Customers of cut-price courier Evri have spoken out about their delivery disasters, branding the company ‘awful’ and vowing never to use them again.
In 2023 the business, which is responsible for more than 700 million parcels every year, was placed bottom of customer satisfaction league tables by Citizens Advice and Ofcom.
The budget service, which changed its name from Hermes in 2022, also received a joint-bottom two-out-of-five-star rating following a Citizens Advice survey suggesting its new title had done little to revamp its reputation.
Now those who have suffered from missing packages and unhelpful customer service have revealed their delivery nightmares.
Jane Ensom, from Royston, Hertfordshire, had a parcel containing a vape dumped on the roadside where it was promptly taken by a passerby.
Complainants of delivery disasters at the hands of cut-price courier Evri have spoken out about their miserable experiences, branding the company ‘awful’ and never to use them again (Stock Photo)
Jane Ensom, from Royston, Hertfordshire, had a parcel containing a vape dumped on the roadside where it was promptly taken by a passerby
The public place where the item was left lies yards from a school, leading Ms Ensom to fear the age-restricted product had been stolen by a child. She told MailOnline: ‘To the left hand side of where I live, there is a fish and chip shop. To the right hand side, there is a corner shop and the middle door goes up to the flat’
The public place where the item was left lies yards from a school, leading Ms Ensom to fear the age-restricted product had been stolen by a child.
She told MailOnline: ‘I got the notification that my parcel has been delivered and I wasn’t home – I was actually out with my mother.
‘To the left hand side of where I live, there is a fish and chip shop. To the right hand side, there is a corner shop and the middle door goes up to the flat. There are four flats there.
‘I then got a picture of this parcel being left outside the main front door, in between the shop and the chip shop, which is obviously not very safe.
‘I have told Evri on several occasions, if I’m not in, please leave it in the shop as that is the preferred drop off point.
The 50-year-old then spoke to shop staff who said the delivery driver had come in a while earlier but had not handed them a parcel.
‘The parcel had gone. It was an age-restricted product and anybody could have picked that parcel up – there’s a school that backs onto the car park here where the shop is.
‘You can imagine the footfall in the shop with kids after school – not to mention the footfall from the chip shop. So it is a busy area.’
Another disgruntled customer had two separate deliveries of cleaning products from Purdy & Figg (pictured) damaged by the same Evri driver in a matter of weeks after they were thrown ‘over six foot gates’
They added: ‘I have recently closed my account with Purdy & Figg because their two recent deliveries from Evri, glass bottles containing liquids, were smashed inside’
In 2023 the business, which is responsible for more than 700 million parcels every year, was placed bottom of customer satisfaction league tables by Citizens Advice and Ofcom (Stock Photo)
Ms Ensom was left worrying whether a child had taken the nicotine-filled item and fearing that her personal information had been compromised.
She said: ‘What annoys me most is that it is an age-restricted product.
‘Other companies will come to your door and ask for your year of birth – they have to hand it to you in person. Some kid has now probably got age-restricted products containing nicotine.
‘Another thing I brought up with Evri was that I was really upset because there’s an invoice inside that box with those products that’s got my name, my address and potentially my payment details on it.
‘And then paranoia kicks in and you think “what if someone’s watching and they’re waiting for another delivery to come through and will try to get in?”
‘I’ve changed my bank card just in case and I shouldn’t have to do that. With online fraud being rife at the moment you do worry.’
The furious customer then tried to get hold of the budget courier service to demand a refund – a process she found just as exasperating as losing the parcel.
She joked that Evri wanted her ‘blood type’ and ‘inside leg measurement’ before she could contact an operator.
‘You have to have the parcel number, the consignment number, the date, everything else,’ she said.
‘I eventually emailed Evri saying I wanted someone to talk to and a lovely lady did phone me and she said she could see the parcel was left outside my brown front door. But I said, “no I’ve got a white front door”
‘She then went through every photograph of every delivery I’ve ever had and she realised my front door was white.
‘She said she was going to reprimand the driver and that was it but that didn’t resolve my problem – I still had no product and I’d even paid Evri £4.95 to deliver it quickly.
‘I finally got a refund from the vape juice company, not from Evri, about a month ago.’
Ms Ensom said she will now avoid the courier company in future.
She said: ‘I have mobility issues, I have arthritis, I’ve got all sorts of problems and I’m living in a second floor flat but I’m paying for a service for you to give it to me at my front door.
Evri has been dubbed Britain’s ‘worst’ courier firm (Stock Photo)
‘I still haven’t had that resolving phone call or conversation with Evri at all. I would like the product – I really would.
‘Now if I order anything online, if it’s coming by Evri I won’t buy it. They’re just awful.’
Ms Ensom said she never retrieved the parcel but received a ‘good-will gesture’ of £25 from the courier on June 18 – almost five months on from the incident on January 31.
Vicky Louth had a stressful experience shipping a phone she was selling using the delivery company.
The person buying her brand-new Samsung S22 Plus had requested she use Evri and Ms Louth reluctantly agreed despite having issues with the courier before.
She described what happened next as a ‘complete nightmare’ which left her £350 out of pocket after the phone got lost at a depot.
After a back and forth with chatbots and emails, while still unable to get through to a human on the phone, Ms Louth was told Evri would conduct a 48-hour search of the warehouse.
The company then told her the parcel had got lost and after more emails, social media posts and even a speculative message sent to Evri’s CEO, she eventually received a claim form.
Ms Louth said: ‘I knew it wouldn’t be as straight forward as filling out the form and receiving my money back, so I checked the prohibited list and I couldn’t see anywhere where it said mobile phones were not covered.
‘But then I saw a post where they class a mobile phone as a computer which comes under prohibited.
‘The claim form also stated they will look into the claim and the eBay sale and decide if I am eligible to claim.
‘I then decided to get all my information together before completing the form and went back on the link to the claim form and the link had stopped working so it seemed the link expired within 24 hours.’
Ms Louth was then left ‘without the phone and without the £350’, which she said she could not ‘afford to lose’ but this was not the end of her ordeal.
A month later she received a call from Evri saying they had found her package but that it did not contain the phone she said she had shipped.
She said: ‘They made a decision to open the parcel under surveillance but they notified me that I am now being investigated for fraud as the Samsung phone has now miraculously turned into a pack of vapes.
‘Upon speaking with the investigating advisor, we concluded that the original packaging I sent the parcel in had changed from a grey to a blue bag so it’s apparent the phone had been stolen by a member of Evri and replaced with vapes and re-packaged – plus he confirmed a new label had been printed.
‘Thankfully I took a picture of the parcel at Tesco where it was dropped off, otherwise I would be pursued for fraud.’
Ms Louth has been assisting the courier service with an investigation into the incident which she claims concluded ‘a member of staff’ had ‘opened’ her parcel and ‘stole the phone and repackaged a pack of vapes’.
She added: ‘I don’t know how this company is still running with the number of complaints and the service they provide, it’s a complete nightmare.’
The courier has since provided Ms Louth with a £370.34 refund but the customer claims the firm told her over the phone that ‘a member of staff had opened [her] parcel, stole the phone and repackaged a pack of vapes’.
She added that she is frustrated Evri has not continued its investigation into who took the device.
Another disgruntled customer had two separate deliveries of cleaning products from Purdy & Figg damaged by the same Evri driver in a matter of weeks after they were thrown ‘over six foot gates’.
They told MailOnline: ‘I live in a ground floor flat which has a bell on a panel with video.
A scene from an undercover Evri video at Burntwood, Staffordshire
Evri changed its name in March 2022 after a series of scandals surrounding how its drivers handled parcels (Pictured: Packages on the ground and in a roll cage)
Packages awaiting delivery to customers are being dumped on the floor (pictured)
‘All other drivers use the bell to gain access and bring the packets to the main building but not the Evri driver – even after contacting Evri and complaining along with photos of broken goods.
‘Even when the goods are not broken they are often left in puddles.
‘There are seven buttons for seven flats but he willfully ignores them.
‘I have recently closed my account with Purdy & Figg because their two recent deliveries from Evri, glass bottles containing liquids, were smashed inside.’
Evri said it had not processed a refund in this case but that Purdy & Figg had reimbursed the customer.
Robyn Collins told MailOnline she had ordered a package from skincare company Face the Future to her sister’s house but it never showed up.
She said: ‘I am still annoyed at Evri for allegedly delivering a parcel to my sister’s house but not ringing the bell and minutes later my sister went to the door and the parcel was missing.
‘It contained £165 worth of face creams – they should be held accountable.’
Evri said it was not aware of this incident.
When the Mail went undercover at the budget delivery service in the run-up to Christmas it found a workforce, scrambled together following minimal training, battling to earn minimum wage in all weathers.
Desperate for drivers in the run-up to Christmas, and amid what was billed as the ‘biggest recruitment drive in our history’, our reporter was offered work by Evri within hours of completing an online application.
Having then received just three hours face-to-face training he was immediately sent out on the road with a car-load of 30 parcels.
While Evri claims that drivers ‘have the chance to earn a competitive rate of £10 to £15 per hour’, he discovered that to hit those figures, he needed to deliver a parcel at a rate of one every couple of minutes — a tall order.
And that’s without taking into account the time spent scanning and then sorting the parcels into his car before each round.
That process, conducted in the open air and, at times, in the pouring rain, sometimes took our inexperienced driver more than an hour at the start of every day.
The packages are seen being loaded into overcrowded boots of vehicles which obscures the view of the driver
Mother Beth Robyn, from Keighley, West Yorkshire, was left fuming after catching her alleged Evri driver launching her parcel into the front garden like a frisbee
Repeatedly glancing at the group, as he snaps a photo of the house, the driver double checks his phone before nonchalantly throwing the parcel frisbee-style up Beth’s garden path
The budget service, which changed its name from Hermes in 2022, also received a joint-bottom two-out-of-five-star rating following a Citizens Advice survey suggesting its new title had done little to revamp its reputation
It meant that over four days spent collecting, loading and delivering from a depot in the Midlands, on no day did his basic pay reach the minimum wage of £10.42 an hour.
Evri, meanwhile, insists ‘new starters’ like our reporter would in fact earn in excess of that figure because they are given bonus payments for the first few days to make up for their lack of experience.
It should be noted that minimum wage laws do not apply to self-employed couriers.
Within hours our reporter was invited to attend a training session in Burntwood, Staffordshire, the following Monday.
He was told that typically he would be expected to deliver 67 parcels a shift, which should take about three hours, for which he’d be paid £211 over a five-day week. A quick calculation shows that means the 15 hours worked out on the road delivering parcels would earn the courier £14 an hour.
However, to achieve that, the driver would have to deliver a parcel at the rate of one every two minutes 40 seconds, on a typical round of between ten and 16 miles.
Plus there was a one-off new- starter bonus of £192 that would be paid after 12 days of work.
Successful applicants are asked to sign a Lifestyle Cover Courier contract, spelling out explicitly that they are being offered a self-employed position with no holiday or sick pay.
Interestingly, it also states they are able to effectively ‘sub-contract’ their round to anyone they wish — no questions asked.
Couriers are instructed on how, ideally, they should deliver packages ‘within the home’, taking a photo in an empty doorway, not on the doorstep, so the customer can’t claim it was stolen.
As for what to do if the homeowner was absent, first step was to follow any instructions left in advance by the recipient. Failing that they were told to look for a ‘safe place’ such as an enclosed porch, greenhouse or shed.
Alternatively, packages could be left with a neighbour. Wherever it was left, photographic proof was required.
Leaving boxes in bins — or throwing them over a gate — was definitely not allowed.
For items that could not be delivered a ‘Sorry, I missed you’ card had to be left and the item taken home and re-delivered the following day.
When approached by the Mail, an Evri spokesperson said: ‘All couriers earn above the national minimum wage with pay averaging over £15 an hour, with many earning much more at this busy time of the year.
‘New starters receive training and top-up payments because they will not be as quick as more established couriers.
‘Couriers are super-organised, have great time management, and live in their local community which means they know the area and routes, earning over 3 million five-star reviews on Trustpilot. Some people find the job isn’t for them because of the need to have these skills and qualities.
‘The change of name to Evri was a result of the Uk business being sold by Hermes to Advent, not reputational reasons as you state. As the business was no longer part of the Hermes group it could not retain that name.’
Evri challenged the accuracy of the reporter’s findings, saying their data shows couriers average 124 parcels scanned and loaded within 30 minutes and that previous couriers on the same rounds earned around £18 per hour.
A man wearing an orange gilet – believed to be an Evri courier – can be seen in CCTV scanning the parcels at a shop in Dagenham, East London, before walking off with one in his hand
This is the shocking moment an Evri delivery driver carelessly throws parcels out of his van and into a gutter in front of a disgusted customer
A large carboard box parcel can be seen getting chucked out of the white van and onto a growing pile of packages lying in the gutter
Their data showed he was also slow moving between drop-off points. New joiners are given an additional payment of £120 as they gain experience.
Evri’s public image has not been helped by a series of viral videos in the last 18 months which have shown parcels been thrown about and even tossed into a gutter as drivers rush to complete their quota of trips in time.
In May, shocking photos showed parcels worth thousands of pounds dumped on the street outside an Evri depot.
They were left at the mercy of thieves outside a unit in Broadstairs, Kent, waiting for drivers to pick them up.
Eye-witnesses said the shocking practice happens in bad weather conditions as well and creates a ‘massive risk’ of goods being damaged.
Earlier this year, a mother was left fuming after catching her alleged Evri driver launching her parcel into the front garden like a frisbee.
Beth Robyn, from Keighley, West Yorkshire, had ordered a gift for her son earlier this month, which arrived on January 8, but she soon discovered the contents of the parcel were damaged after opening it.
Taking to analysing her CCTV footage to investigate, the mother was soon presented with the reason for the damage: an Evri driver who had chucked the parcel towards the door instead of walking a few feet up the path to safely deliver it.
Beth took to social media on January 8 to share the shocking footage, playfully writing: ‘Seems Evri now have a new way to deliver.’
Beth later added further context in her post, claiming: ‘After communication with Evri, the driver has been removed from the service.
‘I’ve reported it as damaged from the company as well. Friend of mine has had the same today from the same area and apparently, he’s allowed to do that as long as it’s on the property.’
This came after a father was left shocked when an Evri courier was caught on CCTV walking off with his daughter’s parcel.
Tony Nguyen, 50, could not believe his eyes when he saw the footage from his neighbour’s shop of a man believed to be an Evri employee walking off with the package after scanning it as delivered.
The father had been away from his home in Dagenham, East London, when he was pinged a notification that the parcel had been dropped next door.
Evri has since apologised to Mr Nguyen and offered him compensation ‘as a gesture of goodwill’.
In April, an Evri delivery driver was seen carelessly throwing parcels out of his van and into a gutter in front of a disgusted customer.
The courier in Torquay, Devon, hurled the packages, which are a range of sizes, in front of photographer Maciej Olszewski, who was worried one of the items could be his new camera.
Evri told The Sun that the driver responsible for hurling the packages had been put on a ‘training course’ but remains employed by the firm.
Couriers are instructed on how, ideally, they should deliver packages ‘within the home’, taking a photo in an empty doorway, not on the doorstep, so the customer can’t claim it was stolen
The company added that they take their responsibility to ‘care’ for every parcel ‘seriously’.
And in another incident, Evri was forced to apologise after a courier hurled a parcel 20ft across a customer’s garden in Winton, Greater Manchester instead of just walking through the gate.
Matt Jones captured the outrageous delivery attempt via his mother’s Ring doorbell camera on Sunday.
