Evri refuse to compensate me for missing parcel

[NotABeliever]

Hi
I’d be grateful for some advice.
Evri have lost a parcel I sent with an ornament worth £50. I’ve made a claim and sent them proof of purchase.
after weeks of wising they asked me what was the ornament made of and I replied and said china.

I've now had a reply from Evri saying:

^
Unfortunately, we are unable to proceed with your claim, since the items contained in your parcel are non-compensated items that cannot be claimed for. You can see our full list of non-compensated and prohibited items here.

As a self-serve company, we do everything possible to encourage customers to check our lists of non-compensated and prohibited items and we try to make this easy and transparent so that customers understand from the outset what we can and can’t carry.

Items made of or containing ceramic, composite, or stone-derived materials are on the non-compensated list because they are more fragile than others and therefore are more susceptible to damage or loss. Our Carry Guide states that ceramic, composite, or stone-derived material items can be sent through the Evri network however, in the event of the parcel sustaining damage or being lost, compensation will not be awarded.

I feel cheated. What’s the purported fragility of the item have to do with it being lost? Im not claiming for damages.

is there anything I can do? These scammers don’t even have a phone number on record

No there's nothing you can do. They publish that they won't compensate for anything made of china or anything else similarly breakable. It is sent at your own risk. It's obvious that they couldn't have a policy of compensating for loss but not for damage - if they did that it would be too easy to defraud the system. If you need to send china things by courier you need to use a better quality (and more expensive) service than Evri who are frankly terrible. Just stop using them.

Sorry I don’t get you. Why could they not compensate if they lose a parcel in their care containing china? In what way would it be easy to defraud??

Sorry but I can't see there is anything you can do if their terms and conditions state this. Evri are awful and with an item of £50 value you really needed to use a better courier such as DPD who automatically offer insurance to this value.

I personally hate it when retailers use Evri as their courier, but at least they as the retailer will compensate when not delivered. I would never ever select to use them myself as a means of delivery.

I agree op, it's an unfair contract term. They are conflating two unrelated issues. The loss of a package containing china has nothing to do with an item of china becoming damaged.

I don't know whether you're aware, but Evri have a Code of Conduct which I would suggest they are breaching - for unfair contract terms and probably breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

• Contract obligations and law – Evri and its Supply Chain Parties shall honour all contractual obligations and shall not abuse their bargaining position to impose unreasonable contract terms as they are not ethical and have the potential to increase the risk of a breach of these Responsible Business Principles.

I would put together a letter of complaint, quoting their C of C and pointing out their failure to comply with both their own C of C and the CRA and send it and see how they respond.

That’s really useful @PrincessofWillsthank you

Didn't you read their terms and conditions before you bought the postage?

the T&C states ceramic item is not compensated, so doesn’t matter if it is lost, damaged or stolen or whatever. It is just not compensated. It is crap, sorry this has happened to you.

What an appalling policy. As you say, it makes no sense. So any parcel containing china is fair game for theft? They shouldn't be in business. Absolute fuckwits.

I’ve actively stopped shopping with some brands because they use Evri, and I’ve told those brands my reasons. Their service around here is farcical.

The courier terms and conditions are crystal clear, and it is not just EVRI that won't cover ceramics,amongst other categories, for damage or loss. A PP explained why loss is also included. I sell ceramics and use couriers for shipping. I have to self insure.

Clearly you don't understand how the law operates to protect individuals from unfair contract terms. Nobody is saying the terms are not crystal clear but that they are unfairly weighted toward Evri. Plus of course they are contrary to their own Code of Conduct . . .

Are you being snarky because you didnt read the T&Cs in advance? Unfair contract terms would be hidden conditions, or conditions that could never be met, which might then imply an unfair weighting towards 1 party. But they are written in English and actually very clearly written. You had a choice which courier you used. There are a number that cover domestic and international shipping. You chose one that did not cover for damage or loss the item you were sending. That's on you, as the sender.

I'm going to wish you well in your dispute with EVRI. Not a time cost I would waste. I'll just carry on into my 23rd year of selling ceramic on EBAY. And I do read T&C's for pretty much any contract in my life. It's shocking how few people bother.

It's just basic contract law combined with s62 of the CRA.

BTW I'm not Op, just someone for whom this legal stuff was my job.

Going through a similar thing with InPost. Sold the most gorgeous faux fur coat on Vinted. Really didn't want to, but have massive vet bills as insurance refused to pay out. It's been months now and they're "still investigating". I suspect that the courier slapped the wrong label on the parcel once I'd put it in the locker. The buyer received a piece of junk, and God knows where the coat is.

Trying to get any sense out of them is like trying to get blood out of a stone. I do sympathise and don't have any advice, but it does happen to a lot of us. It's actually really shocking that courier companies can get away with this sort of thing, given how huge online ordering is.

Trading Standards?

What does the original tracking show? 'Lost in transit' or 'Damaged Parcel'?

No, I'm sorry, this thread and subsequent conversation is ridiculous. Evri is a LOW COST delivery company and is set up accordingly - to send volume of goods at a cheaper price. As you said, their compensation guidance clearly outlines the list of exclusions. For those questioning "well what are you supposed to do if you want to send China" - you send it via a company that will cover it and is set up to do so.

You can argue all day over the difference between lost and damaged, but I'm pretty sure if you check their compensation exclusion list, it's labelled as such: an exclusion from compensation.

Everyone complaining about Evri are probably the same people that would buy a top from Primark, get a tear in it and then just shrug their shoulders and say "oh well, it was only cheap". You absolutely DO get what you pay for, and I would question how much you actually valued your china ornament in the first place when it came to deciding the suitability of how you were going to ship it.

lol at their reason ‘this is more likely to break if we chuck it around so we don’t want to pay if we break or lose it’.

How are they more susceptible to LOSS? Is there a China-obsessed thief somewhere on the line?

Generally the buyer selects their postage preference

Well that would imply it was sent through a platform - Vinted, Etsy, etc - and in that case, the platform is liable, not the carrier.

100%!

Unfair terms are not enforceable. I'm not saying whether Evri's terms are unfair or not, but you can read them all and understand them and they can still be unfair.

This is an online forum. OP you could always try small claims. A judge would be better placed to make a determination than a group of (mainly) non-legally-qualified mothers.

I’m not claiming to speak on their behalf or anything, but if they covered loss and not damage, it would be very easy for the recipient to open up a package of bits of broken china and then claim that they’d never received it and that the photo isn’t their house, especially if they’d discussed and agreed it with the sender.

Let’s be honest here, if anyone is going to deliver something to the wrong address, it’s likely to be Evri. They don’t have the staff to be checking every photo against every delivery address.

This is incorrect. The seller has the responsibility for the parcel until it gets through the buyer’s door. The platform will sometimes cover - I have had Etsy compensate a buyer when they’ve claimed a parcel hasn’t arrived, but when I’ve shown that I’ve made all reasonable steps to get the parcel delivered, such as tracked and signed for service, they’ve allowed me to keep the money as well as compensating the buyer. The general rule of thumb is that the seller has the responsibility to deliver, as it is their contract with the delivery company, not the platform’s.

Regarding EVRI, I used them quite regularly for years, but their list of exclusions is ridiculous. I finally cut ties when they delivered a beautiful Thai carved wooden box completely smashed. I’d paid extra for insurance, but they refused to pay up, saying that they considered the item “furniture” and therefore wasn’t covered. I took them to the small claims court and won, although it took a year, numerous lawyers’ letters from them and a legal arbitration phone call while I was travelling on the autostrada in Italy! I had a clearer case though: I’d paid insurance on a decorative item, which they’d tried to wriggle out of by retrospectively classing it as an item of furniture without having seen it, and the case balanced on the interpretation of “furniture”. OP could try, but I think - sadly - this one will come down in EVRI’s favour.

She’’s speaking from a legal perspective @socialdilemmawhattodo Yes they’re written clearly and are not hidden or small print, but it could be argued that they are weighted in favour of Evri who are basically refusing to compensate not only for broken china (because as a business they admit that they can’t promise they will sufficiently take care of it) but also lost parcels that happen to contain china. Two separate issues.
It’s great that you self-insure, but I also know what @PrincessofWills is getting at.