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From post turning up at the wrong letterbox, to missing parcels, late-night deliveries and not waiting after knocking
In this modern age of online shopping and working from home, many of us choose to order online and get things delivered straight to our door. Or, we like to treat loved ones to hand-delivered flower bouquets in boxes too big for our letterbox. And then, of course, is that age old tradition of just getting, well, letters through our door.
Over the past few months in particular – but something which has been happening to myself, my neighbours and several in my social circle at varying times over the past 12 months – I have noticed letters through my letterbox clearly addressed to homes miles from mine.
Just a week or so ago, I was handed three large heavy boxes by my local Evri delivery driver, who took a photo of them sat on my front step as if marking a successful delivery but who, when I commented that these weren’t addressed to me, scarpered.
Trying to get in touch with Evri (and other such delivery companies) when you don’t have a tracking number for a parcel because it isn’t yours to be tracked in the first place, is near impossible. And then they have the cheek to send you a message to ask you how their courier did, and how their customer support service fared.
And it seems I’m not the only one to be suffering such a fate right now. You only have to look on local social media feeds like Next Door and Reddit, to see that parcels are going missing or being delivered to addresses miles away from their destination, everyday.
One Easter Compton resident posted this week to say: “Evri have wrongly left a parcel on my doorstep”, adding that she was in “but they didn’t bother to ring the doorbell”. Another in Clifton said: “I’ve just watched an Evri driver pull up and deposit a delivery in a recycling box. I’ve asked them about this before and they say ‘some customers prefer it’.
Meanwhile a third commented: “I totally agree that Evri is useless. The just dump parcels by my garden entrance and not by the front door which is up a few steps”. And a fourth wrote: “Evri is delivering once again to the wrong streets and doors. My parcel has apparently been delivered but the photo shows a front door which isn’t mine or any of my neighbours’… I wonder what happens to these parcels. Does Evri just hope we all do their delivering for them?”
Trying to get a courier from the same company to come and collect the packages they mistakenly left behind is easier said than done, too. We booked for a pick-up only for a new driver to turn up on a day we hadn’t scheduled – this happened twice and then, when we handed the parcels to our new driver, we were told this wasn’t the package they had been assigned to collect.
Royal Mail aren’t off the hook either, however. Bristol residents, myself included, have received post from houses miles away delivered through their letterboxes. Larger packages have also been left in plain sight of main roads and some have even described how posties wait just a matter of seconds now after knocking, before walking away with post still in hand.
One resident in Gloucestershire captured an interaction with her Royal Mail postie on her Ring Doorbell camera, which showed him already walking away milliseconds after knocking on her front door. When she answered a couple of seconds later, catching him just as he reached the end of her driveway, he commented that he had been “wondering when someone would finally answer the door”.
When BristolLive contacted Royal Mail for comment, the first thing they asked us was if we were sure we were referring to Royal Mail posties and not workers for the likes of Evri and DPD, adding items left outside would unlikely be left by Royal Mail.
A spokesperson said: “Our posties are trained to allow a reasonable amount of time for someone to answer, taking into account factors such as mobility, before deciding whether delivery can be completed. We also offer a range of accessibility options to help customers receive their mail, including requests for posties to knock louder, wait longer at the door, or use a nominated Safeplace where items can be left securely.
“As a policy, we don’t leave items in unsecured or exposed locations, such as on a doorstep where they could be lost or stolen. We will always aim to deliver to the customer or someone in the household, or place the item in a secure, enclosed location, for example a shed or an enclosed porch, or with a nominated neighbour.
“If none of these options are suitable, the item is returned to the delivery office and we will automatically attempt delivery again the next day. This approach helps protect items from theft or damage and means 99% of parcels are delivered successfully on the first or second attempt.
“We’d encourage any customer who experiences an item being left outside in an unsafe location to contact us directly for us to investigate.”
Read more: Evri delivery driver is caught on Ring doorbell ‘leaving with people’s parcels’
The three parcels which were left uninvited on my doorstep by Evri recently, were done so at about 10pm at night – and these late night deliveries are all too familiar with customers of such delivery companies, eagerly expecting their parcels to arrive. One customer in the Filton area described how they had a parcel delivered at 11.46pm at night, saying this is “honestly unacceptable”, adding that it can affect people at home in very real ways.
Getting a knock that late can feel unsafe, especially for people living alone, and many people will be tucked up in bed at this hour. Babies can wake, dogs can bark, and panic can set in – and a package left halfway in and out of a letterbox, or outside your door, or even in a recycling bin, could very easily get stolen. Since when did we start receiving deliveries so late? And will this be the new norm the more we shop online?
Let it be known that I and many of us don’t know the pressures that our delivery workers and posties are under, especially when it comes to Christmas. As some have speculated: “I believe both Evri and Yodel operate using self-employed couriers, local courier companies, or delivery service partners. When you don’t have directly employed drivers for your service, delays, missing/damaged parcels, and crazy delivery times are going to be present.”
But post can, for some, literally be the only connection between them and the outside world, between loved ones who live oceans apart. And while many of us can empathise with the hard working delivery drivers, lost mail can’t always be fixed by reordering something online and hoping it’s a case of second time lucky.
A spokesperson from Evri said: “Customer satisfaction is at the heart of what we do and we’re currently working hard delivering around four million parcels a day. We’re sorry that there have been a small number of localised issues, we have used the support of a third-party contractor to deliver increased volumes in area and have now removed several drivers and replaced them with new ones. The local team are monitoring the situation closer and expect to see improvements in the coming days.”
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