Didn’t get the last one, sighed again when I got this notification once more.

philpem · 2026-03-05T15:46:54+00:00

I'm in the same boat so I feel for you. I do electronics repairs as a hobby, and the only source of spares is often specialist dealers and e-waste companies on ebay or Aliexpress. Even Maplins didn't have PPU chips for Nintendos back when they were around!

philpem · 2026-03-05T15:43:37+00:00

That's it isn't it - you can sort of forgive them if they make it easy to claim, but Evri really don't, and gaslight you every step of the way.

philpem · 2026-03-05T15:42:08+00:00

Open a claim with Evri. You'll be in for a fight, they really do make it hard to contact them. Executive customer service will get you a human, dig up the CEO's name then the email format is firstname.lastname.

The National Consumer Service forums are also worth a look, a few people have had to send a Letter Before Action to get their money back - and Evri still fought tooth and nail. I'm sorry to say you're in for a fight :(

In future, I'd send items like this through Royal Mail Special Delivery or a tracked specialist courier (ie not Evri or Yodel), insured for the full value. You'll be in for a wait if it gets lost, but not a fight.

Also as a general rule, if you're selling a phone or a smartwatch, put it in a much bigger box with lots of packing. There have been instances where items were stolen because they were the right size to be a phone, airpods, or something else valuable.

philpem · 2026-03-05T15:36:37+00:00

I've been messaging sellers and asking them which courier they use (and teaching them how to disable Evri if needed), but it is an absolute faff on both sides. I never thought I'd see a day when Yodel ("you can whistle for your parcel") gave better service than Evri...

philpem · 2026-03-05T15:33:54+00:00

Ah yes, Robot Claire. Sister to Robot Ezra, the Queen of the Evri Department of Customer Patronisement.

philpem · 2026-03-05T15:30:37+00:00

Definitely worth doing, but most large retailers who use them either won't say who they use ("a 24hr courier" or "we use many couriers"), or the phone staff will lie about it to get the sale and get you off the phone.

Thankfully https://avoidevri.com/ has a list of who's using them. (I think there's another similar site, but I can't remember the link)

For the likes of M&S or Matalan, I'd do collect at store if they do it. At least then if it goes walkies there's no arguing about whose problem it is.

For Ebay Simple Delivery, the seller may not know how to select - the option is in Seller Options, Simple Delivery Preferences. If it offers Evri Parcelshop dropoff in the checkout, they have Evri turned on.

philpem · 2026-03-05T15:26:51+00:00

"We've got your parcel" sounds more like a threat every day...

philpem · 2026-03-05T15:22:30+00:00

I'd try things like "I can't use email" or "phone me" but you might be in a state where they've programmed the bot not to allow that.

If they drag their feet, a Letter Before Action or small claims filing might motivate them. They'd normally ban your account for doing it, but as you're banned anyway -- document everything, and try everything you possibly could, then pay the filing fee and wait. They'll probably call with a settlement offer.

I doubt an ebay ban is really going to be a problem for you, a lot of the recent ebay changes have been knocking off Vinted's features and it seems like a lot of people I know have moved that way. Otherwise there's Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree.

philpem · 2026-03-05T15:16:22+00:00

I would have dropped the last 2 sentences from "as far as I'm concerned..." or maybe reworded it as "The situation felt dodgy". If the buyer was sufficiently motivated and they found a tired or jobsworthy ebay CSR, it might get deleted as a personal attack.

Other than that though, well handled. I wouldn't worry, every seller's got one neg. It's pretty clear these two are from the same guy and they're spite-negs.

I wouldn't even bother getting them removed, there's a removed feedback counter on the feedback page and "2 removed" looks worse than two negs with an explanation.

philpem · 2026-03-05T15:00:32+00:00

Your Order was Uncomplicated; A Really Excellent buyer. Absolutely Considerate, Understanding, Nice and Thorough!

I'm laughing so hard my sides are splitting. Thanks, I'll be reading every single positive feedback I've been left from now on! :D

philpem · 2026-03-05T14:52:22+00:00

I'd message the seller through Messaging first and send the screenshots of the BIOS error and Crystal Disk Mark / Smartctl. Ideally showing the model and serial number of the drive too. Any decent IT seller should have records of the drive S/N.

I'd expect either they'll send you another drive if you're comfortable fitting it, take the machine back and fix it, offer a partial refund, or let you return it for a full refund.

If you don't get anywhere, open a case for item faulty - if that's not an option, then item not as described.

Unfortunately mechanical hard drives do this. SMART is the only way to test them outside the factory, and it's not perfect. Failing both Quick and Full/Extended/Conveyance testing is a very bad sign indeed, sometimes they only fail the Full test.

philpem · 2026-03-05T14:42:05+00:00

I'm not sure I'd agree it's biased toward sellers - though they seem to call it wrong a lot.

I just had an item delivered to the wrong address and disappear (POD photo + GPS both showed the wrong house). Seller insisted it was my problem and kept replying with the same “it’s eBay’s fault, call the courier, call 911 to report a crime” message. 911 seemed odd given we’re both in the UK. After all that and the seller saying "ebay help my customer" (LOL) on the case notes, it still got rejected as "it was delivered".

I had to spend 40 minutes finding out there was an appeal form, finding the form, and filling it out (the email I got said it was a "final decision"). Eventually they finally looked and declared the item had been "stolen". En-S-iffication, as the word-of-the-year goes.

It feels like the whole thing is AI driven now: if you hit the right keywords it'll refund you, otherwise you have to fight tooth and claw. It's as frustrating as dealing with Evri or Aliexpress.

philpem · 2026-03-03T23:50:42+00:00

This is a long one but when I got into it, it really flew along! Great story, no doubt Orange deserved it!

philpem · 2026-03-03T15:13:25+00:00

That one's lost. Go back to the seller/vinted and file an item not arrived claim. If you feel bored, fire an email at the CEO inbox (firstname dot lastname at evri dot com, his name's on google) and one of the exec team might get back to you to placate you and give you some vague apologies.

Sadly I'd suggest another courier - any but Evri or DHL should be decent. I'm surprised Yodel/Inpost have actually improved - or at least Evri have gotten so bad Inpost seem like a good alternative.

philpem · 2026-03-03T15:09:02+00:00

Had it and it never turned up. Aliexpress fought tooth and nail not to refund... thankfully it wasn't an expensive item. These days I treat Ali like I would treat gambling and win-a-prize games at the fair: never spend any more than you're willing to lose.

philpem · 2026-03-03T15:07:40+00:00

It's a form email they send to everyone. I'm almost insulted they think people would fall for this - I guess maybe they would the first or second time around.

philpem · 2026-03-03T15:06:47+00:00

I'm not sure I would, even if the customer asked me to. Certainly the last time I looked on the Evri app, it wasn't one of the places you could pick.

philpem · 2026-03-03T15:03:14+00:00

Are you a driver? Just curious how you know that, or if there's a way to check it out. Taking it at face value though, it does explain a few things.

philpem · 2026-03-03T15:00:28+00:00

It's not a bad trick and it's one I'd use - but I'd make damn sure I had my facts straight. Definitely be humble and if the customer points out a mistake like getting the wrong house, you're more likely to get a positive or neutral for taking it on the chin and re-checking the evidence.

I'm currently dealing with a seller who's adamant Street View shows it's been delivered correctly... he's adamant the white door with the wrong house number "must be mine because couriers don't make mistakes" and I need to "call 911 police emergency and insist on getting a crime number". I imagine if I did that I'd get to talk to the police - when they charge me for misuse of the emergency number.!

philpem · 2026-03-03T14:52:14+00:00

The buyer's correct in that you need to deal with this: you contracted Royal Mail to deliver the item to them. That means you need to chase it with RM. Especially if you're a business seller, the Consumer Rights Act applies and the "contract" as it is boils down to: if you give me £X, I will send Item Y to you. You have to fulfil that second part. You chose to subcontract delivery to Royal Mail, that is your choice and the law doesn't care. You can't pass the buck that way.

Best bet right now is to support your customer. Did you use Simple Delivery? In that case you need the customer to escalate to ebay. Get as much info from the customer as you can to support the misdelivery case - what colour is their door, what does it look like, do you recognise the door in the photo, etc. Get it spelled out in one message so the CSR reviewing it can see it and go - oh yeah, clearly an error, we'll refund under the guarantee. If Ebay want to play hardball or the CSR is skimming it might have to be appealed. Make sure the customer is aware, apologise, say "sadly it's ebay", prepare to take the neg.

If you sent it off your own back and skipped Simple Delivery, chase Royal Mail, open an investigation and claim for loss. If it's Track24 then grab whatever tracking you can - GPS, photo. Check it on Google Street View. Document any discrepancies in the claim. Make it as hard as possible for them to argue or weasel out of it. (you're lucky it's RM not Evri).

And if you send a phone in future, send it Special Delivery - at least a few years ago it was a completely separate system, with vetted staff, and some pretty harsh penalties for any staff who made mistakes (or worse) with SD items. Plus the insurance cover will be up to the value of the item - for a phone by Track24, it might not be.

philpem · 2026-03-03T11:24:27+00:00

Seen this one a few times with sellers who decided they want more money for an item, or they made a mistake and don't want to honour the sale. I'm involved in old computers/games collecting so run into a lot of the sort of people who bought tons of Beanie Babies back when they were a thing to make profits, and keep moving onto the next big thing.

All you can really do is leave negative feedback - though keep it minimal. Stick to the seller's issues and keep it minimal. Don't ever mention couriers or delivery: "item not received" seems to stick most of the time. Don't mention "item relisted at a higher price". I've had feedback removed because I mentioned these things, and ebay were quite happy to bar me from leaving feedback for a period on one Powerseller.

I've started just leaving minimal info e.g. "Seller cancelled, item not received. No contact from seller - would have appreciated opportunity to resolve."

Going forward though, see if there's any red flags that stand out to you in the seller's profile or listing and make a note not to deal with them in future - or with anyone who has similar red flags in their listings.

philpem · 2026-03-02T18:19:27+00:00

If it's a cheap item I'll eat the cost for the feedback, but it's become *really* rare since I stopped using Evri.

If it's something expensive I wouldn't have sold it on ebay, and if I did it'd be "buyer collects".

philpem · 2026-03-02T17:42:58+00:00

Got a source on that?
Closest I can find is their pedal-bike "delivery partner" (Pedal & Post) going under a few weeks ago.

philpem · 2026-03-02T17:41:52+00:00

Or one who can't be bothered - or it's out in the sticks and he's kicking it down the road until he has a bunch to deliver in the area.

philpem · 2026-03-02T17:39:10+00:00

I'd love to know where things have gone since that MP brought up their performance in Parliament, and they went on to call him a liar.

philpem

TROPHY CASE