It’s BALLY’S and ADIDAS (again!) and not KAIYUN SPORTS not MACRON, not BOXT, or UNHCR

[Rosie’s A Red]

I don't even remember seeing a next day delivery option and yes delivery was free.

At 6pm on the release day, free next-day delivery was the only option given, and it was with DPD (cue huge sigh of relief from me!). I assume that the numbers of orders to be despatched by DPD were limited, because such a service would obviously cost NFFC more than the bargain-basement Evri ‘service’.

I do spend an inordinate amount of time following my orders on the Amazon app, and all the updates are of course completely reliant on the employees scanning the barcodes and updating the system. The thing that I have noticed about DPD’s employees is that they do seem to care, especially as your driver is named on the app and has a rating from previous deliveries.

I wonder how many of Evri’s employees really ‘care’. I suppose it could be a ‘pay peanuts, get monkeys’ thing.

 

[Statto]

At 6pm on the release day, free next-day delivery was the only option given, and it was with DPD (cue huge sigh of relief from me!). I assume that the numbers of orders to be despatched by DPD were limited, because such a service would obviously cost NFFC more than the bargain-basement Evri ‘service’.

I do spend an inordinate amount of time following my orders on the Amazon app, and all the updates are of course completely reliant on the employees scanning the barcodes and updating the system. The thing that I have noticed about DPD’s employees is that they do seem to care, especially as your driver is named on the app and has a rating from previous deliveries.

I wonder how many of Evri’s employees really ‘care’. I suppose it could be a ‘pay peanuts, get monkeys’ thing.

There was something on TV about these kind of things a while back, can't remember exactly where or what it was called, but it did give an idea of how things work. It could have been this - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002nnkf

They're not often working for the company but self employed people who either own or lease the van they use. They're given a number of packages which is often too many for them to deliver in the day safely whilst taking their driving breaks etc. And they have to load the packages onto the vans etc as part of the time they're working which means that gets rushed/they don't care about packing things in or damage etc etc and generally aren't given enough time to do a proper job.

It makes me wonder why so many people use evri as if the items don't arrive or arrive damaged then the supplier has to refund or replace them which costs them money, and the more this happens the more delivering items with them is going to cost other than paying for someone capable like DPD.

Amazon seem to be a bit of a mixed bag as well, usually they're reliable tracking wise but perhaps less so with things not being damaged especially recently.

Then we have Yodel who have a reputation for throwing things over gates/in bins etc

 

[Rosie’s A Red]

There was something on TV about these kind of things a while back, can't remember exactly where or what it was called, but it did give an idea of how things work. It could have been this - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002nnkf

They're not often working for the company but self employed people who either own or lease the van they use. They're given a number of packages which is often too many for them to deliver in the day safely whilst taking their driving breaks etc. And they have to load the packages onto the vans etc as part of the time they're working which means that gets rushed/they don't care about packing things in or damage etc etc and generally aren't given enough time to do a proper job.

It makes me wonder why so many people use evri as if the items don't arrive or arrive damaged then the supplier has to refund or replace them which costs them money, and the more this happens the more delivering items with them is going to cost other than paying for someone capable like DPD.

Amazon seem to be a bit of a mixed bag as well, usually they're reliable tracking wise but perhaps less so with things not being damaged especially recently.

Then we have Yodel who have a reputation for throwing things over gates/in bins etc

Thanks for that info - I can therefore see why delivery drivers are having to cut corners in terms of time, and paying little attention to a careful delivery.

With Evri’s reputation being so bad, it is indeed strange why they are still in business.

 

[Strummer]

Evri (ergo Yodel) are still in business because they’re cheap. That’s all.

Customer experience is secondary, because in percentage terms the amount of delivery cock-ups is costing them less than having to route all their deliveries through someone a little more competent.

 

[Templeton]

Was chatting to my Royal Mail post lady the other day who was delivering my Amazon parcel, she was saying anything that needs signing for or identification now Amazon are sending it through Royal Mail as the delivery drivers only want stuff they can drop and go and don't want to actually have to wait.

 

[Notcher]

There was something on TV about these kind of things a while back, can't remember exactly where or what it was called, but it did give an idea of how things work. It could have been this - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002nnkf

They're not often working for the company but self employed people who either own or lease the van they use. They're given a number of packages which is often too many for them to deliver in the day safely whilst taking their driving breaks etc. And they have to load the packages onto the vans etc as part of the time they're working which means that gets rushed/they don't care about packing things in or damage etc etc and generally aren't given enough time to do a proper job.

It makes me wonder why so many people use evri as if the items don't arrive or arrive damaged then the supplier has to refund or replace them which costs them money, and the more this happens the more delivering items with them is going to cost other than paying for someone capable like DPD.

Amazon seem to be a bit of a mixed bag as well, usually they're reliable tracking wise but perhaps less so with things not being damaged especially recently.

Then we have Yodel who have a reputation for throwing things over gates/in bins etc

I can confirm that's the case. One of my mates up here owns a DPD franchise and has his own network or driver. DPD offer a subcontractor system partnership so it's hard to know whether it's DPD themselves, a subcontractor franchise or one of their network of owner drivers that's actually in charge of your parcel. Having said that I've never had a single issue with DPD.

Evri presumably have a network of ramblers and maybe even skateboarders for express delivery.

 

[Wes' Organ]

My Evri driver is ace, everything arrives on time, she'll nip back if you're out or put in safe place if no signature required.
I reckon it's a simple matter of good looks and charm, if you've got'em then good things just follow you around I find.

 

[Statto]

Was chatting to my Royal Mail post lady the other day who was delivering my Amazon parcel, she was saying anything that needs signing for or identification now Amazon are sending it through Royal Mail as the delivery drivers only want stuff they can drop and go and don't want to actually have to wait.

They are probably on such a tight schedule that those jobs take them a lot longer.

It might be interesting to see how general this policy is as I don't think RM always stick to the needing to see ID (or needing to see someone who is over age) when dropping off age restricted items, as opposed to Amazon who usually do...

 

[Notcher]

They are probably on such a tight schedule that those jobs take them a lot longer.

It might be interesting to see how general this policy is as I don't think RM always stick to the needing to see ID (or needing to see someone who is over age) when dropping off age restricted items, as opposed to Amazon who usually do...

It probably depends on your postie. The royal mail guy who delivers our packages has been delivering ours for at least 10 years so he's happy to just leave it with whoever is here.

 

[Barrynakis]

My Evri driver is ace, everything arrives on time, she'll nip back if you're out or put in safe place if no signature required.
I reckon it's a simple matter of good looks and charm, if you've got'em then good things just follow you around I find.

Living in Clifton when they ask you for your safe place do you reply, "Ruddington"?

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

Evri (ergo Yodel) are still in business because they’re cheap. That’s all.

Customer experience is secondary, because in percentage terms the amount of delivery cock-ups is costing them less than having to route all their deliveries through someone a little more competent.

Evri used to be Hermes. Yodel are still operation under the Yodel are I believe.

 

[Rzar]

My Evri driver is ace, everything arrives on time, she'll nip back if you're out or put in safe place if no signature required.
I reckon it's a simple matter of good looks and charm, if you've got'em then good things just follow you around I find.

Evri are very good in my opinion. I have never had an issues with them & if I have, they resolve it quiockly. UPS are the best. I think most delivery companies are okay.

Royal Mail are the worst, they may offer a personal service in that you see your postman regularly but their delivery times, tracking & customer support is genuinely shocking - dining off the brand name & cannot believe people put them above most delivery companies.

Good luck getting your parcel back or refunded if Royal Mail lose it.

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

At 6pm on the release day, free next-day delivery was the only option given, and it was with DPD (cue huge sigh of relief from me!). I assume that the numbers of orders to be despatched by DPD were limited, because such a service would obviously cost NFFC more than the bargain-basement Evri ‘service’.

I do spend an inordinate amount of time following my orders on the Amazon app, and all the updates are of course completely reliant on the employees scanning the barcodes and updating the system. The thing that I have noticed about DPD’s employees is that they do seem to care, especially as your driver is named on the app and has a rating from previous deliveries.

I wonder how many of Evri’s employees really ‘care’. I suppose it could be a ‘pay peanuts, get monkeys’ thing.

I tend to be the same watching the progress of the orders. Amazon with their maps and position of delivery make me laugh though. The map shows the location of the driver on my street and says I'm the next delivery. I look out of the window and can see the van. 20 minutes later the van hasn't moved an inch. I sometimes think one of their drivers is 'getting his cocoa' at a house down the street!

For all the troubles of Evri, thy have never left a parcel on the front yard. Only an Amazon driver has done that. Fortunately I was in at the time and saw him leavings rushed out as it wasn't in the safe place. He pointed out he had left it by the step.

 

[valspoodle]

My Evri driver is ace, everything arrives on time, she'll nip back if you're out or put in safe place if no signature required.
I reckon it's a simple matter of good looks and charm, if you've got'em then good things just follow you around I find.

Same here. Our Evri driver is a pretty blond who delivers from her own car, is very efficient and delivers with a broad smile.

 

[valspoodle]

It probably depends on your postie. The royal mail guy who delivers our packages has been delivering ours for at least 10 years so he's happy to just leave it with whoever is here.

Like the postie who alerted our neighbour to ring the fire brigade when I left a boiled egg on the stove whilst I went off digging on the allotment. The postie has also been coming around here for years.

I got back from the plot none the wiser after all the commotion wondering what the fuss was about. But they were all marvellous.

 

[Bing Crosby's Head]

Evri used to be Hermes. Yodel are still operation under the Yodel are I believe.

They got taken over by InPost and start using that branding next month. Although InPost are now part of FedEx so maybe not for long! Yodel took over White Arrow which was part of Experian / GUS when they were based near the Boots site.

 

[Strummer]

Crikey that makes my head spin.

We still have Hermes in Germany, they in fact delivered a Paket for my daughter today (some terrible clothing choices for her holidays, no doubt). No issues with Hermes here to be fair, they are decent. Always ring the bell for the apartment, and won't just chuck stuff everywhere (we have a sort of informal arrangement, there are four apartments in our building, and my upstairs neighbour Ernst-Lothar is semi-retired, and my downstairs neighbour Irina is retired, and my wife is often at home, so one of us is typically "in" so most of the regular delivery drivers have it sussed by now, if there is a delivery for our building just buzz all the doorbells, someone will answer and let them in.

I think if it is a "regular" courier, they get used to the addresses on their "route" as it were.

 

[Rob1965]

As the consumer we only see the part of the supply chain that directly affects us, the actual delivery, and so understandably that’s the part we get pissed off about. But if you ever stop to think why it’s shit, and look for the root cause I think Statto’s post above goes some way to answering that.
And if we really do look for the root cause I think we’ll find that WE are the problem, we want everything cheap, we want it now, and a lot of people order multiple items and return what they don’t want all of which helps to overload the system and cause the problems we see. IMO.

 

[Rob1965]

A quick check with ChatGPT shows that 42 million packages are lost or severely damaged each year in the UK with Evri being responsible for just over 7 million.

 

[Otis Redding]

Am I one of only a few people who bother to visit the shops?

 

[Rob1965]

Am I one of only a few people who bother to visit the shops?

No, it’s something I still do, although it’s getting more difficult. I do buy things online but personal items such as clothes, shoes, I just have to see them and try them on.

 

[Rob1965]

But then I think we of a certain age are much more comfortable and dare I say discerning when it comes to shopping in bricks and mortar stores.

 

[Otis Redding]

......personal items such as clothes, shoes, I just have to see them and try them on.

Same here.

 

[Strummer]

I buy a lot of stuff online because I’m lazy. But for stuff like clothing and suchlike I would much rather go an try stuff on.

Especially clothing as I seem to be a funny shape.

 

[Statto]

As the consumer we only see the part of the supply chain that directly affects us, the actual delivery, and so understandably that’s the part we get pissed off about. But if you ever stop to think why it’s shit, and look for the root cause I think Statto’s post above goes some way to answering that.
And if we really do look for the root cause I think we’ll find that WE are the problem, we want everything cheap, we want it now, and a lot of people order multiple items and return what they don’t want all of which helps to overload the system and cause the problems we see. IMO.

The thing with places like amazon lockers is that they can be used for both dropping off and picking up returns, So if a courier is making a trip out to deliver to a locker then they can not only unload what they have to bring out but take back to the depot anything which has been left as a return. You don't get that convenience with doing that at people's doors but that doesn't mean there isn't going to be a driver in that area. Most days an Amazon driver would be in most areas especially a big city, so it doesn't put too much out provided there's still a balance.

Returns are a necessary part of online shopping because it replaces the time of inspecting the goods in the shop before purchasing. In a shop your only legal recourse to return goods is if they're faulty and if they're faulty within a time period (legally six months without question) and it's down to the shop's goodwill to allow the return for any other reason, but you can return online within a week or two for any reason, and you don't even need to give one. So you can indeed buy multiple sizes of the same thing and return ones which don't fit...

The point with free shipping is that actually it's not free. Most retailers don't offer it separately unless it's a premium service - one place I get CDs and sheet music from quite regularly offers RM 2nd class free, RM 1st / tracked for a quid or two, and then you can have a couple of couriers for a few pounds, if you go for the basic delivery it's slow and untracked but the faster/trackable service is a bit more. But the costs of postage will be subsumed within the cost of the goods. Even with something like Prime that happens because the amount paid for Prime probably doesn't go anywhere near covering the cost of the deliveries Prime customers make during the course of the year and it also covers the cost of other services such as the video streaming etc.

Am I one of only a few people who bother to visit the shops?

Probably. Though certainly in Nottm it's getting harder to get into the centre especially if you're not taking a bus, and then if you're getting a lot of stuff or larger items (which you presumably still can in places like M&S and JL) getting things back via bus can be impractical and then if you're going for delivery... might as well have just done it online to begin with. One time I saw some people who basically got as many things like pillows and duvets they could carry between about 4/5 of them and then tried to take it all on a packed bus...

If you're parking in somewhere like VC then the parking fee is quite high and you're still cramming the car into the tight spaces from the 1970s or whenever they were measured, but when you see an older car it's noticeable how much smaller they are.

I guess there's places like Meadowhall and the smaller retail parks around Notts also but then you're travelling around more which removes the convenience anyway.

The other thing is places like Amazon, Ebuyer, etc can then also hold much larger inventories in a warehouse and even if they don't get it a lot can be dropshipped from a wholesaler or ordered in for them to ship out within a few days. Stores are limited by their size and so can't really compete.

It's sad to see it but it's been shifting over for a while and the pandemic really did ram the boot into the high street.