The Lemon Fool

More like "Nevri" as in you have no chance of speaking to a human when the new Herpes....err.. Hermes fails to deliver that parcel.

Parcel collected 23 Aug.
( tracking said parcel was on it's way)
Couple of phone calls to the person I was sending to made to check if item received.
Not delivered by 6 Sep
(no change in delivery status)
Logged on their website -incident number generated....asked for a call back, left mobile number.

7 Sep - parcel is out for delivery today

8th Sep - parcel will be collected ( errrr?)
Tracking then goes on to show it's on it's way

14 Sep ...Still not delivered, new "incident number " generated online. I asked to be contacted by email or phone ( Nevri happened)

15 Sep ...spent several hours talking to answer machine....it asks for the first 3digits of the parcel's tracking code....it repeatedly doesn't understand ( eg..I say " ABC", it repeats back " you said AXZ...is this correct ?"). several attempts by both myself and Mrs M to enter the tracking code...to no avail.

There is no email address and no telephone number to ring.

They really are not very good at customer service....the name has changed but they're still crap!

This is how they get to be the cheapest.

It always strikes me the core business of any firm with millions of customers usually runs pretty slickly most of the time. But big costs get run up in the parts of the business which deal with things going off-piste, where large numbers of staff are need to be employed to talk to the customers with a problem, investigate and fix things manually.

It also strikes me that you can wring a bit more profit and/or make your service a bit cheaper by making it more difficult for unhappy customers to make contact with intelligent life in the company, thereby needing to employ fewer fewer staff, and this seems to be Evri's business model.

I hate them too!

Like many businesses, their reputation depends very much on their front line staff.

One or two firms we order from use Evri, and we have never had the slightest problem, but we have had the same (self employed?) courier for several years and he is conscientious, helpful and reliable.

My thoughts on Evri's reputation might well be different if this were not the case.

monabri wrote:More like "Nevri" as in you have no chance of speaking to a human when the new Herpes....err.. Hermes fails to deliver that parcel.

I used to use Hermes to ship my eBay sales.
That was a year or three ago.

They started to go to pot when our local courier - female - retired.
She used to collect promptly, and when we had a delivery she put it in our 'safe place'.
The new guy couldn't be bovvered. We're out in the sticks and for the pittance he got, it was too much effort.

It could be 2-3 days before he collected, and when he delivered to us instead of walking all of 30ft up the drive to our 'safe place' he left parcels in the lane by our post box.

I left him a series of 1 star reviews, now thank goodness ha has vanished and been replaced by someone a bit more diligent.

As regards using them for shipping, in 2021 there was some problem with their website. Local couriers were not being notified that there was stuff to collect. This went on for more than a week. Somehow I managed to find a phone no and spoke with someone, he admitted the problem. It seemed not to occur to them that they should flag the issue on their website rather than just let collections pile up.
I wrote to Carl Lyon, the then Hermes COO, to complain. No reply. That was the end of Hermes for shipping. I also began contacting sellers from whom I bought, asking them not to use Hermes/Evri, and still do when I remember.

There is a contact number here, dunno if it's still good. If you give their bot a number of a package that's been delivered, in my experience it just cuts you off.

Evri, best take every precaution to avoid.

Now I use Royal Mail to ship, or DPD or DHL. Never Evri.

V8

88V8 wrote:

monabri wrote:More like "Nevri" as in you have no chance of speaking to a human when the new Herpes....err.. Hermes fails to deliver that parcel.

I used to use Hermes to ship my eBay sales.
That was a year or three ago.

They started to go to pot when our local courier - female - retired.
She used to collect promptly, and when we had a delivery she put it in our 'safe place'.
The new guy couldn't be bovvered. We're out in the sticks and for the pittance he got, it was too much effort.

It could be 2-3 days before he collected, and when he delivered to us instead of walking all of 30ft up the drive to our 'safe place' he left parcels in the lane by our post box.

I left him a series of 1 star reviews, now thank goodness ha has vanished and been replaced by someone a bit more diligent.

As regards using them for shipping, in 2021 there was some problem with their website. Local couriers were not being notified that there was stuff to collect. This went on for more than a week. Somehow I managed to find a phone no and spoke with someone, he admitted the problem. It seemed not to occur to them that they should flag the issue on their website rather than just let collections pile up.
I wrote to Carl Lyon, the then Hermes COO, to complain. No reply. That was the end of Hermes for shipping. I also began contacting sellers from whom I bought, asking them not to use Hermes/Evri, and still do when I remember.

There is a contact number here, dunno if it's still good. If you give their bot a number of a package that's been delivered, in my experience it just cuts you off.

Evri, best take every precaution to avoid.

Now I use Royal Mail to ship, or DPD or DHL. Never Evri.

V8

Thanks for the reply. I've tried both the contact number and the webbot....The contact number goes to an automated system which asks for a 16 digit tracking code (fair enough) but this is the system that cannot understand my slightly Northern Manc accent nor my wife's slight Midlands accent.

monabri wrote:Thanks for the reply. I've tried both the contact number and the webbot....The contact number goes to an automated system which asks for a 16 digit tracking code (fair enough) but this is the system that cannot understand my slightly Northern Manc accent nor my wife's slight Midlands accent.

Ay oop.
Perhaps this might help?

V8

monabri wrote:Thanks for the reply. I've tried both the contact number and the webbot....The contact number goes to an automated system which asks for a 16 digit tracking code (fair enough) but this is the system that cannot understand my slightly Northern Manc accent nor my wife's slight Midlands accent.

Erm, don't you have a keypad for that kind of thing?

It's a little over 30 years since I worked in computer speech recognition. Back then we had fun with someone's software for recognising small vocabularies - like digits or commands - which was as much as anyone could really do at the time. Could more-or-less manage regional accents (some better than others), but the fun bit was its bafflement at our Singapore colleague's accent - which to the human ear was a lot easier than certain English regions ...

On our local facebook page I don't think a day goes by without a photo of a doorstep with the plea "where are you, that's my parcel", Not just Evri it seems that all and sundry are involved.

R6

Rhyd6 wrote:On our local facebook page I don't think a day goes by without a photo of a doorstep with the plea "where are you, that's my parcel", Not just Evri it seems that all and sundry are involved.

It does depend very much on the individual at the sharp end. I have sympathy for couriers perhaps unfamiliar with an area, paid pence per delivery and with the clock ticking, trying to deliver to a house with a name but no number - such as ours - on a dark night.
We are fortunate; by a piece of serendipity we are at the centre of our mile-long postcode, so our stuff always arrives.
With Evri it's just the last 30 ft ....

The downside of being the centre of the postcode is that everyone else's stuff arrives as well, along with the lost and fed-up courier.

V8

All my own work etc...
https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/courier_life_1318379


Courier life.

We'll tell you we will deliver at 1000-1130.

We send a text at 1046 that you are the next customer
Our delivery tracking map shows our driver 12 minutes and a mile away.

By 1400 the parcel has not arrived
The tracking shows the driver still 12 minutes and a mile away.

At 1530 we send an email saying there is an issue but the parcel will definitely arrive today

At 2230 it has not arrived. The tracking app still shows it 12 minutes and a mile away.

The next day at 0820 we send an email saying the parcel will he delivered today.

The tracking app shows the parcel at the depot 30 miles away.

Another email says it will be with you between 1200-1330.

We text at 1300 saying you are next
The tracking app shows we are 8 minutes and 700 metres away.

No parcel arrives

At 1400 the tracking has no details on your parcel.

At 1500 the tracking now shows proof of delivery at 1310 with a photograph of somebody's blurred thumb holding a piece of paper.

There is no parcel.

You will now spend several days arguing over whether the parcel was delivered or not, to whom, where and when.

You contact the seller who points at the thumb and paper photo as proof of delivery.

You have argument with seller who eventually sends a replacement via another courier which somehow arrives.

18 months later your original parcel is delivered in a shocking state, by some random bloke from Belgium who is passing on holiday whose neighbour found the parcel in his waterbutt last year.

(C) ian Diddams 2021

I was at a quiz in a local pub yesterday evening and we tied for first place. The decider question to pick the winner (free drinks involved) was "how many names does the courier service EVRI have registered for future use?" We didn't have a clue so I just wrote down a daft answer = 150,000. We won, turns out it's over 160,000, I can't remember the exact number but it really is ridiculous. The other team put down 50 but we were closer to the correct answer! Wonder if they'll use up all the names before all parcels arrive by teleportation?

R6

Rhyd6 wrote:I was at a quiz in a local pub yesterday evening and we tied for first place. The decider question to pick the winner (free drinks involved) was "how many names does the courier service EVRI have registered for future use?" We didn't have a clue so I just wrote down a daft answer = 150,000. We won, turns out it's over 160,000, I can't remember the exact number but it really is ridiculous. The other team put down 50 but we were closer to the correct answer! Wonder if they'll use up all the names before all parcels arrive by teleportation?

R6

They've got Evri base covered.

To have so many suggests that they may want to stop those names being used by potential competitors.

Watis

I got an email from Evri yesterday evening saying they had my parcel. Then one this morning saying it was with the local courier and they'd be delivering it today between 11:00 and 13:00. Then they delivered it at 11:55.

Er, that's it.

Scott.

UncleEbenezer wrote:

monabri wrote:Thanks for the reply. I've tried both the contact number and the webbot....The contact number goes to an automated system which asks for a 16 digit tracking code (fair enough) but this is the system that cannot understand my slightly Northern Manc accent nor my wife's slight Midlands accent.

Erm, don't you have a keypad for that kind of thing?

It's a little over 30 years since I worked in computer speech recognition. Back then we had fun with someone's software for recognising small vocabularies - like digits or commands - which was as much as anyone could really do at the time. Could more-or-less manage regional accents (some better than others), but the fun bit was its bafflement at our Singapore colleague's accent - which to the human ear was a lot easier than certain English regions ...

No option to enter via a keyboard. It's voice only.

Yesterday afternoon I received a parcel delivered by Evri. (A fairly rare event for me, happens maybe twice a year.) At 4 am this morning I got a text message from somebody's mobile telling me: "Your delivery couldn't be completed. To reschedule, kindly visit evri-XXXXXXX.com. We regret the inconvenience".

There are masses of scam warnings about (fake) Evri failed delivery messages, which often involve an attempt to extract a £1.45 redelivery charge. (Which the official Evri says it doesn't do, or at least not in this way.) The scammers' aim, apparently, is to get your bank account details. You can guess the rest. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/evri ... 97658.html.

But what a coincidence that I should have received this text message within hours of a genuine delivery. Far be it from me to suggest that Evri's systems might be porous, but....

....... it wouldn't be the first time. About twenty years ago, one of the major UK banks (mine! ) had to close its call staff centre in India, after a disaffected minority of the lowly-paid locals took to making highly profitable scam calls to the UK, allegedly using the confidential contact data on their in-house screens. I should know, I received one myself.

Take care out there!

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:Yesterday afternoon I received a parcel delivered by Evri. (A fairly rare event for me, happens maybe twice a year.) At 4 am this morning I got a text message from somebody's mobile telling me: "Your delivery couldn't be completed. To reschedule, kindly visit evri-XXXXXXX.com. We regret the inconvenience".

There are masses of scam warnings about (fake) Evri failed delivery messages, which often involve an attempt to extract a £1.45 redelivery charge. (Which the official Evri says it doesn't do, or at least not in this way.) The scammers' aim, apparently, is to get your bank account details. You can guess the rest. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/evri ... 97658.html.

But what a coincidence that I should have received this text message within hours of a genuine delivery. Far be it from me to suggest that Evri's systems might be porous, but....

....... it wouldn't be the first time. About twenty years ago, one of the major UK banks (mine! ) had to close its call staff centre in India, after a disaffected minority of the lowly-paid locals took to making highly profitable scam calls to the UK, allegedly using the confidential contact data on their in-house screens. I should know, I received one myself.

Take care out there!

BJ

This is really weird. I have never heard of Evri.

A few days ago, I ordered a prescription ointment from Superdrug to be picked up from the store.

Then I received a series of conflicting emails. Some from Superdrug to say that I could pick up the items tomorrow.

Others from Evri to say that they were delivering, and then had delivered the product.

It was not delivered and tomorrow I will pick it up from Superdrug.

If it's a scam, then they really should try harder!

Steve

stevensfo wrote:This is really weird. I have never heard of Evri.

I agree.

V8

88V8 wrote:

stevensfo wrote:This is really weird. I have never heard of Evri.

I agree.

V8

Evri have been around for years as "Hermes".

I imagined the dire reputation of Hermes was the reason for the name change. Unfortunately it is only the name that changed!

Mike4 wrote:[Evri have been around for years as "Hermes".

I imagined the dire reputation of Hermes was the reason for the name change. Unfortunately it is only the name that changed!

Indeed. Call me nostalgic, but sometimes it's rather reassuring to know that the old familiar companies can still provide the legendary standards of service that you've long been accustomed to. https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.myhermes.com

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:

Mike4 wrote:[Evri have been around for years as "Hermes".

I imagined the dire reputation of Hermes was the reason for the name change. Unfortunately it is only the name that changed!

Indeed. Call me nostalgic, but sometimes it's rather reassuring to know that the old familiar companies can still provide the legendary standards of service that you've long been accustomed to. https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.myhermes.com

BJ

Something strange going on here. In your link the 5 star reviews amount to just 4% of all the reviews left. But the Evri page on TP says 78% of reviews are 5 star.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.evri.com

Doesn't ring true does it?