It’s only a few weeks since the EVRi thread established beyond reasonable doubt that Britain’s least favourite delivery company is responsible for off-the-scale levels of incompetence. Since then I’ve had numerous occasions to rethink my previously sanguine view of the delivery company from hell, and feel duty bound to share the misery.
Okay, it’s Christmas, it’s Black Friday, it’s Cyber Weekend or Virtual Wednesday or whatever, and delivery companies are stretched, parcels will be late. Late yes, but lost? Again and again and again? But there’s more! EVRi have begun trialling something new to speed things up – drive-by deliveries. When I found my first delivery dumped at the bottom of the drive and tried to work out how it got there, only one conclusion seemed to fit the evidence. When it happened for the second time I saw the driver slow down, wind down the window of his van and hurl Mrs B’s Christmas present over the gate where it landed crushed and broken in a puddle. He slowed down long enough to take a delivery photo then sped off without even getting his feet wet.
And so to EVRi’s customer service. Impossible to speak to a human being of course, but the robot certainly sounded more intelligent than the van driver, until the promised callback and resolution failed to happen. But not to worry, I got an email telling me that the driver had been ‘messaged’ about his incompetence. “You’re a very naughty boy”, something along those lines maybe?
Of course, you may have EVRi fatigue after the last thread, but feel free to contribute with more seasonal delivery service horror stories. This is more of a public service announcement though. Keep your blood pressure low and avoid any retailer that uses EVRi, Britain’s most shit delivery company.
You couldn’t make this up, in fact you don’t need to, as it happened to me just last week. I ordered a piece of fine timber online that was exactly 1 yard in length. It was dispatched to me wrapped sensibly in many layers of tough cardboard and wrapped around and around on all sides with white tape saying FRAGILE in large red capital letters. It arrived folded – and broken – in two places, down to about a foot in length.
I contacted the vendor, who immediately agreed to send another piece, and I could almost hear him sighing with frustration as he did so.
When the replacement arrived at the weekend, it was indeed intact and exactly as dispatched. I was delighted that it had made it. As it happened, I was in the kitchen when the EVRi van arrived, and I managed to meet the guy at our front door. As he handed me the parcel he said, and I quote, “I delivered one wrapped just like that last week, but it was a lot shorter.” With a slightly acidic snarl I managed to reply, “That’s because some twat had folded it twice in transit, breaking the contents into three pieces.”. He couldn’t leave quickly enough.
I feel guilty for laughing out loud at that, but I do share your pain. It’s as if Jeremy Beadle was running a delivery company.
Had a delivery from Evri today, there was a knock on the door at the time allocated for delivery and a very contrite delivery driver with an apology. She’d posted my package through a neighbour’s letterbox. ” I don’t normally do that but it fitted the letterbox.” At least she came to tell us.
As a proper postie I have witnessed behaviour exactly as described and moved numerous parcels out of the rain, off paths, off roads!, and even redelivered them to the correct addresses.
But a small word of caution, these guys are often vilified but they are probably paid per packet and are under incredible pressure. Yes they shouldn’t do what they do sometimes but to have a load of packets in the back of a van and only a certain time to do it is very hard sometimes. I had 98 packets plus half a round of letters today and it’s bloody hard. The clock is ticking, the weather is lousy and I’m getting on a bit! I went 30 minutes over today just through amount of stuff to deliver. But yes Evri are crap, but the system is worse.
So, a shout-out for my local postie. She collects and delivers parcels with complete reliability, never rings the door unless she absolutely has to, has been known to come back at the end of her round to deliver a parcel if I was out when she first tried. She’s friendly, has a quick chat whenever I see her, seems to know the routines and delivery preferences of everyone on her round, and is a thoroughly nice person.
It’s the not-being-able-to-speak-to-someone bit that gets me.
Uber One charged me $400-odd bucks. I didn’t recall agreeing to that. Every enquiry resulted in a new and different person directing me online and to FAQs. Eventually I was told that the payment could not be refunded. According to the FAQs my next opportunity to cancel was a year later. I made a diary note and that’s exactly what I did. It was easy/automatically done once the date clicked over.
To this day, I haven’t seen evidence that I’d agreed to being in Uber One. It was impossible to have someone look at my account and say “ah yes, there we are Mr Celebration, you clicked on a notification at 2am on New Year’s Day and ….”
I think it also depends on who is delivering. We’ve moved since the last Evri thread (that’s twice this year: sell and then rent while finding a new house – wouldn’t recommend it unless you like stress) where we had a really good service from them and now have different people, there’s two go round together, who are just as good.
The service before we moved was terrible with parcels taking weeks or never arriving, which was explained when a huge pile of them were found in a field in the middle of nowhere.
The week before last I purchased a heated clothes airer from Lakeland via Amazon. It was dispatched via Royal Mail 24hr tracked. I’m still waiting for it to arrive. It never will of course despite Royal Mail’s tracking service advising me since the 26th that it had arrived at my local depot and was out for delivery. They are still trolling me with this ‘advice’ days later. I contacted Amazon and they reimbursed me. They informed me that should the item eventually arrive I could keep it rather than return it. I tried contacting Royal Mail by phone, I was kept on hold for forty minutes before they severed the connection. I have now given up which is a shame as I can’t access a washing line very easily at present and a heated drying rack would have been very useful. I’d purchase it again but I no longer trust Royal Mail’s competency. This isn’t the first time they have ‘misplaced goods’ I have ordered and Lakeland seem to be wedded to using their utterly hopeless services.
It’s not just Evri that are completely hopeless and don’t get me started on bloody Yodel.
Speaking of Royal Mail incompetency, we had a redirect from our old house to the rental property which, when we moved, we had to cancel (no refund) and then set up another one to our new house as they can’t cope with redirecting a redirect and set up a redirect from the rental to the new house. We found out by chance that after a month or so of the new 12 month redirect they stopped bothering.
Our current record for 24hour tracked is 10 days but at least it turned up eventually.
I was a postie for a few months during Covid and compared to Amazon, they’re in the Stone Age but then Amazon don’t have to deliver letters etc. However, it’s clear that Royal Mail suffer from years, if not decades of underinvestment. Vans beaten to death, the red post carts massively overloaded with no waterproof area for the bundle of post currently being delivered, the archaic system of cards acting as markers for parcels and the manual final sort into racks with a slot for each address on the round only to remove them and bundle them up again. Hugely labour intensive with lots of opportunities for errors. You definitely wouldn’t create a business like that now
It’s still the same Dave! They are having trials to change the sorting and how the rounds are organised. Its been put on hold because there have been mixed results. It’s the letters that are holding RM back. I often get asked why cant I have a more accurate time for a parcel delivery. And its because letters aren’t tracked, so they dont know exactly how many letters there are and who has one.
But I maintain that the service we over is usually better than others and we definitely care more about quality of delivery than others.
Until a few months ago I would have agreed, our cheerful local postie often knocked the door to hand something over. Nice guy.
In recent months we seem to have someone different every week. Last week one left a delivery in “your safe place”. I hadn’t designated one as the front of our house doesn’t lend itself to one. On opening the picture on the tracking, it turned out the parcel had been partially shoved under the car, and was still visible to passers by.
On Saturday I had a note saying they’d attempted to deliver but was too large to get through the letterbox. Fair enough. Today they tried again while I was in, but the door wasn’t knocked, because with a bit of pushing… they shoved it through the letterbox…
We’re one of the trial offices and its fair to say its a nightmare
I.ve done 31 years and just want out
Not looking forward to Christmas at all!
An ex postie here who retired last year after 30 years service, but only 15 on delivery. I could see the way it was going and jumped ship to work in the Mail Centre. What a cushy life that was compared to delivery. We even got extra money for operating the machines. Looking back to 1995 when I started, it was so easy compared to today. We still had our heavy days, usually Thursdays and Fridays, but most of the time it was relatively easy. The internet was in it’s infancy, and hardly anyone was shopping online. The number of parcels we used to take out was ridiculously small, but like you’ve said, we all cared about the quality of service, and would never abuse parcels, or leave them where they could be seen. Another thing is that we all had to dress smart, and even had to wear a Royal Mail tie during the winter months. The way some of the postmen dress now is embarrassing, and wouldn’t have been allowed when I started. I do know from experience though that it’s a tough job, out in all weathers, and there’s a lot of pressure on the postmen and women from the management. I have the utmost respect for anyone doing the job today.
There was a wonderful meme going around not long ago, which I can’t now find. Worthy of Viz. It was about offering your Evri driver a hot drink in freezing weather and, when s/he accepts, drop kicking the mug into the next garden saying you’ve left it in a safe space.
Yodel: We have delivered you parcel.
My partner: No, you haven’t.
Yodel: Yes, we have. And took a picture.
MP: You haven’t. *contacts Ebay seller*.
Seller: They say they have. To your address.
xMP oYodel: Where is the parcel? Show me the picture.
x Yodel oMP: Ta-da. *out of focus close-up photo with no context*. At your address.
MP: That could be anywhere. And probably is.
Yodel: *GPS co-ordinates*.
MP: *latitude/longitude*. It is in the front garden.
Me: *goes out in pouring rain*. It was dropped at the bottom of the garden, several days ago, between a shrub and the garden wall, totally hidden, some 15 metres from the front door, invisible from the house, or indeed garden.
I bought something off eBay recently and the dozy vendor didn’t send the power supply with it. Contacted it and he resent it. Unfortunately he used Evri… Somehow he’d completely messed up the post so I received no updates and in fact he’d had it delivered to the Evri shop. After installing their stupid app and getting onto customer services I had the catch 22 that they wouldn’t tell me anything because I wasn’t the person who ordered it nor tell him because he wasn’t at the delivery address. Eventually I wore customer services down and they told me it was at the shop. Went to collect it – I needed a collection code which I didn’t receive (see above re updates). The lady in the little grocers who cops the shitty end rolled her eyes and whispered “I’ll open it and give it to you – please text me the code if you get it. Finally got it home – the fuckwit had sent a 1.5A where I needed a 2A. At this point I gave up. Next day fuckwit received the code, sent it to me and I let the helpful lady in the shop know. He then had the neck to ask for a review on eBay. Hmmm, I thought, don’t tempt me.
A month ago tomorrow, I ordered DVD box set of Ken Burns Jazz to watch while I recuperate after surgery. Seller dropped it off at the ParcelShop in Mansfield. It’s still there. I’ve been back at work for a fortnight.
As someone who uses Amazon on a weekly basis (at this time of year it’s damn near daily) I can safely say all these woes are down to one thing – Amazon.
We all now expect instant gratification, order in one click, next day delivery, tracking et al. To meet this demand there’s a worldwide army of delivery systems staffed by underpaid, overworked workers.
Stop using Amazon I say, let’s go back to the good old days of cheerful, helpful posties – hold on, just need to order a tea towel for Auntie Jenny’s Christmas….
Makes you hanker for the good old days of 28-day delivery, power cuts, children stuck up chimneys…..
…postal orders, stamped addressed envelopes…
…answers on the back of a postcard…
Might I suggest not using Amazon then? Imagine if everybody etc
Eeeeee, when ah wur a lad thur wur thing called ‘second post’. If letter or parcel had’n cum in furst, thur wur allas second to look forra’d to, ‘appen it’d turn oop then. If it wer burthdey, blerk in’t van wid knock on’t door after yer lunch, yer ten bob note wud be there in’t envelope wi’ card frum Auntie Mary. Champion.
As far as the letter post goes, isn’t this an example of Woolworths Syndrome, where everybody bemoaned their closure while admitting they never went in there.
The only time I use the letter post is to send birthday cards to family members – about half a dozen a year. I can’t remember the last time I wrote or received a personal letter, and all official stuff is now electronic as well.
As volumes of any service decline, the cost of providing it per item will increase. Why have two deliveries a day, when one will get all of the post out?
I expect ip33 will confirm this but I was surprised at how much post there was, mainly business type items but along with the birthday cards, Private Eye, Radio Times and lots of heavy, bulky cruise brochures. and the obligatory pizza and broadband offers, which you can opt out of if you want to. I’ve recently taken over my father’s financial affairs and there is shitloads of paperwork that arrives by post, far more than we get for our accounts.
Ten Bob – that’s luxury that is
More like ‘arf a crown was wot it were fer me. Tight old bint. I always ‘oped fer one of they brown notes, but tell-tale shuffle of fat ‘arf crown in t’envelope gave game away.
That’s enough of this 3 Yorkshiremen nonsense.
Yep, second post in the afternnon and Sunday deliveries too. If you were local in London you could post something in the morning and it would likely be delivered in the afternoon. The postal service here in Exmouth is a complete joke now, with there recently being a week between deliveries. Progress eh?
When I’m having a package delivered by Evri, I receive an email stating they are expecting my package and then an email again when it’s out for delivery. They state the name of the delivery driver, with a photo of her and the time the package will be delivered. After the package has been delivered, I receive another email asking me to rate the delivery driver. Her name is Kerry, a very pleasant lady who has never let me down. I always give her a 5 star review. After reading the experiences of some folk on here, I hope Kerry never leaves Evri.
As I say above our Evri delivery yesterday was the first one at this house after our move. I still gave her 5 stars despite her delivering the package to the wrong address (I looked at the parcel last night and the print was very faint) as she came to tell us of her mistake.
Having moved here in October we find our postal delivery service from the Royal Mail is so much better. At our previous address we’d sometimes go several days without post. Now we seem to be overrun with post vans and people.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, I have not really had any issues with Evir, DPD or InPost. I have had Royal Mail push cards through my front door saying they tried to deliver something when I have literally been sat near the door and hear nothing (other than the card dropping and me sauntering over too slowly to catch to postie. Also, collecting post/packages from the sorting office use to be a simple task (open for 6 hours and parking available) but now it’s a 1 hour opening and there is nowhere to park. Also, being ignored for 5 mins when you ring the bell gives you plenty of time to ponder the slightly threatening sign that abusing staff will be dealt with with vigour. A type of sign you rarely see in businesses that have a good reputation for customer service.
A similar sign exists at Reception in my local doctor’s surgery, a place where it has been impossible to see a doctor face-to-face since Covid, and where the Reception staff bear the hallmarks of training by Heinrich Himmler.
I’m not sure of the book but I think it was Diary of a Somebody by Christopher Matthews but he’d received a delivery through the letterbox. There was a large warning on the package with Photographs Do NOT Bend.
The postie had written on it Oh Yes They Do before carefully folding it and posting them through.
Lots of deliveries recently from Evri, all delivered at time expected and left safely under cover by the front door. Can’t fault ’em.
You may now burn me as a witch.
I had an Evri parcel delivered through my letterbox yesterday, when we were out. I came home to find not only the parcel on the floor in the porch, but also half my letterbox. The chap had forced an obviously too big parcel through the box, forcing the inside part to snap off. I can’t be arsed complaining, I’ll just buy another one and fit it myself. If I do see the driver again, I’ll have a quiet word in his ear about not shoving something too big through a small letterbox.
On a similar note, when I started as a postie in 1995, one of our biggest customers was Britannia Music. This was in the pre Internet days and Britannia Music was a huge company. The CDs were easy to post, as the boxes were thin and were made to go through the average letterbox. The Lp’s were a different matter. When I was being trained, I was told not to do what one of the new starters had done a few months before. Apparently, he decided to fold the parcel in half, so it would fit through the letterbox. It was only an Lp from Britannia Music. The customer was not a happy chappie as you can imagine, and I don’t think the new postie lasted very long in the job.