I would like to sue Evri please help

[saberguy]

I bought a rare collectible item from a friend in USA. I paid him via Paypal and had him send it to my forwarding address in USA.

This is a business called Stackry which is essentially storage lockers that consolidate packages for you and you choose how and where to ship them, thus cutting on international shipping costs. I have done this many times before and never had an issue. On this occasion, I chose the option of Global Mail Direct.

The package was picked up and handed to DHL e-commerce and I was able to track it all the way to the UK. From then on, it was handed over to Evri and a new tracking number was generated. Long story short, they lost it. The driver marked it "out for delivery" then 2 hours later "returning to sender". I was at home and no attempt for delivery was made.

What followed was several weeks of back and forth with Evri through chatbots, emails and phone calls trying to locate the package and have it delivered to me. They said I should contact the sender. I explained that in this scenario I am the sender and the recipient. I did not get anywhere.

I emailed the CEO and joined a Facebook group. I kept screenshots of everything. At no point did they make a genuine attempt to intercept the package or locate it or at least assure me that it's on its way back to its origin in the US. For several weeks now, the tracking is simply stuck at "on its way back to sender".

They owe me £200 and I intend to get it. I do not care how long it takes or how much it costs me. I am prepared to fight this to the end. I wrote them a letter before action and sent it by tracked post to their HQ giving them 14 days to make things right before I take the matter to court. It has been a week now and I have had no response.  I have no experience with legal matters and I am hoping someone can guide me into what I should do next.

Thank you.

[dx100uk]

moved to the postal forum

100's of evri court claim threads here to read.

dx

 

[honeybee13]

Hello, welcome to CAG.

If you're going to issue a court claim on Day 15 after your Letter of Claim then as dx says, you need to start reading up here.

Do you have any specific questions at the moment?

HB

[saberguy]

Thank you both.

I did a fair bit of reading on the forum but I just need to understand what I should do next.

How do I actually take this further to a small claims court?

I have no experience in legal matters and have never sued anyone before.

I read a lot of success stories but I don't know where to start.

[honeybee13]

Well, the success threads should show you how to progress this.

Have your signed up to MCOL and drafted some particulars of claim (POCs)?

HB

[jk2054]

Hello,

 

Please post up your Letter of claim so we can see it.

 

Thank you,

[BankFodder]

Please will you make sure that you do lots of reading on the subforum so that you see other people's experience and also understand the principles involved.

The chain of dispatch and delivery is unusual in your case and we will need to ask further questions in order to understand all the details.

I'm not able to put these questions you right now but please will you stand by for a further response tomorrow and be prepared to give a rather clearer explanation as what you have described is difficult to understand at the moment.

[BankFodder]

I'm trying to unravel this – but I get the impression that there was no contract between you and EVRi and that you didn't even choose them but instead you decided use some third party parcel broker in the USA which organised the delivery. Is this correct?

EVRi came into the picture because they were then eventually selected for part of the journey although you had no knowledge that it might be them and I suppose it didn't really matter as long as the item got to you.

Secondly, I really don't understand the journey which this item made. You bought the item from somebody in the USA. They then were meant to dispatch it to you to another address in the USA but for some reason or other it came to the UK and then into the hands of EVRi at which point it was lost or stolen.
More confusion here because you now tell us that EVRi marked it as being out for delivery but it was never delivered. This suggests that it was going to be delivered to a UK address but earlier on you said that it was going to be delivered to USA address.

I think you need to look at the story. Maybe show it to a friend of yours who is not particularly aware of the details and ask them if they can make head or tail of it and then come back to us with clarification so that we fully understand.

Also, I think we'd like to know what the item is, how was it declared, what was the value which was declared.

You said it was a valuable item because it was rare and collectable. I gather from this that it is non-fungible.
We need to understand more about this. Was an insurance policy purchased to cover it during the delivery process.
I understand that this rare and collectable item be valued at £200. Do you have evidence this value. This could become very important.

Also you have given us no idea when this happened. We need to understand the full timescale.

There are a number of possibilities here including the possibility of the contract action against EVRi on the basis of your third party rights or an action for negligence but we need to know far more and we need to get a story that makes sense.
 

Finally, I understand that you have sent the letter of claim. What did it say? How much time did you give them? What did you expect to happen as a result of the letter of claim?
Whatever the answers to those questions might be, clearly you had no idea how to proceed after having sent such a letter.

A letter of claim is meant to be a serious threat of some legal action if some condition which you have stipulated is not complied with.
You set a deadline for compliance and at the end of that deadline you issue the court action.

Clearly you are not in a position to do that so your letter of claim is a bluff and undermines your credibility and it will find its way into the EVRi wastepaper basket – if it's not there already.

 

[saberguy]

Thank you  Apologies for not being clear.

Here are some further details that might help clarify:

The item in question is a replica of a movie prop.

I build highly accurate movie props as a hobby and these items are machined by enthusiasts in very small runs (50-100) and once they're gone, they're gone.

I missed out on one of these runs but a friend from the community had purchased two and decided he only needed one so offered to sell me his other one.

I bought the replica prop from him and asked him to send it to my Stackry address in USA.

He is based in USA and I am based in the UK.

Had he shipped it directly to me in the UK, due to the size and weight, the shipping would have been expensive.

Stackry is a service in the USA that has access to cheaper couriers.

I have used it many times before without any issues.

I simply sign in to my account when they notify me the package is received, fill out the customs form, and select my home address in the UK, select one of the couriers after receiving a quote based on size and weight and pay the shipping fee.

On this occasion I chose GlobalDirect. I had no idea the item would be handed over to Evri on arrival to the UK. The initial tracking was with DHL e-commerce. The second tracking number on arrival to the UK was with Evri. It was Evri who lost the parcel through negligence. Below is a complete timeline of events.

The item made its journey from my friend in the USA to Stackry, USA without any problems. I was notified when the package was received. The item also made its journey via DHL/Global Mail Direct from the USA to the UK without any issues. The problem happened in the UK, with Evri.

I did not take out insurance. The price of the item was £185.01 Shipping from Stackry, USA to my home address in the UK with Global Mail Direct was £17.87. Total £202.88. 

The letter of claim is below. The 14 days is not up yet but I have every intention on following through. I have no priror experience with this which is why I came here for advice, but I have found the online claim form on Gov.UK and intend to start there.

TIMELINE:

 

• Item purchased from individual in USA on 26/3/24. Payment made by PayPal. Item shipped to Stackry, USA on the same day.
• Item advised received by Stackry on 29/3/24. Redirected by myself to my UK home address on the same day. Payment made and selected Global Mail Direct as the courier of choice.
• Tracking number generated for DHL e-commerce
• 02/04/24: arrived to the UK and cleared customs
• 03/04/24: processed at local distribution centre, forwarded to delivery agent (Evri) - new tracking number generated
• 06/04/24: marked”out for delivery” at 08:52. No delivery attempt made all day. At 21:21 marked “on its way back to sender”. 
• 09/04/24: no further updates since “there’s an issue with your parcel. Contact the sender”.
• Customer support contact via email almost on a daily basis from 08/04/24 to 23/04/24 to no avail.
• Letter before claim sent on 03/05/24.

Quote

 

03/05/2024

Letter before small claims court claim

EVRi Parcelnet Limited

Capitol House

1 Capitol Close

Morley

Leeds

LS27 0WH

Dear Sirs

Reference: Parcel with the tracking number ........................................lost by EVRi

As it has not been possible to resolve this matter amicably, and it is apparent that court action may be necessary, I write in compliance with the Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct.

I have been in contact with customer support numerous times since 08/04/2024. Your driver marked the item “Returning to sender” without a valid attempt at delivery. The package is since then stuck in limbo with no further tracking updates, and as of today 03/05/2024 still says “on its way back to sender”.

I have spoken to your representatives many times and they did not offer any help trying to track down the missing parcel or offer me any option for compensation. I have explained that I am both the sender and the recipient, and I am therefore within my rights to claim compensation for this missing item. I have full records of the item from the point of purchase, to its journey with DHL in the USA, and with EVRi in the UK, until it was lost in the system. The value of the item including shipping is £202.88.

From you I am claiming £202.88 paid in full to compensate the price of the item (£185.01) plus international shipping (£17.87). 

Listed below are the documents on which I intend to rely in my claim against you:

• Screenshots of transaction made with the original seller of the item, including photographs of the item and Paypal transaction.
• Screenshots of the item received by Stackry in the USA and shipping cost via Global Mail Direct to my address in the UK.
• Screenshots of tracking with DHL
• Screenshots of tracking with EVRi
• Email correspondence with various customer support members at EVRi

I can confirm that I would be agreeable to mediation and would consider any other system of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in order to avoid the need for this matter to be resolved by the courts. 

I would invite you to put forward any proposals in this regard. 

In closing, I would draw your attention to paragraphs 15 and 16 of the Practice Direction which gives the courts the power to impose sanctions on the parties if they fail to comply with the direction including failing to respond to this letter before claim. 

I look forward to hearing from you within the next 14 days.

Should I not receive a response to my letter within this time frame then I anticipate that court action will be commenced with no further reference to you.

 

 

[BankFodder]

Thank you.

Was the value which was declared to the courier the same value as that which you are claiming?

The letter of claim is a bit wordy but it does the job.

However I would delete any references to mediation or any invitation to them to make proposals for some kind of settled solution.

We would normally be advising people to refuse mediation that I believe that there is a new system which is just coming in where mediation becomes compulsory.

With the old system, you could choose whether or not have mediation and you would have to agree to keep matters confidential and also agree that you are prepared to compromise.
If these are the requirements of the new mediation system then I would suggest that you say that you are not prepared to compromise and that you are not prepared to sign up to a confidentiality agreement.
In terms of compromising – the money is yours and there is no reason why should give up a penny.

On this action you will be attempting to enforce your third party rights as you do not have a direct contract with EVRi. You should also sue them in negligence as an alternative on the basis that they are due a duty of care and that they failed in their duty and that the loss of the parcel was a reasonably foreseeable consequence which has caused you financial loss.

As I think I said earlier, they won't respond to this or at least they won't agree to pay you are any reimbursement. This means that you will deftly have to issue the claim on day 15 which is in another five days.

Have you registered with the MoneyClaim online County Court website? You need to do that the start drafting your claim. I suggest that you post your particulars of claim here before you click them off so that we can see and let you know if we think there should be any changes.

Finally, you say that you are taking advice from a government website. You should realise that we are volunteers here. We don't get paid but the people who run the government website to get paid.

We are very happy to help you. We help everybody completely free of charge but if you are taking advice from some other source then you should stick with them rather than ride two horses at the same time. It will only cause difficulties and conflicting advice and confusion.