Evri faces Christmas supply backlash as driver is caught ‘stealing’ and prospects complain their presents haven’t arrived
Evri has faced fresh backlash over ‘stolen’ presents in the run-up to Christmas – with the latest incident seeing a delivery driver caught ‘running off’ with a package in broad daylight.
Customers have complained their gifts have not arrived in time for the big day after a series of videos exposed Britain’s £650million-a-year-parcel theft epidemic.
The latest shows the moment a driver appears to swipe a parcel from a family’s doorstep – before allegedly making off with it under her coat.
Toni Fryer, 47, vowed to ‘never use Evri again’ after her son’s Christmas present disappeared from her home in Timsbury, Hampshire, on December 15.
The mother claims the doorbell camera shows a woman in an Evri van delivering two parcels to her home before leaving with a third package – delivered earlier that day – hidden under her jacket.
Evri confirmed to the Daily Mail it is investigating the missing parcel.
Video captured the moment an Evri delivery driver appeared to steal a Christmas present from a customer’s doorstep – running off with the package in broad daylight
In CCTV footage filmed last week, the driver is seen dropping off two packages on the porch of Ms Fryer’s home
But she then appears to exchange this for one that is already outside, running off with it beneath her navy blue jacket
Ms Fryer, who was not at home for the deliveries, said she had contacted Evri about the missing parcel – but to no avail.
She said: ‘I asked my partner to bring the three parcels into the house, but he insisted there were only two left on the porch.
‘I pulled up the doorbell footage and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The most annoying thing is that you can’t contact them for love nor money. Evri have taken no responsibility and their customer service is shocking.
‘I just wish the situation was taken more seriously. I will never use Evri again.’
To make matters worse Ms Fryer said she had ordered a fourth parcel for the same day which never arrived.
She continued: ‘This could have been someone’s medicine, or something really important. The drivers need to have better background checks as some of them just can’t be trusted.’
Evri insisted the company’s priority is to ‘handle every parcel with care’.
A spokesman added: ‘We take claims such as these very seriously. We are investigating this as a priority and our customer service team is reaching out to the customer to offer their support.’
Hampshire Constabulary said: ‘We received a report that between 10.10am and 11.05am on Dec 15, the passenger in a delivery van stole a parcel from the doorstep of an address in Timsbury.’
Last week another parcel thief called ‘Jay’ spoke about his tactics at the White City estate in West London
Jay points to a Daewoo plastic kettle in a box which is among the stolen items he is handling
Jay told Channel 4 he felt ‘like a kid’ when he was unboxing the stolen items
The incident comes amid reports today of a large number of parcels going undelivered in Salisbury.
Over the last few months, Evri packages have disappeared or been sent to the wrong addresses.
Tish Burbridge, a pensioner in the Wiltshire city, told the Salisbury Journal the occurrence was ‘extraordinarily annoying’.
She claimed that in the last eight months she had ‘not received six or seven parcels’.
‘It’s extraordinarily annoying and also, you know, I’m now on a pension and money is tight, and I can’t afford to lose money like that. It’s just, it’s just not practicable. So, it has certainly made me rethink who I buy from in terms of who they use as couriers,’ Ms Burbridge added.
Laura Clark, another Salisbury resident, who runs two Facebook groups for people who have lost parcels, said parcels thefts in the city were ‘happening a lot’.
In response, Evri said it is ‘committed to making every delivery experience a good one’.
The company added: ‘A third-party contractor was supporting with deliveries in the area, but they didn’t meet our standards, and so they will no longer be delivering on behalf of Evri.
Extraordinary video filmed in the midst of Christmas parcel mayhem shows a driver in Norfolk pulling items from sacks and throwing them into the open door of his delivery vehicle
‘A new local courier is in place, and the team are monitoring deliveries in the area.’
In a separate incident this month another Evri driver was caught on camera – this time hurling packages in the back of his van.
Extraordinary video filmed in the midst of Christmas parcel mayhem showed the man pulling items from sacks and throwing them into the open door of his delivery vehicle. They included a large box marked ‘fragile’.
Flabbergasted customers described how the man ‘laughed off’ complaints when he handed over crumpled boxes. The driver was also said to have abandoned a pile of items in a high street before he crossed the road to deliver a package.
Elsewhere in the country a customer in Sheffield took to social media to complain they needed ‘gps’ data to find their parcel.
A photo taken at night shows the grey boxed package on the grass next to a stone wall.
The caption read: ‘Evri delivery, took gps data for me to find it – no joke.’
Other photos shared show damaged boxes for gifts that appear to have received a battering in transit.
One person said jokingly ‘my Evri parcel has arrived and they nicely put it in a black bag lol’ – accompanied with a video of a scrunched up box.
Footage from last week uncovered yet more evidence of Britain’s multimillion pound parcel epidemic ahead of Christmas.
A Gosport resident claims they found Evri parcels dumped on the street
Frustrated shoppers have taken to local WhatsApp and Facebook groups to try to track down their ‘delivered’ parcels
Another customer claims all they received from an Amazon order, fulfilled by Evri, was a battered and empty box
A disgruntled Hello Fresh shopper said their food parcel disintegrated after being left outside in the rain
A brazen thief called ‘Jay’ bragged of using violence as an ‘element of surprise’ to target unsuspecting delivery drivers and said he felt ‘like a kid’ when opening goods.
He also claimed he now targeted parcels as a ‘side hustle’ near the White City estate in west London because they were so easy to steal and potentially very lucrative.
Jay showed Channel 4 reporter Tir Dhondy some of the parcels still in their boxes including a Russell Hobbs slow cooker, Daewoo plastic kettle and 2kw fan heater.
In the clip, Tir asked Jay: ‘Have you any idea what’s inside them?’
He replied: ‘Not yet, but we’re gonna find out.’ Jay then confirmed most of the parcels were on a doorstep.
When he opened a box of cleaning products, he said: ‘In this game you take what you can get your hands on. We’ll see what else we’ve got, we might get something better.’
He then brought out a heater and a kettle within the next box, saying: ‘That will come in handy for someone.’
The footage was shared with the Daily Mail ahead of a Dispatches documentary which revealed a parcel is stolen every seven seconds in Britain.
It comes as the crime is now costing the UK an estimated £650million a year, with opportunistic thieves stealing from doorsteps and organised gangs using getaway cars with false numberplates and sophisticated tactics to hijack delivery vans in broad daylight.
Amid the complaints the Daily Mail last week sent five Christmas packages across Britain – via Royal Mail, Parcelforce, Evri and DPD.
It was only the Royal Mail package that arrived on time.
Five identical parcels were wrapped up, all containing the same Marks & Spencer wine glass, wrapped up in bubble wrap and placed inside a padded envelope.
All but one were posted on the same day from the Kensington High Street post office branch – as Evri had to be sent off from a different store, due to the one initially identified no longer supporting its couriers.
Every parcel but the Evri package was delivered – with the Daily Mail still awaiting an update as of this morning.
