My little micro business has used Hermes/Evri for many years to send out wreath making supplies to my loyal customers. It has always been of great value and exceptionally convenient.

Not just for the peace of mind but also to comply with the policies of Paypal (our primary payment method), I have always paid for a signature and insurance to the value of the total order. On the odd occasion a parcel was not delivered, the old Hermes website eventually allowed me to make a claim which, whilst an administrative burden, was always paid out eventually.

However, the new Evri service has a big issue of which ALL senders should be aware.

1. When there is a problem, Evri advises the parcel recipient to contact the sender for more information. There is no more information that the sender can offer. Both the sender and the recipient can only access the very same tracking information. I accept that the problem ultimately remains the responsibility of the sender but as Evri knows there is nothing we can add then their suggestions are little more than deflection.
2. There is no option on the website, robot phone line or chat function for the sender to raise a claim for a lost parcel. No matter where you start from on the website, you end up with the tracking information that correctly reports non delivery but with no option to submit a claim.
3. There is no access to a human being, there is no escalation (automated or otherwise) and there is no complaint procedure.

The closest you can get to interacting with a human is on the Evri facebook page. To be fair, they do respond to non abusive comments in a timely manner but their advice (by design or by ignorance) is fundamentally flawed; frustratingly always referring the complainer back to the robot chat/telephone about which they are complaining in the first place. When things do go wrong it is quite apparent from the comments that the performance of Evri is very very poor and, worse, no one is listening to the fundamental flaws in the service that customers have taken the time to point out..

It isn’t good. I always pay the insurance on my parcels but it turns out that there is no longer a way to submit a claim and no one to raise the problem with. It could be an oversight, it could be a tech problem or it could be outright fraud.

In a fit of pique I did open an account with DPD but then found out that the local DPD pickup shop might well be a somewhat irrelevant 3.67 miles as the crow flies but is actually 17.4 miles away by road.

I continue to use Evri but will not be letting this drop. Raising these matters on social media is my next-to-last resort; It will be a very sad state of affairs if going through the small claims court is the only way to get to speak to a human about this but I can see that being the only way to get attention.