Despite the new name, respondents rated their experience with Evri/Hermes as significantly worse this year. More than 43,000 people took part in the study, casting more than 300,000 votes.  

The MoneySavingExpert poll asked readers to rate their experience of each delivery firm they had used during the past 12 months. They were given the option to rate specific couriers used throughout 2022 as either ‘great’, ‘OK’ or ‘poor’.  

Evri received more than 39,000 votes, with 62% rating it as ‘poor’, up from 48% in 2022. This was significantly worse than the other firms at the bottom of MSE’s poll – 39% rated Yodel as ‘poor’, while 22% rated UK Mail as ‘poor’. 

At the other end of the scale, Amazon Logistics came in top for a second year in a row, while DPD remained in close second place for a third year in a row, followed by sister company DPD Local.  

Overall, five of the 17 firms were rated better this year compared to last year’s poll, with UPS and Fedex UK both rising three places.

However, Royal Mail performed significantly worse this year, dropping from fourth to eighth place. This comes after Royal Mail workers took strike action on the 23 and 24 December last year. 

Oli Townsend, assistant deals and features editor at MoneySavingExpert, said: “Evri’s repackaging from Hermes early on in 2022 has clearly not helped it to shake off its past reputation – in fact, scoring a poorer rating than the previous year. 

“Royal Mail, which had consistently been one of the best-ranked firms in past years, has also seen a significant drop, perhaps unsurprisingly as strike action marred its service in the latter part of the year, including over the recent busy festive period. 

“While some firms have really been delivering – quite literally – others have too often fallen short. We’ve seen many reported issues of long delays, damaged items, or parcels just not turning up at all in recent months. So it’s more important than ever for consumers to know their rights and use them.”

Evri customers turn to social media to complain

Scores of Evri customers have taken to Twitter to complain about Evri service, with many saying it’s impossible to find a phone number for the parcel company. 

However, a recent Guardian article suggested Evri customers call 0330 808 5456 to try and track down lost parcels or resolve complaints.

The “top Tweets” mentioning Evri include one Tweeter writing: “Every company using #evri as a delivery company need to display it in their website so I can use someone else.”

Another Tweeted: “Trying to speak to someone at #Evri is the most frustrating challenge of the day. Why can’t I speak to a human? The automated service is about as useful as a chocolate teapot.”

Another Twitter user claimed they were told by Evri that their parcel was in a “safe place” – but this was a “high voltage cupboard”.

Your parcel delivery rights explained 

When you order something online, you’ve generally little choice over which firm delivers your goods, as it depends on the retailer. 

If you’re unhappy with a delivery or it didn’t arrive, it’s the retailer you should complain to. Unless you paid directly for the delivery with a parcel firm, then it’s the store that owes you a duty of care. 

If the item doesn’t turn up or is damaged, your rights under the Consumer Rights Act kick in and you should be due a full refund or replacement. If that doesn’t work, you can escalate a complaint to the retailer. 

If your complaint still isn’t resolved, and you’ve paid for even a proportion of the cost of an item costing between £100 and £30,000 by credit card, you could use Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act to try and get your money back.

What does Evri say?

An Evri spokesperson said: “Our ambition is that every customer’s experience with Evri is a positive one and that’s why we have invested more than £130 million to improve our UK operations over the last two years, ensuring 99% of the 700 million parcels we handle annually are delivered on time.

“Over the busy Christmas period we faced a unique set of challenges, including unprecedented volumes, the Royal Mail strikes and labour shortages. Despite incredible efforts from our people, our service was not as good as we would have liked, however, we are committed to redoubling our efforts this year, including a focus on recruitment and our customer service.

“We have invested in setting up dedicated customer service teams in each of our depots and we are improving our chatbot to make it easier to use and more responsive to customers’ needs. As a result, we have already seen an increase in people being able to speak to our advisors and satisfaction rates almost doubling in recent weeks.”