I am having trouble with parcel delivery firm Evri which means my son has still not received the present I bought him for Christmas 2021.
Myself and his mother bought him a basic smartphone and a fitness watch, which he was going to use to help set up his own business as a personal trainer. The total cost of these was just over £250.
But due to postal delays, they didn’t arrive until after Christmas – by which time my son had already returned to his home in Norfolk.
Post problem: Our reader’s son received an empty box for Christmas – but at some point it contained a watch and a smartphone
We posted it to him there, using the parcel service then known as Hermes but now rebranded Evri.
The parcel was delivered, but when he opened it, it was completely empty. It had been sealed back up convincingly so he didn’t realise it had been tampered with when he accepted it.
I’ve spoken to Evri about this many times over the past year and a half, but have got nowhere.
On occasions it has insinuated that we arranged for an empty parcel to be delivered to try and con the company out of money.
The best offer I have had is for £20 compensation, less than 10 per cent of the value of the items. Can you help? G.A, Sussex
Helen Crane of This is Money replies: Sadly you are not alone in suffering parcel pain at the hands of Evri.
It is the UK’s largest parcel carrier, delivering more than three million packages every day and working for 80 per cent of the UK’s biggest retailers.
But Evri has been plagued by customer complaints about everything from lost and late parcels to packages being thrown around by employees – or turning up at car boot sales.
Last year, it was voted the country’s worst delivery firm in a poll of 8,421 people by Citizens Advice – and in January an MP called for an investigation into Evri after it received 40,000 complaints.
In your case, the firm delivered your son an empty box where his Christmas present should have been.
It is shocking that it has taken almost a year and a half, as well as my involvement, to get this sorted.
You told me you were upset to be essentially accused of stealing by Evri, and rightly so.
More recently, it told you it had in fact found a mobile phone matching your description at one of its depots.
But to get it, Evri said you would have to provide the IMEI number – the unique serial number given to all mobile phones, which is usually printed on a sticker inside the casing or on the box the handset comes in. You can also find it by typing a code into the phone itself.
Unsurprisingly, you hadn’t noted this down – in fact, you didn’t even know what an IMEI number was until this sorry saga began. You asked the retailer you bought the phone from if it had a record, but it said it couldn’t help.
This was when you got in touch with me, and I questioned Evri about what was going on. It asked me if you had paid extra to have your parcel protected against loss or theft – which I didn’t think was good enough.
Anyone paying a delivery company to send an item should have a reasonable expectation that it will be delivered without incident.
Sent items: The package was posted with Evri via a local parcel shop
It also said you had been asked for an IMEI number but ‘chosen’ not to provide one.
It seemed as if we had hit a brick wall. But after I explained the absurdity of these requirements to Evri, you heard from the firm again.
This time, it said it was willing to pay you a settlement of £200. You are still around £50 out of pocket, but said you were happy to accept it if it meant the matter was finally brought to a conclusion.
You have been assured the money will be in your account within the next five working days – so it seems this case is now all wrapped up.
Poor service on the part of parcel firms is rife, and I feel that they often get away with it because most of their customers don’t have a choice about using them.
When we buy something online, we don’t usually get to pick the company that delivers it – we simply get what we’re given. This means that customers can’t vote with their feet.
That said, it is always worth complaining to a retailer if you are not happy with the delivery firm they choose. If enough people do this, it will pile on the pressure for them to switch.
Good news: Reader M.T became the victim of a telephone scam, but the issue was sorted and she has now received an extra £350 from her bank First Direct
First Direct pays up after flight scam
In March, I helped reader M.T to claw back £3,005 after she was scammed by someone pretending to be her bank, First Direct.
The money was used to buy flights with the tour company Flights Guru, and it was that firm that paid back the bulk of the money.
At the time, First Direct said it held M.T liable for the fraud because she handed over a one-time text message passcode to the scammer to authorise the transaction. It paid her only £155 to top up the money that Flights Guru subtracted for admin fees.
However, M.T got in touch again this week to tell me that First Direct had looked at her case again following the publication of my story.
She said: ‘First Direct contacted me on Friday to say it had looked into my case further. It said the case should have been dealt with as fraud and they should have refunded my money straight away.
‘It has given me £350 by way of compensation towards the stress and anxiety this matter has caused me.’
CRANE ON THE CASE
- Where is inheritance we were promised by ‘heir hunters’
- I’m locked out of my BA account, have I lost my 650,000 Avios?
- A scammer bought £3,000 flights using MY card
- We booked ‘superior’ cruise cabin but got one next to engine
- My 13-year-old was scammed via Paypal. It says he owes £4,500
- I sent £2,000 of my late wife’s savings with wrong account number
- Ovo billed me £33,000 for a month of energy use in my two-bed flat
- Eon left a leak after it fitted my new boiler and the ceiling fell in
- My camera doesn’t work and I can’t contact online dealer
- I am terminally ill but can’t cash my Scottish Widows pension
- Most shocking CRANE ON THE CASE horror stories from 2022
- I was sent a shoddy mobility scooter… but Amazon says it’s fine
- My son was stranded in Australia in 2020 – I’m still waiting for…
- Home Office rejected my visa, when will I get NHS payment back?
- Investec won’t renew my 93-year-old mum’s savings with no ID… or…
- I built my own house and HMRC should refund VAT – where is it?
- We booked our holiday for the right dates… but the wrong year
- I’ve been waiting three years to get refund for Thomas Cook holiday
- TalkTalk sold me an internet phone line that doesn’t work
- Barclays says it’s closing my accounts and I have no idea why
- I spent £1,200 on hotels and trains when Blablacar bus was late
- Holiday Extras won’t pay out for trip after our son’s death
- My ex racked up £30k in Dart Charge PCNs due to mental health
- My bills went bananas after I had a smart meter installed
- My Cork flight was cancelled and Aer Lingus no longer flies
- Why won’t BA pay for my lost laptop and jewellery?
- I parked in more than one marked bay – can Premier Park fine me?
- My son got chickenpox before our holiday… can we get a refund?
- Our Tui wedding was booked where same-sex marriage isn’t legal
- Why won’t Ovo let me pay after it didn’t bill me for nine months?
- Northern Provident went under, where is my £10k Isa cash?
- I moved out of my damp home but British Gas wants £5k in bills
- My Macbook won’t turn on, why won’t John Lewis fix it?
- Bulb wants to charge me £2k for energy I used four years ago
- A fraudster hacked my email and went on a £6k credit card spree
- I’m owed a £164 tax refund after Covid cancelled my holiday
- My son turned 18 – why can’t he access his Child Trust Fund?
- My son spent £1,000 on iPad games… will Apple refund me?
- My BA flight and car hire has dropped by £500 – can I rebook?