Complaints about delivery company Evri, which operated under the name Hermes until March 2022, have been mounting in the weeks towards Christmas.
Doorcam footage posted to social media shows delivery personnel throwing parcels over fences or dropping them in public places.
Meanwhile, other customers have vented their frustration at messages claiming their parcels are out for delivery, despite no sign of them, with many packages appearing to go missing altogether.
On Twitter, one person wrote: “No, Evri, you did not ‘successfully’ deliver my parcel, you just dumped it on the doorstep for people to steal.”
One customer complained: “Evri really said they tried to deliver my item and no one was in, firstly I’m in my house and have a camera outside of it showing NO ONE at my door at the time of the apparent delivery or all morning.”
They added: “And I’m just here angry because there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it.”
Another said that they received a notification that the parcel had arrived, but the photograph of the delivery revealed it was somewhere entirely different.
“Evri now claim to have delivered [my parcel] twice. Both proofs of delivery photographs show someone else’s parcel in the back of a van with the door open,” they said.
One person quipped: “Mad how Royal Mail have been on strike and they’ve still delivered me parcels quicker than Evri.”
Others have been posting memes mocking the service provided by the delivery company. One person made an illustration suggesting that Evri decide whether to deliver each parcel, or not, based on a random outcome generator.
Earlier this month, Carolyn Harris, Welsh Labour MP for Swansea East, published a letter on Twitter addressed to Evri’s CEO, Martijn De Lange.
In the letter, she wrote: “I have heard from my constituents in Swansea East that their parcels have been delayed, delivered to the wrong address or in some cases gone missing completely. I am aware that this is not a local issue, but that in fact is a problem right across the country.”
She explained: “With thousands of households already struggling during the current cost of living crisis, few will be in a position to replace parcels that do not arrive. Many will have already stretched their budgets to buy gifts for family and friends, ensuring they purchased in good time for Christmas deliveries.”
The MP welcomed an “urgent response” detailing what procedures the company had put in place to deal with the backlog.
Ms Harris told The Independent: “This kind of service is unacceptable at any time of year but right now [Evri] are ruining people’s Christmases.”
“The response I received from Evri suggested that this was a minor setback affecting a small number of areas. But the volume of emails and messages I have received since I first raised the issue, complaining of late or lost deliveries and terrible customer service, paints a very different picture,” she explained.
She continued: “I raised this in the House of Commons last week with the Leader of the House and she has assured me that she will take it to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as a matter of urgency.”
In November, Evri was found to be the worst performing parcel company for a second year running, after scoring just 1.75 stars out of a possible five in the second annual parcel league table by Citizens Advice. At the time, the company published a statement about the league table, claiming that the data used by Citizens Advice was “inaccurate”.
“We are sorry that some customers are experiencing short, localised delays in receiving their parcels,” a spokesperson for Evri told The Independent.
The company said that it is delivering “more than three million parcels a day” during the festive period.
The spokesperson added that the company is experiencing some delays to service due to record Christmas volumes, Royal Mail strikes, staff shortages and severe weather conditions.
They added that Evri had recruited an additional “5,000 couriers, 15 lorries and 820 trailers” to help deliver Christmas.
“We are working closely with our retail partners to support them in providing guidance to customers on delivery times in this very important time of year and also providing regular updates and information to our small business partners. We thank everyone for their patience and understanding.”
