CHRISTMAS is a time for giving – but often not receiving if you are using courier firm Evri.
The company, one of the leading delivery businesses, has been accused of damaging and losing parcels.
With Royal Mail workers holding numerous strikes, many of us have been turning to alternatives to get our cards and presents delivered.
But a Sun investigation has revealed thousands of Evri customers have been wishing they had never bothered.
Evri is the new name for Hermes UK, which was rebranded earlier this year after it came bottom of a Citizens Advice league table.
But customer fury suggests matters might even have got worse, as the service attempts to handle three million deliveries a day.
We discovered that potentially thousands of Evri customers are still waiting for their purchases, which may well not arrive at all.
One Facebook group, Evri (Hermes) Complaints & Advice — Unofficial, has more than 25,000 members and major high street businesses, including Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, Next, and JD Sports, are coming under mounting pressure to ditch the firm.
Leading calls for a boycott of Evri is Steve King, who runs the Twitter account @EVRi_Delivery, which retweets horror stories about the company.
The IT worker from Gloucestershire said: “It’s largely people complaining that they’ve not received their parcels, or they have arrived damaged, but they are unable to contact Evri.”
Steve also said he receives allegations of theft.
Evri whistleblower Sam Nation, who spent two months working as a part-time courier for the company last Christmas, is not surprised.
She told us: “I saw staff throwing parcels around in the depot, so no wonder they often end up damaged.
“One supervisor told me we were so far behind, we should deliver them anywhere we could.
“And it could be so easy for people to steal parcels. Couriers can say they’ve delivered them, and there’s no way of checking.”
Our investigation found several videos on social media that appear to show Evri couriers taking photos of themselves pretending to post parcels before stealing them.
Ben Wagenaar, a 45-year-old tech researcher from Hertfordshire who sells on eBay, has twice had a parcel arrive at a buyer’s address empty.
He said: “One incident was particularly sickening as I could see from the photo the buyer sent me and the proof of delivery photo from the driver that the parcel had been resealed.”
Despite sending Evri proof and having paid for insurance, the company cited insufficient evidence, leaving Ben £79 out of pocket until we contacted them.
Regarding thefts by staff, Evri said: “We have over 30,000 couriers and the vast majority are hardworking and honest.
“For the exceptions, the individuals are identified and removed from the business.”
Other Evri customers have had parcels arrive with items missing due to packaging being destroyed.
Louise Todd, a 46-year-old mental health support worker from Wigan, whose parcel was meant to contain £140-worth of Christmas presents for her children, said: “To deliver boxes in such a state and think it’s acceptable is laughable.”
Zeynep Emiroglu, 26, who runs a Birmingham kitchen appliance business, stopped using them after clients’ packages were put in a wheelie bin.
Low pay has been blamed for poor service.
We have seen payslips that show the company last Christmas paid its staff 35p for postable items, 44p per “packet”, which clothes orders often come in, and 58p for slightly bigger parcels.
An Evri spokesman said: “All courier rounds pay above the National Living Wage.”
