In a troubling incident that adds to the growing chorus of complaints about Evri’s delivery services, a courier was caught on camera seemingly delivering a parcel, only to take it back moments later. The footage, captured by a home security system, shows the courier approaching the front door, inputting information into a handheld device, and then inexplicably leaving with the package still in his possession.

Steve Beresford, the homeowner, was understandably shocked by this turn of events. After sharing the video on Facebook, he was contacted by another local resident with a similar story. This woman, living just a few miles away, also had security footage of what appeared to be the same courier behaving suspiciously at her home.

The footage showed the courier arriving at her doorstep with a package, even though she was not expecting any delivery. Yet, just like before, he left with the package still in hand. The next day, the same individual returned, pausing briefly on her driveway before driving away, leaving her concerned that he might have been surveying her property for a potential burglary.

These incidents, both reported to the police, have been linked by investigators. They unfold amidst a wave of complaints from customers about missing or damaged deliveries involving Evri, further tarnishing the company’s reputation. With public trust at stake, many are calling for more rigorous oversight and accountability in delivery services.

The individual returned the following day and stopped on her driveway before getting out briefly and then driving off. She now fears he may have been scoping out her house for a burglary.

Details of the incidents, which were reported to police who confirmed they had been linked by the investigating officer, coincide with an influx of further complaints about Evri services. 

New complaints the Daily Mail can reveal today alone include –  

• A customer not receiving a £375 coat bought from Sweaty Betty; 
• One man who claimed to have never received four items from Disney;  
• Customer in Bournemouth saying four parcels she’d ordered had not turned up.

One customer complained of losing the ‘most expensive coat’ she had ‘ever bought’.

She told the Daily Mail: ‘I am so infuriated not to have received my really expensive coat ordered from Sweaty Betty which was promised within 24 hours. That was a week ago.

‘Their message says there was a delivery problem and they would get back to me in 24 hours. I have sent many messages but heard nothing.

‘They are the worst delivery company. Why do companies use them.’

The woman said she had ordered the Nimbus Longline Waterproof Puffer Coat for £375. But she has now been left with nothing but an ‘order number and Evri tracking number’ – ‘neither of which allows you to speak to anyone’.

Evri has responded to the allegation, insisting the customer did receive contact from customer service, with the delivery issue involving an ‘incomplete address’.

A spokesman added: ‘We are working with teh local delivery team in the area to get this successfully delivered.’ 

Another customer said he had been expecting four items from Disney this month.

However, he was disappointed to discover the gifts, which he had bought for his children and other family members for Christmas, ‘only contained two items’.

He said: ‘I called Disney customer service and the first question they asked is ‘was the branded box at all damaged or tampered with’.

‘The problem is, the delivery hadn’t arrived in a branded box. It looked as though someone at Evri had opened the box, taken a couple of items and then wrapped the others in a black plastic delivery bag and stuck a label on it.’

He said it was the two ‘cheaper’ items that had been repackaged and redelivered.

He added, ironically: ‘Nice to know that Christmas orders are safe with one of the biggest delivery firms in the country!’

And in Bournemouth, one customer claimed none of four parcels she had ordered over the past two and a half months had turned up.

Overall, ‘£1,000’ worth of items had ‘gone missing this time’, she said.

The buyer said: ‘Essentially, every parcel I’ve ordered that is then passed to Evri has not been delivered since October. 

‘I’ve raised it with Evri each time that multiple parcels are going missing, but the situation has obviously not improved or been remedied.’

An Evri spokesman said: ‘This is the busiest time of year for parcel deliveries, and our 34,000 self-employed couriers are working hard to deliver record volumes of parcels to communities across the country.

‘Our benchmark-setting delivery rates exceed punctuality targets of many other industries and we provide a fast, reliable, and cost-effective delivery service which will deliver about 900 million parcels this year to over 25 million households.’

The company claimed the examples were ‘not a reflection of the dedication of thousands of local couriers serving their communities’ and the ‘many millions of successful deliveries’.

A spokesman added: ‘We understand how special every parcel is – especially at this time of year and we are committed to ensuring customers receive theirs on time. 

‘To support this, we have invested £57 million in our operation brought in additional people where needed and continue to closely monitor our service levels. 

‘Our teams are doing everything possible to ensure successful deliveries, and anyone needing help can get in touch with our dedicated customer service team.’

Earlier this week, the Daily Mail revealed how one of Evri’s drivers had been sacked after he was caught on camera hurling fragile packages into the back of his van.

Customers complained he laughed when they complained about crumpled parcels.

Around 30 current and former couriers also told BBC Panorama how they were under pressure to deliver more and more items.

And the firm came bottom of a customer satisfaction survey of parcel delivery companies conducted by Ofcom in October.

Steve Beresford, 61, who lives in Sibsey, Lincolnshire, had bought a £21 candy cane infinity light for his wife, Beverley, 62, as she had decorated the Christmas tree with candy canes.

Describing the moment he discovered what had happened to the gift, he told the Daily Mail: ‘I felt violated. I felt sick.

‘I’m disabled and have fibromyalgia [a chronic condition causing widespread musculoskeletal pain] and this triggered it, so I started having panic attacks and anxiety.

‘It’s not just stealing people’s Christmas presents. It’s all the upset and stress that goes with it.’

The couple were out for lunch when they received a notification on Mrs Beresford’s mobile phone that the delivery had been made on Monday.

The arrived home an hour later and ‘searched high and low’ but couldn’t find the package, so they contacted Evri by email.

Former BT service engineer Mr Beresford said apart from an automated response – which said they would be contacted within 24 hours – no one had been in touch with them.

‘So we thought we’d check the CCTV footage and you could have knocked me down with a feather,’ he added.

‘We couldn’t believe that we were seeing. We’d caught him [taking the package] as clear as day.

‘I told the police ‘I hope you find him and he’s behind bars for Christmas’. The officer agreed with me and said ‘Wouldn’t that be nice?”

After putting the footage on Facebook because he was so ‘livid’ about what had happened, he was contacted by Kaz Hill, who lives a few miles away in Frieston.

Ms Hill explained the same man turned up at her house on December 9 with a package, went up to her front door, and then left with the box.

CCTV footage showed him standing outside her property. It cut out before he walked away but she said she was in at the time and saw what happened.

He returned in his silver car the following day, parked in her driveway before briefly getting out, then drove off again.

‘It looks like he pretends to put it down, then makes it look like no one is home, then takes it back. But he doesn’t even ring the doorbell,’ said Ms Hill, who was in at the time.

‘The second time he scared me, as he was just in his car on the drive for quite a while and then just before he left he got out of the car and looked back at the house.’

She contacted police, who issued an incident number but told her they couldn’t take any further action.

‘Technically it was not a crime as nothing was stolen as I wasn’t expecting a package,’ Ms Hill said.

‘However, the guy is clearly pretending to deliver, then pocketing the goods. The police can’t do anything but have said that they will just keep compiling info on him.’

Extraordinary footage taken on December 10 in the Norfolk village of Watton showed another EVRI delivery driver hurling parcels into the back of his van.

Astonished recipients described how the man ‘laughed off’ complaints when he handed over crumpled boxes.

The driver is also said to have abandoned a pile of items in a high street before he crossed the road to deliver a package. 

The incidents happened in the same county where people waiting for Evri deliveries had to search for items themselves earlier this year when the courier left them in undergrowth, on bins, in hedges and in the street.

MPs representing a number of constituencies have raised concerns about the company’s service recently.

Caroline Dinenage, who represents Gosport in Hampshire, said she knew of ‘numerous’ cases of Evri parcels being ‘dumped or marked as delivered with no attempt made to actually reach the recipient’.

In a letter to chief executive Martijn de Lange, she wrote: ‘With Christmas fast-approaching, residents are understandably distressed and frustrated by these failures, particularly where valuable gifts are involved.’

Evri registered 41 per cent dissatisfaction with contact processes among customers in a poll conducted by Ofcom in October. The next worst was Yodel on 33 per cent and DPD with 26 per cent.

Amazon had a 16 per cent dissatisfaction rate, with FedEx and UPS on 18 per cent.

The survey found 4.2 billion parcels had been delivered by all firms in the previous year – higher than the pandemic peak of four billion.

The company, which rebranded from Hermes UK in 2022, has been owned by American investment firm Apollo Global Management since last year.

An Evri spokesman said: ‘Evri invested £57 million in its operations last year. 

‘We are proud to be the only parcel carrier recognised by Citizens Advice’s independent Parcels League Table, which found Evri’s service scores had improved the most since 2021, with the business rising to third overall.

‘Our progress is further reflected in our ranking among the UK’s Top 10 Most Improved Brands by YouGov and consistently high customer feedback, with over four million five-star ratings and a weekly average of 4.6 out of 5.’

In the financial year 2023-24, Evri’s pre-tax profit almost doubled to nearly £120million.

New footage this week showed one courier putting a nine-year-old Louis Tremblay’s Christmas present in a bin without putting a note through his family’s door. 

After receiving a message saying the present – a flip book by US YouTuber Andymation – had been delivered, his parents checked their CCTV to see the driver opening the lid of a bin on their drive before putting the parcel inside. The bin was later collected. 

In Salisbury, a courier has been sacked after a pensioner complained of missing ‘six or seven deliveries’ over the last eight months. 

Tish Burbridge, a pensioner in the Wiltshire city, told the Salisbury Journal: ‘It’s extraordinarily annoying and also, you know, I’m now on a pension and money is tight, and I can’t afford to lose money like that. It’s just, it’s just not practicable.’

Evri confirmed a third-party contactor had been supporting deliveries in the area.

A spokesman added: ‘They didn’t meet our standards and so they will no longer be delivering on behalf of Evri, a new local courier is in place, and the team are monitoring deliveries in the area.’

Meanwhile, an Evri subcontractor was arrested on Monday in Southampton after up to 120 parcels were stolen just days before Christmas. 

In nearby Timsbury, footage appeared to show a driver swipe a parcel from a family’s doorstep – before allegedly making off with it under her coat.

Toni Fryer, 47, vowed to ‘never use Evri again’ after her son’s Christmas present disappeared on December 15. Evri confirmed it was investigating the incident. 

Elsewhere, in Manchester, a delivery driver was filmed on a Ring doorbell throwing packages containing glassware onto the ground before referring to the recipients as ‘dirty c***s’.

A Lincolnshire Police spokeswoman said they had received a report of a theft in Sibsey, adding: ‘A parcel was reportedly delivered to the address by a delivery man and the man left the scene taking the parcel with him. Enquiries are ongoing.’

The spokeswoman confirmed the force had also received ‘a report of a man acting suspiciously in the Old Leake area of Boston’.

An Evri spokesman said of the incident at Mr Beresford’s house: ‘Unfortunately, this parcel didn’t have a house number or name, which understandably confused the courier who was new to delivering in the area. 

‘The courier followed our guidance and took the parcel away with them as they were unsure if they were delivering to the correct address.’

Attempts had been made to contact the customer, he added.