate Drew was told her parcels had been left in the porch - but she doesn't have a porch

More than 50 residents in a village received notifications their parcels had been delivered when a courier had in fact left them in his vehicle.

The packages were all being handled by delivery company Hermes.

More than 20 residents in Barrow-upon-Soar shared their woes online when they realised they had all been told the parcel was "in the porch" on Wednesday.

Hermes said 63 deliveries had been affected by "poor performance" from a courier it no longer employed.

It added all missing parcels had been retrieved and were being redelivered.

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Kate Drew, who lives in the Leicestershire village, said: "I had the same email everybody else in the village had at 17:55 to say they had left my parcel in the porch, which would be a good trick because I don't have a porch.

"The tracking document said it was delivered yesterday at 23:00 and signed for. I was in bed so I don't know who signed for it or where the parcel is."

Dozens of villagers posted about the problem on a village Facebook page

Dave Hodgson said he only realised numerous villagers were affected when he spotted a Facebook discussion.

"I was in at the time it said the delivery had taken place," he said.

"I hadn't heard a knock at the door, certainly didn't have a parcel and hadn't signed for anything."

Mrs Drew said she was left a blank card by Hermes but there was no sign of her parcels

A Hermes delivery driver told the BBC his colleagues were struggling to cope with their Christmas workload.

He said they were under pressure to get parcels signed off to make sure they got paid.

Hermes said it had a 99% successful delivery rate but on this occasion a courier had left the parcels in his car.

A spokeswoman said: "In the Leicester area we have had to replace one courier due to poor performance and this has affected a handful of deliveries and we are currently organising for these to be redelivered."