Here, currently, are the seven most depressing words in the English language: Your parcel will be delivered by Evri. My recent experience of a parcel being “lost” by the woeful delivery company has added me to the many consumers who rate Evri the worst in the country, as outlined in a recent Ofcom survey. That same review had Amazon as the best performer, but even that mighty platform let me down with two delivery no-shows in recent weeks. I was out of pocket to Amazon by more than £100 for a few weeks. How do they get away with it? In a final twist of these farcical ecommerce episodes, I was refunded for the non-appearance of the Evri-borne order – only to have it turn up two days later. And this is the future of retailing? Oh dear. Readers of my columns across the past 20 years will know I am no fan of shopping online. I like the interaction with a human being in a shop, I like getting expert advice, and I want to see physical retailing survive, so I avoid buying via websites most of the time but sometimes it appears to be the easy (ha, ha!) option. Living in rural north Northumberland, I don’t have a vast choice of shops to support. There used to be in Berwick upon Tweed, my nearest town, a super shop for computer and mobile phone repairs, plus accessories like phone cases. It was run by a very helpful and knowledgeable Egyptian man called Rafa. Annoyingly, it had closed some months ago, so when I acquired a new phone I went online to get an inexpensive case. On December 15 I ordered a case from a company called SDTEK and promptly received a cheerful email telling me I’d receive my “Luxurious Magnetic Flip Leather Wallet Case with Card Slot for Galaxy S21 (Blue)” between 21 and 23 December. I am not sure what was “luxurious” about it, but the rest of the description was accurate. On 16 December the sum of £14.98 left my bank account in favour of SDTEK. On 17 December another email informed me my case had been dispatched. I was impressed with the speed of execution and the communication. As this was not urgent and as it was approaching Christmas, I was relaxed about the case taking a week to reach me. By 30 December, I was less relaxed by its non-appearance. Checking the link on SDTEK’s email I saw that Evri had had the case at its depot since 18 December and there it still was. My message to SDTEK via its website prompted a speedy and polite apologetic email the same day. On 31 December it upped its game by stating: “I am sorry to hear that your order hasn’t arrived, we can see you have waited for some time so we have decided to issue a full refund.” It also offering me a £5 voucher for my trouble, which I found a bit insulting. Am I too sensitive? Was £5 worth offering, or would they have been better just stating the apology? On 2 January another update: “A refund of 14.98GBP is on it’s way back to your bank account and will be deposited in 5-10 business days.” My annoyance at the company’s misuse of “it’s” instead of “its” was amplified by the fact I’d have to wait up to two weeks for my money back. What is this nonsense about “business days”? Isn’t every day a business day in this digital age? I’d had to pay upfront for a product that never arrived. I’d been down almost £15 for 17 days. Not a king’s ransom, admittedly, but what about the principle? The new year arrived and I was still in need of a new case, so I dropped into the Vodafone shop in Berwick on 2 January. They could not help me but suggested I went to see the famous Rafa, who traded in a new spot just a few doors down. In fact he had not closed down but just relocated and I had not noticed. On Friday 2nd I knocked on the door of the shop, where the lights were on but no one was at home. Tantalisingly, the walls were packed with phone cases. I returned on Saturday and the genial shopkeeper apologised for my wasted visit the previous afternoon – he’d just popped out to say his Friday prayers to Mecca. As excuses go, it was a good one. Of course he sorted me out on the spot and I departed with a perfectly adequate case that cost me just £10. Moral of story: Shop local first. Back in the ecommerce universe, credit where credit’s due (excuse the pun) but, SDTEK had the £14.98 back in my account by 5 January. Two days later, another email arrived telling me my order – the elusive phone case – was ready for collection “at my local mail point”, but without telling me where that point is. I immediately emailed the company back to confirm I had had the refund and did not want the case. The support team responded within 30 minutes to tell me the case was out for delivery. An Evri driver knocked on my door shortly afterwards. The label on the package was dated 16 December, implying that SDTEK had done what it promised but everything fell apart when the goods were in the hands of Evri. Chatting to the young guy who had brought me the case, he told me he was new to Evri and his first task was to clear a backlog of 1,500 parcels. That was 1,500 parcels across the thinly-populated countryside where I live. There was a second new driver, he added, who’d got another 1,000 parcels to clear. My man was working until 9pm each day to shift the backlog. He was paid per delivery, of course, and I am guessing he is not paid very much. I emailed SDTEK again
