Buyer protection? It's just not there.

[bravergrace]

I bought an item on eBay - a largeish item, about 3 foot x 2 foot x 1 foot, not a letterbox item.

The courier marked it as delivered to my address at 11.13 pm (yes, 11.13 at night). 

No photo, obviously.  Because it wasn't delivered.  There was no delivery made at that time of night, and no parcel on the doorstep in the morning.

Seller says "The tracking proves it was delivered to your address."

eBay CS have opened a case for me (I can't open a case myself, because the tracking "proves" it was delivered).

What happens next?  eBay tell me to ask the courier.  The courier won't deal with me because they will only deal with the sender.  The sender insists their courier delivered the parcel just before midnight.  

Doubtless the case will be closed in the seller's favour, leaving me out of pocket.  

And eBay talk of buyer protection.  Can't say I feel "protected."

[bravergrace]

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@fatbobfan wrote:

Hopefully turn up, I've had a phantom late delivery in the past, took a few days but eventually got where it should.

Your  more in the know than I on delivery targets for Evri drivers, guessing its a common practice, sort of understandable for them, but doesnt make for happy customers, the little I know of the self employed couriers it can be bloomin hard

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Funnily enough, speaking to someone who lives nearby (and presumably shares the same Evri driver(s) as me - she had something similar happen recently.  Item marked as delivered ridiculously late at night, but hadn't been delivered.  The driver DID deliver it to her several days later - after midnight!  So perhaps mine will turn up as well.

[bravergrace]

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@5216elisabeth wrote:

I'm curious as to what photograph the Evri driver has uploaded to the tracking on the Evri website as proof that he/she has actually delivered the parcel?  

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There is no photograph on the tracking.  

[the-nutwood-collection]

There is no photograph on the tracking. 

I missed that statement on your original post.  The non-delivery I mentioned also had no image.  Strangely,  it did have GPS co-ords that were correct for the area, but these were wide of the buyer's location - even allowing the usual GPS tolerance. 

The strangest one I've had was a non-delivery marked as 'Business premises, closed for the holiday' around 10-11pm.  The buyer lives in a house and has a regular EVRi driver who knows she's disabled and always waits for her to answer the door.  When the parcel eventually arrived the driver said that he'd been given it that day to deliver, and also said that there was a backlog at the depot.  Maybe the depots give false scans to improve their stats.

However, despite a few incidents, EVRi are paragons of efficiency compared to RM.

[555njp]

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@bravergrace wrote:

Well, the seller has offered me a refund or replacement, provided that I sign a declaration of non-receipt, on a form that states the seller  confirms the parcel was delivered.

I can remember this sort of form being used by sellers about 20 years ago - it had two purposes:

- to make sure the buyer was aware the seller didn't believe them.

- to discourage claims, legitimate or otherwise.

Can't say I'm thrilled, especially as it took me 6 minutes to work out how to open and print the form in the first place.

We had the same a couple of years ago. Customer claimed a brand new Lawnmower had not arrived. He stated 1/ signature was definitely not his and 2/ He could prove nobody was in at the time to take delivery (no photo).

When I got on to Evri, they sent me the form to pass to my buyer to sign, which as you mention which basically was customer signing to say that you have not received the item, also you would assist if necessary in any investigation and  finally should it turn up, you would inform Evri/the seller.

Customer signed form (I already refunded customer), Evri refunded me (seller) full amount of sold value. Claim was opened on a Tuesday, money refunded by Friday. I suspect the driver had stolen it but who knows?

In terms of a loss claim, far easier/quicker than with RM (and I got the sale price, not my purchase price which is all you get from RM), but you need your customer to comply by signing the form.
Not sure what would happen had they refused to do so?

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[crg_music]

Its truly amazing how Evri despite the new name survive with pretty much the same quality control as Hermes. The ultimate issue for me is a combination of  overworked drivers, poorly ran system by the company, too much room for drivers to beat the system to complete what appear to be unreasonable targets set by the company to earn a wage but ultimately the amount of companies that will continue using them.

I feel Yodel who were on a similar standard have improved significantly, you just dont hear the complaints you used to.

Now to be fair my Evri driver is great, same man for a few years and we've had zero issues ever with him specifically but there are just so many negative experiences usually down to false tracking + terrible handling=damaged items. 

My only recent experience was a cassette delivered in a cardboard box but the box was pierced and there was a hole through the insert and the cassette shell was cracked, not blaming my delivery driver as he is just the last mile and it more likely was damaged before he got it, luckily the seller was decent and refunded but ive posted maybe 300 with Royal Mail just in a Jiffy bag in the last 12 months and not a single complaint on damage, sure they are not always on time but most can live with that if the items not bust.

[5216elisabeth]

I had that same message on one last year that got delivered to the buyer within a day or so.  They must have a drop-down list of excuses for it being delivered late! I agree that Evri are generally doing pretty well with the deliveries at the moment.  To be honest the RM Tracked have been going ok too but I use them less due to previous unreliability, lack of accountability and not wanting to lose the profit if I have to claim.  

[bravergrace]

I have returned the form to the seller, confirming that the parcel hasn't been delivered.

In the meantime, EVRI updated the tracking twice today, so it now shows:

- delivered on 11.13 pm on Monday night.

- loaded out for delivery at 12.47 this afternoon (Thursday).

- failed delivery at 12.48 this afternoon (Thursday).

Clearly, EVRI still have the parcel, but either they've damaged it or have just scanned everything as "loaded out for delivery" without actually loading it, and then "unscanned" it.

[5216elisabeth]

Sounds a bit like the tracking on the biggish one I had to chase before Christmas.  A similar message appeared after my first phone call to Evri and my telling them that if it didn't get delivered I would have to refund the buyer, which obviously had cost implications for them.  Perhaps the seller is chasing it with them now...

[bravergrace]

Well, I'm pleased to say my EVRI parcel finally arrived on Saturday evening.

The tracking now shows two delivery dates.

By some strange coincidence, an hour after I received my EVRI parcel, Royal Mail returned a parcel to me where the exact same thing had happened.  The tracking shows it was delivered to my customer in early December - complete with a very clear photograph of the parcel outside my customer's unmistakeable front door.  And also that it was returned to the depot the same day as undeliverable (no reason given).  Then returned to me in January as "not collected from the sorting office".  Oddly, this customer had not told me his parcel hadn't arrived (possibly it was sent to a relative as a Christmas present?).  

So, it looks as if this "delivered but not delivered" or "delivered twice" status isn't unique to EVRI tracking.  It must be a more general thing - and perhaps it's something that the eBay INR system ought to allow for.