A courier company has apologised after bungling the delivery of five consecutive parcels to an Inverness woman.
Bex McIntosh said her heart sank when she realised that the courier Evri was going to be handling some deliveries for her.
All five parcels eventually arrived.
But they were all late by more than a week, two were classed as lost and one arrived in pieces.
When the first delayed package turned up at her door, Bex asked her driver when she should expect the others.
“You’ll be lucky to get them by Christmas” came the reply.
“I honestly don’t know how they are still getting away with this,” said Bex. “I am so sick of this carry-on.
“It has been going on for years.”
Evri, the company formerly known as Hermes
If you’re unfamiliar with the name Evri, that might be because the company underwent a major rebrand last year.
It was previously known as Hermes.
The name change followed numerous allegations against the company about poor customer service, mishandling parcels and failing to pay its couriers properly.
Martin Lewis tweeted at the time: “Interesting to see Hermes (that came second-bottom in our poll of 17 delivery firms) is rebranding itself Evri.
“Let’s (charitably) hope this is because it believes it can be a better firm, and does indeed do a better job, and therefore wants to draw a line under past reputation.”
Evri inherited Hermes’s reviews on Trustpilot, where more than three million people have had their say on the company.
It has a respectable score of 4.2 out of 5.
But more than 360,000 people have rated it one star.
And the poor reviews have been rolling in recently.
‘I would never use Evri for delivery again’
Bex, 43, is not convinced that anything has changed.
After waiting more than a week for two of the parcels, she asked where they were and Evri declared them “lost”.
On one occasion, a new parcel was ordered in its place and the original one was then delivered – in a heavily damaged state – the next day.
Bex said: “My recent experience is just par for the course.
“With the one where the box was in pieces, there was a large glass bottle in it.
“The fact it didn’t smash is actually quite incredible.”
As we get closer to the busiest time of the year for deliveries, there are worries that customers are going to see a repeat of last year’s frustrations.
Deb Biddleston, from Belfast, was left out of pocket when she tried to send a collection of handcrafted Christmas presents for her grandchildren in Inverness.
The parcel went missing for three weeks before Hermes declared them lost altogether.
She pulled out all the stops to re-make the gifts and send them again – only for the original package to arrive.
Deb said: “No compensation for the cost of replacing everything. No way of contacting a human being, it was all automated phone calls and emails.
“I will never use them again.”
Problems at Inverness delivery depot
Inverness dad Mike Kendrick came up against the same communication problems.
He had five parcels waiting in the local depot for more than a month and was unable to get through to the company to arrange a pick-up.
Moray MSP Richard Lochhead intervened earlier this year after being contacted by constituents about poor service from Hermes.
He received an apology and assurances from company CEO Martijn de Lange that things would change.
Mr Lochhead told the P&J he would be speaking to the company again after the most recent complaints.
He said: “Earlier this year, I was contacted by dozens of people who were waiting weeks for deliveries. They were struggling with Evri’s poor customer service, which was causing a great deal of frustration.
“It is therefore disappointing to hear that many shoppers are still experiencing issues. I will again be raising this with the chief executive of Evri.”
How has Evri responded to the claims?
A spokeswoman for Evri apologised for the inconvenience that Bex McIntosh had experienced.
She added: “We successfully deliver around two million parcels a day. But occasionally, things go wrong.
“Delays and damage are often caused by poor packaging. That can also mean that the label is separated from the parcel.
“On our website, we have put together some good advice for people on the best way to wrap their items.”
Have you been affected by poor delivery service in the north of Scotland? Send an email to stuart.findlay@pressandjournal.co.uk
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