How to Over Commit and Under Deliver

This topic has 18 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 21 January 2026 at 23:22 by IanT.

Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)

Author

Posts
3 January 2026 at 12:18 #831073
IanT
Participant
@iant
There has been a particular item that I’ve wanted for some time, that rarely appears on eBay and other places. So when I received an email informing me that this (New/Old Stock) item was for sale at a reasonable price, I immediately purchased it.

The Seller delivered it to a ‘Collection Box’ the same day and the Courier confirmed it was at the collection point on the 27th Dec. A Tracking Reference was supplied but it kept informing me that my parcel was still at the collection box (e.g. uncollected).

On the 30th I used their ‘Chatbot’ to query it’s status. I was then emailed by ‘Claire’ who assured me my parcel would be delivered that same day but in the unusual event it was not, she would be right on its case the next morning and contact me before 11.00am. Neither of these things happened of course.

Yesterday, I tried to phone them directly and found that you cannot talk to a real person. After answering (e.g. keying in) various automated questions, I was told (by the automated system) that the support team would be informed that I had called them and then the call just terminated.

Yesterday I received this statement (as part of a longer email)

“I’m sorry to hear your parcel still hasn’t been located and I have escalated this with the courier’s manager to be investigated and to ensure this doesn’t happen again. We will try to retrieve the parcel however at this stage it is likely the parcel is unfortunately lost”

In other words – Sorry, we’ve lost your parcel (but we’ve fired the courier) and that’s tough. Not to worry though, we’ll really look forward to doing business with you again sometime.

They also suggested that I take the matter up with the Seller directly (which I already had done) as it was now up to us to sort this mess out.

The courier is EVRI of course.

Changing their trading name hasn’t improved them one little bit. Avoid them like the plague if you can (even if eBay does promote them). Post Office “48-Hour Tracked” costs a little more but is well worth it…

Regards,

IanT
Advert

3 January 2026 at 12:23 #831077
Phil P
Participant
@philp
I wonder what “LOST” means.
Someone must have it.
3 January 2026 at 13:16 #831088
Michael Gilligan
Participant
@michaelgilligan61133
3 January 2026 at 15:57 #831110
Engine Builder
Participant
@enginebuilder
Evri are a joke. I have had the same message from Claire when I informed them the photo evidence that my parcel

had been delivered was not my address.

Same thing happened on another delivery the next day. As far as they were concerned the parcel had been delivered.

This video will make you laugh and sums up the service well.

https://youtu.be/ne4F0QYrfGE?si=aISxIWuD6QtHLkCm
3 January 2026 at 17:26 #831124
duncan webster 1
Participant
@duncanwebster1
)……Post Office “48-Hour Tracked” costs a little more but is well worth it…

Regards,

IanT

I sent a letter by Royal Mail ‘signed for’ on 2 Dec. Still not arrived. The recipient is HMRC, so they must have been in. This is the fourth important letter that RM have sent into the ether.

Only way to get reliable letter post is to put it in a box and send it as a parcel
3 January 2026 at 18:16 #831129
peak4
Participant
@peak4
For Royal Mail, if it’s important I used “Tracked”, rather than “Signed For”

For some legal documents such as letters to/from DVLA, police etc, it’s worth reading the relevant part of the Interpretation Act, but make sure you get free proof of 1sr Class posting from your Royal Mail Post Office.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1978/30/section/7
Unfortunately DVLA completely ignore it for incoming mail, only outgoing.
e.g. they lost one of my V5c (bike logbook), even though it was sent directly to them via a Crown Post Office, so I had to pay for a replacement.

Re. parcels, again I use RM Tracked for sending wherever possible; my Olympus photographic stuff, they send me a DHL labels so I drop it off at a service point, after which it’s fully insured.

Simon, our local Evri courier is great, though he does always leave parcels somewhere rather than re-visiting, which I can understand having seen this BBC Panorama documentary.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002nnkf/panorama-evri-wheres-my-parcel

Last year I ordered a camera lens from a respected national retailer, who used a different national courier.
I bought it in a sale, but current value is about £6,800.
The contract said “signed for delivery” only, no safe drop off or re-direction allowed.
The parcel labelling said the same in several places.
Courier company advised a delivery time window, but was one of the outfits which doesn’t allow me to track their van on-route.

A little while after the window had expired, I went to the porch to check for other post, and found the lens in a box on the front step, fully exposed and in heavy rain, for all to see from the road.
Courier didn’t knock, or ring the obvious doorbell.

Fortunately lens was dry inside the soggy parcel, as the shop had double wrapped it, but neither I nor the vendor was terribly impressed.

Bill
3 January 2026 at 19:10 #831133
Danni Burns
Participant
@danniburns84841
Most of my deliveries are from Evri (eBay), and I have never had a problem with them (that I can remember). They deliver to my Back/Side door, and the drivers are always pleasant. They leave packages on the back doorstep if no answer and close the front gate. We tend to have the same drivers (1 or 2 anyway), and they’re great.

So I think problems may be area-dependent.

There are a lot of delivery firm options currently, and I like that because Royal Mail have been dire for years (hopefully improving recently due to competition).

Amazon is slipping. Maybe too big now.

For any issues (claim/dispute) – Give accurate/bad feedback. Keep records for all interactions. Last resort – take matters into your own hands – I have had great success with complaining of dire service on a company’s LinkedIn feeds, for getting a matter dealt with (especially if you have unambiguous details of the matter) quickly and from Top Management.
3 January 2026 at 19:32 #831138
JA
Participant
@ja
Surely if you pay by credit card for something over £100 and there are problems, even delivery, you just hand it all over to the credit card company.

Am I misunderstand the use of a credit card?

JA
3 January 2026 at 20:11 #831141
Michael Gilligan
Participant
@michaelgilligan61133
Customer

Liason

Artificial

Intelligence

Response

Engine

… any better suggestions ?

MichaelG.
4 January 2026 at 10:26 #831176
Bo’sun
Participant
@bosun58570
Another recommendation for the Panorama programme about EVRI. A bit of an “eye opener” if you weren’t already aware of EVRI’s delivery service (if you can call it that?). As has been mentioned, the level of service can be OK, but on the whole seems a bit random. Is it area dependent? maybe.
4 January 2026 at 11:28 #831191
Martyn Poole
Participant
@martynpoole48399
One thing that leapt out at me from the spoof Nevri video was that I have no recollection of ever seeing a delivery driver from Evri who looked anything like those featured or had anything but a very basic command of English.
4 January 2026 at 11:31 #831194
Robert Atkinson 2
Participant
@robertatkinson2
The “final mile” delivery to your door by EVRI is very much dependent on the actual person doing the delivery. Personally my experence with that part was OK until the latter part of last year when the person changed. The new person just drops the package on the mat, takes a photo, rings the bell and leaves without wating to see if anyone is in. My door is literally just a step away from the pavement. When asked about this he was rude and basically said he wasn’t going to take time as it cost him money.
Hence the differences in experience by recipients.

The other issue I’ve seen with EVRI is loss at transfer points. Having seen my local one, a chaotic muddy yard similar to that shown on the Panorama program I’m not surprised.

Once a package is lost EVRI don’t seem to care and for a ebay seller they basically end up bearing the loss. Ebay’s new “simple delivery” process allows the seller to choose EVRI or Royal Mail. I always select Royal Mail.

Robert.
4 January 2026 at 12:45 #831207
peak4
Participant
@peak4
There’s plenty of people who make a living by attending auctions for “lost” parcels from a variety of couriers, and re-selling the items on eBay, Sunday Markets, car boot sales etc.
A quick peruse of Youtube will show lots of examples.
This is an older one I remembered from when Evri was still Hermes;

Just found this one, which exposes some sort of dodgy trading, where new accounts sell lots of stuff.

Bill
5 January 2026 at 09:23 #831294
Chris Crew
Participant
@chriscrew66644
I have registered with every courier my ‘safe-place’ which is the greenhouse. I have had almost every one of the aforementioned issues. The ‘favourite’ being not ringing the doorbell or knocking on the door even when I have been sat waiting for a delivery and they have just left the parcel on the doorstep. Fortunately, the house has a drive so the risk of being the victim of a ‘porch pirate’ was not great but the greenhouse at the rear of the property is safer.

One delivery was left at a property only thirty-yards diagonally opposite to mine and, even though it had the correct address on it, the householder clearly couldn’t be bothered to cross the road and let me know. I had no idea where the package had been delivered but I informed the courier company and their driver collected the parcel several days later, walked over the road and handed it to me. Although I don’t know the other householder I was disappointed by the selfishness of someone who accepted a parcel that wasn’t addressed to them, took it in and did absolutely nothing to resolve the situation.
5 January 2026 at 15:22 #831322
jimmy b
Participant
@jimmyb
I’ve had 3 of my 3D printed DTI clocks go missing with Evri on the run up to Christmas! In each case van fulls of parcels have been found dumped (one clock was recovered and eventually delivered)

I’ll no longer be offering Evri delivery.

In 20 years of selling online, worldwide, I had only had 2 parcels go missing.

Jimb
5 January 2026 at 16:49 #831337
Robert Atkinson 2
Participant
@robertatkinson2
On 5 January 2026 at 09:23 Chris Crew Said:

I have registered with every courier my ‘safe-place’ which is the greenhouse. I have had almost every one of the aforementioned issues. The ‘favourite’ being not ringing the doorbell or knocking on the door even when I have been sat waiting for a delivery and they have just left the parcel on the doorstep. Fortunately, the house has a drive so the risk of being the victim of a ‘porch pirate’ was not great but the greenhouse at the rear of the property is safer.

One delivery was left at a property only thirty-yards diagonally opposite to mine and, even though it had the correct address on it, the householder clearly couldn’t be bothered to cross the road and let me know. I had no idea where the package had been delivered but I informed the courier company and their driver collected the parcel several days later, walked over the road and handed it to me. Although I don’t know the other householder I was disappointed by the selfishness of someone who accepted a parcel that wasn’t addressed to them, took it in and did absolutely nothing to resolve the situation.

There is a big issue with designating a “safe plase” to a delivery company. You basically have no comeback if they say they put the item there and it disappears for whatever reason. So unless it is a propper “one-way” deposit box and CCTV covering it I would not consider it.

Robert.
6 January 2026 at 14:04 #831471
IanT
Participant
@iant
Just to wrap this one up. The stated ‘delivery’ window expired today, so I was able to invoke the “failed to arrive” option in my purchase history. I was pleasantly suprised when I received this response back from eBay within the hour…

“We’re sorry, but your item is delayed and may be lost in transit. We understand this is disappointing. Your order is covered by eBay Money Back Guarantee, and so we’ve issued you a full refund. If you still receive the item, there’s nothing else you need to do. You may keep the refund and the item”

They’ve refunded my credit card. Whilst I do feel sorry for the Seller, I’m also quite annoyed that my item has been lost. If it was something that I could simply reorder, then OK, no real harm. But EVRI have cost my Seller money and lost an unusual item that I’d been seeking for quite a while.

Avoid!

IanT
6 January 2026 at 14:29 #831474
jimmy b
Participant
@jimmyb
Ebay are refunding buyers with no impact on the seller (in my cases at least)

Jimb
21 January 2026 at 23:22 #833559
IanT
Participant
@iant
Well, to complete this EVRI saga – I received an email this morning from eBay just before 12.00 (closely followed by one from EVRI) telling me that my parcel would be delivered today and (just after 6pm) it was. Item is as ordered and the packaging was undamaged, so just a month late.

In summary, I seem to have obtained my item free of charge and (hopefully) my Seller was also paid too. So I’m much less disgruntled than i was, although I’d still much prefer not have my ‘gruntle’ dissed in the first place. 😉

Regards,

IanT
Author

Posts