EVRi Drivers stole approx. 80 parcels and claim submitted, court date issued (Replacement thread)

[skyfella]

I have been asked to start a new thread regarding my plight with Evri.

Link to original thread at the bottom of this post.

Bullet point as to where we are at at this moment:

We run a small ebay business.

Nov and December last year we suffered two days where large amounts of parcels were stolen by Evri drivers and we lost over 80 parcels.

The first we knew about it was when customers starting to complain about not receiving their parcels.

Then there was an article in the local paper regarding the incidents.

We contacted EVRi on the phone, by email and was constantly told that all the cases would be sorted.  It took so long to go through all the cases as we could only do 3 per phone call, despite being told if we send a list they would sort the rest, this never happened.

Eventually, out of frustration we decided to take EVRi to court (before finding this forum).

The press did do an article on our plight and I am sure they would be happy to follow it up if I contact them again

I have attached the claim form and the defence form.

We did mediation, but they claimed not to have enough information to make any offer.

The court case is set for the 6th of September at my local magistrates court.

Please help us as it seems I am out of my depth now!

Below are the articles written:

Investigation launched after huge sackfuls of Evri parcels found dumped in Beacon Road, Chatham

WWW.KENTONLINE.CO.UK

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An investigation has been launched after huge bags of parcels distributed by delivery firm Evri were found dumped in a known fly-tipping spot.

 

Margate shop boss considers legal action against Evri over dumped parcels in Medway woods

WWW.KENTONLINE.CO.UK

---

A small business owner who lost thousands of pounds worth of goods when parcels were dumped in a field is considering legal action against Evri.

 

 

367MC316 DEFENCE (1).pdf 367MC316-claim-form-claimant-copy (1).pdf

[BankFodder]

I'm so glad that you are back to start this thread. I was worried that you had decided not to pursue it.

Please stand by for a response to this over the weekend and we will start to put together a strategy.

[BankFodder]

In the meantime, please can you tell us the date by which you are meant to file your court bundle. Follow the court bundle link and start working out how to prepare it.

[fkofilee]

Hi @skyfella - You are in good hands. 

Good luck - Watching from afar. 

[BankFodder]

I've had a quick look at your claim and also the defence.
I'm afraid that the claim is extremely general. Doesn't identify the contract. Doesn't identify the tracking numbers. Doesn't list out the items for which you are claiming.

You are trying to claim about £2000 administration fees. I'm afraid that this is not available to you. This is not a valid head of damage and this hands a victory to EVRi.

You are lucky you dealing with the EVRi legal department which frankly doesn't appear to be very competent at all. They should have had this claim struck out but instead they have attempted to mount some kind of defence.

This may allow you to claim back the initiative but you will have to do some work.

They have even asked you for the tracking number – which as I have said, is omitted completely from your claim.

This means that really nobody has any idea what it is you are talking about.

 

Firstly, you will need to engage with the thread. This means that you will have to respond quickly to our questions and provide us the information we need. You have a fair amount of money at stake but we need to sort out the errors that you have made and then take the initiative against EVRi.

If you don't engage with this thread then the whole thing will become hard work for us and for you. You of course stand to get some benefit when you win.
We are merely volunteers. We do this completely free and we have no skin in the game. So if it does become hard work, it is really us who suffer. Please don't make us carry you as a passenger.

Once again, we need the date by which you have to file documents.

We need a full list of all the items which were lost – tracking numbers, values – et cetera. I suggest the best thing to do would be to prepare these on a Microsoft word tabulated format or else in a spreadsheet.

We will not be able to help you until we get this information.

I can assure you that if this goes to court in September as it is then you will most likely lose.

If you get going and help us to help you then in all probability you will win – but not your administration fee

 

[BankFodder]

Still waiting for all of this information

[skyfella]

I have got an Excel file with all of the items claims cost etc. I will just give it a quick once over before sending to make sure there are no personal details in the file.

Sorry, I do not usually monitor my emails over the weekend, hence no reply.

 

We have not, to my knowledge, had a date to file papers, just a letter from the court stating the court date, which is 6th September,

[skyfella]

Please see attached Excel file 

It is a little messy as it was just for us to track as best as possible what what happening

lost items redacted.xls

[skyfella]

Any update for me to be working on.  Should I ask them to postpone the court date?

[BankFodder]

Sorry, I got distracted and then forgot to come back to you.

Give me half an hour or so

[BankFodder]

Can you post up the letter which you received giving you 6 September trial date please.

I'm particularly interested to know whether this is a trial for some dispute resolution hearing or some other pre-trial procedure.

[BankFodder]

Quote

Case name XXX
court name XXX
claim number XXX

Particulars of Claim

1. The Claimant sent a large consignment of XXX number of parcels to addresses in the UK using the defendant's parcel delivery service.
2. A spreadsheet containing tracking numbers and other relevant details have been attached to this particulars of claim.
3. The attached spreadsheet contains a breakdown of the values of each parcel, however the total value of the parcel is placed into the defendant's care is £XXX.
4. The defendant breached the delivery contract as they failed to deliver the parcels.
5. The defendants have failed to account for the parcels and it appears that they have been lost.
6. A recent newspaper article reported that a great number of parcels which were being carried by the defendant had been dumped on a roadside.
7. It may be that some or all of the claimants parcels were included and in the dumped consignment and which were abandoned and or damaged.
8. The defendant continues to be unable to account for the missing parcels.
9. The claimant seeks full reimbursement of the declared value of the parcels plus interest plus costs.

The claimant claims £XXX plus interest at 8% per annum plus the cost of this claim.

 

Please can you have a look at the above suggested particulars of claim.

Let us know that contains all the basics. If there is anything that is wrong. If there is anything you want to add.

We still need to have sight of the letter which you will see from the court. We need to understand what kind of hearing it is because if you have not been instructed to file a court bundle then there is a great likelihood that it is not the trial of the issue.

It may well be that EVRi have applied to strike out your action because it contains no relevant information and it is impossible to identify the consignment you are talking about.
Also, as I have said – the administration charge which you are trying to claim is not recoverable. In any event, you can't just blindly whacked down a nice round figure and expected to be paid without full details of how you have arrived at that calculation.

[skyfella]

Below are the 2nd and 3rd pages of the court papers, page one has my details and court and date etc so not included

WhatsApp Image 2023-07-26 at 09.53.46.pdf WhatsApp Image 2023-07-26 at 09.54.06.pdf

[BankFodder]

Thanks for the photographs.

First of all, it will be helpful if you would present your documents in a properly scanned way – in a single file – in the way that you would like to receive them if you are helping somebody free of charge – or in the way that you would probably produce for a solicitor if you are having to pay them £300 an hour and you wanted to save a bit of time.

If you don't have a scanner then you can buy one from Currys for about 60 quid and you will have it for years. Single file multipage PDFs please.

I suggest that you read the documents that you have posted above. It is clear that they have given you three dates.

One day in August by which you have to pay the trial fee or else you will be struck out
you are required to file a court bundle before the hearing.
The hearing date in September.

You had better go back and have a look at this.

Also I notice above that you say that you don't monitor your emails at weekends. We help you free of charge. It's now down to you to connect with this thread and to monitor it in case contributions are made.

Once again, we do this for free – you're making money trading on eBay and also when you win this case, the money will be yours. If you want to make a donation then of course we would be pleased to accept it but I hope she was unconditional.

The first thing you should do is check the document which I have drafted above. We need to sort this out very quickly and get it to your defendants and to the court.

Of course this is all predicated on the fact that you want to go ahead with the trial. We think that you have an extremely high chance of success but you need to make the decision as to whether or not you are going to pay the court fee.

If you won't pay the court fee then it's not worth going on anymore.

Please let us know what you intend to do and give us your comments on the draft particulars of claim which I posted above.

Please do understand that this is not a piece of social media. This is a serious legal advice forum intended to assist you in your claim against EVRi and to give you the best chance of winning.

[skyfella]

Here is page one below

case (1).pdf

[BankFodder]

Thank you but it would be more helpful if you would deal with the proposed draft particulars of claim above – and also note my comments in respect of the quality of the documents that you are putting up

[skyfella]

Yes, I understand and truly appreciate the help being offered.

I was not expecting replies over the weekend hence not monitoring, but of coarse I will from now on.

I am not currently in my office so I got the papers sent to me by whatsapp, hence the poor quality, my apologies.

If you think it is a winnable case even after my poor presentation of the facts, then yes, I am happy to pay the court fees and continue.

Once again thank you for your help.

 

With the particulars, is it a simple statement of relevant facts and any other information not quite so relevant is put to the court bundle?

[BankFodder]

Please can you start off dealing with the proposed particulars of claim which I posted above.

[skyfella]

I am filling details of particulars, how much can I claim for as we have had some claims paid, even if not in full, is it only the difference between the value and what has already been paid out?

Do I need to be specific about all the parcel contents as well as values?

Should the spreadsheets contain as little information as possible or as muchas possible?

Also, is the case name "me v EVRi"

[BankFodder]

Once again, please can you check out the draft particulars claim which I have posted above. Complete as much of it as you can and tell us if there are any corrections which need to be made.

In terms of the amount of the claim, the draft because of claim will contain a total – but as you have seen it refers to a spreadsheet and your spreadsheet will give more detail.

You have now told us that in fact some of the money has been refunded. I'm not aware that you told us this before. We really need the whole story from you.

Your spreadsheet should be as simple as possible.

I would suggest that you have a number of columns –

• tracking number
• date sent
• contents of parcel
• declared value
• amount refunded
• amount outstanding

Let us know if you think there should be any other information.

I be really grateful if you could deal with a draft particulars of claim first. I think that this is the third or fourth time that I've asked this and are not sure why it is causing difficulty.
I've drafted the basic particulars of claim for you so I've done the work.

The mediation fails – not surprisingly – because you had included absolutely no information about the items that you had lost all their value – and not even the tracking numbers.

Once again, it is very lucky that you are dealing with EVRi. If you had been dealing with us, we would have had the case thrown out in short order.
We are trying to rescue you – and you aren't making it easy

[skyfella]

1 hour ago, BankFodder said:

I would suggest that you have a number of columns –
tracking number
date sent
contents of parcel
declared value
amount refunded
amount outstanding

The Excel file I sent pretty much covers all of that,  the contents is the ebay item number which can easily be searched for, otherwise it will be a very lengthy process filling all the details in(which I will do if you think necessary), and there is a value column and a column showing what, if any refund was received and when we put the claim form in. I can add a line showing what is outstanding. 

The dates sent where 2 specific dates, the 28th of November and the 5th of December, is it necessary to go through every item to include this information(again, I will do if you think necessary).

I have formatted the spreadsheet a little and attached again.

Where can I put the details of all of the stress, aggravation, time effort etc that they caused during this debacle?

lost items redacted.pdf Particulars of claim.pdf

[BankFodder]

I'm afraid I think you should identify the contents rather than simply put an eBay item number. The court won't understand the eBay item number.

I understand that it may be a lengthy process but given the amount of goods that you seem to be shipping out from eBay, I would have thought that you should be keeping these kind of records anyway. If it was done bit by bit – sale by sale it wouldn't be such a difficult exercise.

I don't think the eBay numbers are of particular interest to anybody – but as you have got them there you might as well keep the column but also have another "contents" column.

Yes you will need to put the outstanding amount – because the total of those will represent the amount you are claiming.

I really hope you don't have this kind of problem again with a parcel delivery company – but it shouldn't be a big problem to start keeping these kind of records just in case.

 

Quote

The total value of parcels lost by the defendant is £XX.
The defendant has reimbursed the claimant £XX
therefore The claimant claims the outstanding balance of £1257.03 plus interest at 8% per annum plus the cost of this claim.

 

[skyfella]

OK, we are going through the process now of adding item particulars, and will let you know when we have completed.

What will we need to do next?

Is there any way we can sue for compensation for the damage done to our business and time wasted sorting out their mess?

[skyfella]

Also, when we get our court bundle together where are we supposed to send it, as I do not have a correspondent address for their legal team? 

[BankFodder]

Send it by email – and I suppose also a hardcopy to their registered address if you can't find some other postal address. Maybe somebody else will come here and make another suggestion.
Send it recorded delivery so there is evidence that has been received.

You will also have to file a copy with the court

In terms of suing for the damage caused to your business, I'm afraid I think it's probably unlikely and if you think it's unfair – then I agree.

If you can prove that any of the items have been stolen or that they have been withheld from you then we could help you bring an action for wrongful interference with goods and that would probably address your losses.

However, you have paid your claim fee for a larger claim and so I suppose there is no harm continuing with that larger claim that you will certainly have to itemise your calculation for your business losses. They would simply allow you to claim a lump sum without any justification.
I believe that you haven't paid hearing fee yet.
If it goes to a hearing then you would have to pay the fee for the larger claim you have to look up the fee schedule and find out what that is. Search on County Court fees on Google and you will find the up-to-date list of their fees.

Once you have completed your detailed particulars of claim including the spreadsheet of losses, then you will have to serve that on the defendant by email and also by post.
You should then visit the County Court website and fill out a certificate of service. Keep a copy. Although it is not necessary you may as well serve a copy of the defendant and find a copy with the court.
This is basically a little document which you sign and you certify that you did indeed serve further particulars on the defendant.
However let's see the particulars when they are done.