Royal Mail might use that increased competition to argue for further dilution of its universal service obligations however, which wouldn’t be so great for folks in certain parts of the country.
Comment on Post Office to send and receive Evri and DPD parcels
Jho@feddit.uk 1 year ago
Honestly my experience with sending and receiving parcels over the years is that Royal Mail are the least bad of all parcel couriers (though that’s not saying much because they’re all hot garbage).
Though this change is only a good thing. Hopefully RM not having a monopoly in Post Office’s will actually encourage them to improve their service. Competition is only a good thing for us common folk.
thehatfox@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Emperor@feddit.uk 1 year ago
Conversely, every delivery service around here is rock solid - I order a lot of stuff online and can’t currently come up with a single issue that I’ve had (other than when using click and collect to a newsagent and the way the stored the parcels was chaos).
When the topic has come up before on Reddit it was interesting to see that there was no one company that was consistently bad, it all depended on your local driver - if they were usually the same person then the level of service tended to be decent.
thehatfox@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Evri is vary variable. The two drivers in my area both seem to do a good job, I’ve not had any issues. But in some of the surrounding towns Evri parcels constantly go missing, there’s rants about it on local Facebook groups every week.
Emperor@feddit.uk 1 year ago
From what I hear, they can all be very variable.
With Evri, where my brother lives their regular driver is on the ball and they get so much stuff from Next they’ve become friends. My SiL no longer books returns, just builds up a pile and texts him (I have no idea what advantage that has though). He’s also in the local Facebook group and troubleshoots any problems, so things go pretty smoothly. I don’t think I’ve ever met my Evri driver but it’s always the same guy and deliveries go smoothly. However, I know approximately where my depot is and it’s rough there - they’ve been ramraided a few times or just had some scrote wander up to a driver with a hammer and politely request their keys.
The problem with Evri is that it’s all franchised out so the local depots and drivers are all self-employed and largely providing their own stuff, with everything pared to the bone. So the potential for something to go wrong is higher. If you have a good regular driver then things will run smoothly, if you just have cover drivers dropping in who don’t know the area then it can very easily go pear-shaped.
fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk 1 year ago
“Evri” is the new name for Hermes, isn’t it? From where I live, I now refuse to order anything that uses them. At best incompetent, at worst thieves and criminals. Not had a problem with any other couriers, or the normal post. It’s interesting (and surprising) to hear that it’s not the case elsewhere.
thehatfox@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yes, Hermes rebranded to Evri. Some people said it was to try and shake off a bad reputation.