To think that someone should have told me my parcel wasn't delivered?

[drspouse]

Late November I shipped a parcel via MyHermes (should have known better) to my DB and my DNs in a continental European country.
They live rurally but the post office manages to get things to their house and the address was accepted by Hermes.
I emailed my brother to say the parcel was on its way.

Now my DM has mentioned that they never got it.
Well, aside from the fact that it would have been nice if my DB had mentioned this himself - I now find out but only by using the online tracking, not by any notification that it wasn't delivered and is TODAY - 6 weeks later - apparently on its way back to me.
There is a note on the tracking to say "address query".
Not quite sure who they queried it with but not me.
Or indeed my DB.
They have a phone number for me so could have called (and also an email).
DB has form for not acknowledging gifts so I was waiting till the DNs opened things on Christmas Day as they, unlike him, are polite.

Your DB should have said but then if I'm sending a parcel I always track it myself just for my own peace of mind.

I tracked it up to "out for delivery" but then assumed it had arrived - we don't have a great relationship and I try to keep to minimal contact except for greetings etc. around holidays.

You'd really think if it was sat in their depot for a month I should receive some notification!

I kind of think the onus was on you to ask your DB if he received it to be honest. I would feel a bit awkward ringing someone to say I hadn't got a present from them. I expect he was hanging on thinking it would arrive eventually. Not much you can do about it now! Does amazon deliver to him? If so, maybe next time you could just order stuff through them and request delivery directly to him.

The things I wanted you can't get through Amazon. Though they do deliver to him (and again another reason to suggest that his house is not really that hard to find).

As I say, I really try to avoid contacting him.

Would nobody else expect a notification if a parcel had not been delivered for over a month??!

(I did tell him it was coming, and if I had asked him again I would have been accused of "nagging").

I've had exactly the same from Hermes. When I queried with them they advised it was my responsibility to track the parcel via the website and contact them when it didn't arrive within the stated timescale (this was a return so no-one to tell me it hadn't arrived) they do not contact the sender in case of delivery issues as it wouldn't be cost effective apparently. Very poor service, they have a bad reputation for a reason and I certainly wouldn't use them again.

I'm coming to that conclusion too goodness.