The Joys of Christmas Shopping...

Oh, the joys of Christmas shopping.  Even doing it online causes stress.  Well, not so much the shopping bit, but rather the delivery bit.  As my two eldest great nieces are living overseas again, I decided to take advantage of the fact that they'll be making a brief stay at my sister's just before Christmas, to order their presents on Amazon and have them sent there for my niece (their mother) to collect and give to them on the day.  Everything was going swimmingly until I got the dreaded notification that delivery of the order had been entrusted to Evri, (formerly Hermes UK).  The problems began immediately, with them stating that the package was now on a van and 'out for delivery'.  This was quickly followed by the message that there 'had been a problem' and that it wouldn't be delivered that day, but would be the next - they'd keep me updated.  Except that they didn't.  Radio silence ensued.  They kept telling Amazon (but not me directly) that it would be delivered in the next 48 hours.  This went on until the package was four days over its target delivery date and Amazon informed me that they now considered it 'lost'.  I mean, how can something be 'lost' when it is supposedly in a delivery van local to the address it is destined for?  At least Amazon will speak to you on the phone, or rather their Indian call centre will, so I was able to re-order and re-send the items.  Except that some now had delivery dates after my niece will have gone back home.  So I had to find substitutes with delivery dates within the next few days.

According to the guy I spoke to at the call centre, couriers are selected at random for deliveries, so he couldn't guarantee that Evri wouldn't be given a second opportunity to lose the items.  Clearly, however, they weren't involved this time, as the dispatch notification came directly from Amazon and they delivered the first two items within 24 hours.  The two substitute items, they say, will arrive tomorrow.  There's still a chance that the original package will turn up - in which case, to my great nieces, I'll be an amazing uncle for giving them even more this Christmas.  This, however, is only a hypothetical outcome, as Evri tracking still claims that it is 'out on delivery', which seems to mean that it has somehow vanished into the ether.  The fact that Amazon even has a procedure for dealing with these 'losses' and seem unsurprised by them, arranging replacements or refunds with no argument, implies that they aren't uncommon.  Indeed, Amazon's own reviews for Evri/Hermes shows that a staggering 81% of their customers give them only a one star rating, with many stating they only give them that because there is no zero star rating.  Losing packages seems to be commonplace for Evri, with those they do manage to deliver often seeming to be damaged in transit.  Which shouldn't be surprising as, for two years running, Evri has been rated the UK's worst performing company and regularly tops the polls of 'worst delivery companies'.  Within the last couple of weeks, it has been reported that a large number of packages they were supposed to be delivering had been found dumped in Kent.  Moreover, earlier this year a consumer affairs TV show found that Evri was regularly auctioning off the contents of packages they deemed 'undeliverable' due to indecipherable addresses, despite the address labels being legible in most cases.

All of which begs the question: why does this firm still get given contracts by major retailers?  Sure, I know that they are cheap, but their frequent failures to actually deliver the goods, (let alone the above incidents), must surely risk trashing the reputations of the companies that employ them?  Surely the point of capitalism, so we are told, is that competition in the market place ensures that only the best firms which deliver (in the wider sense) for customers will survive,  Except, of course, that increasing quality of service has become of secondary importance to costs - 'competition' has become a race to the bottom to see who can offer the cheapest, not the best, products.  In the world of delivery services this means that the customer ultimately ends up risking receiving a sub-standard service.  This wouldn't be so bad if we, as customers, were given a choice as to which carrier is used for delivery of our online purchases.  Amazon appears to do this, but as I discovered, even if you opt to pay for next day delivery, the courier is still randomly assigned, meaning that you could still end up with the likes of Evri, (who, surprise, surprise, also has a poor reputation for actually delivering next day  on next day deliveries).  Personally, I'd be quite happy to pay extra for a guarantee that orders will be sent via Royal Mail, who I've always found more reliable and have a clear cut procedure for dealing with delayed and lost deliveries.  (As someone pointed out on Amazon's reviews of Evri, even when on strike Royal Mail delivers more packages than Evri).  

So, what do I think actually happened to my initial delivery?  Personally, I doubt very much that it ever was 'out on delivery'.  I think it far more likely that something happened to it at Evri's depot - damaged or the contents pilfered and the whole 'on the van', 'there's been a problem', nonsense was nothing more than a subterfuge aimed at stringing myself and Amazon along until it was so late I became eligible for a replacement or refund and the original package would be written off as 'lost' and hopefully forgotten about.  Even as I write this, my great nieces' original presents could be in the process of being wrapped up as some Evri employee's kids' presents, or could be listed on eBay.  I certainly hope that Amazon bill Evri for the costs of the original items.  It won't bankrupt them but, if it happens enough, they might start taking their job more seriously.  As it is, my great nieces will, at least, get their presents (albeit not exactly what I had originally intended) and I have one less thing to worry about, Christmas shopping wise.