My Evri package went AWOL… but it’s a rare item: Can I have the company keep looking? CRANE ON THE BUSINESS

I sell vintage signs and other interesting items online. In May this year a buyer bought a rare enamel Duckhams motor oil sign with a working thermometer attached for £365.

I sent it using Evri’s next day delivery service and paid £7.78.

A few days later I was told that Evri could not deliver to the buyers address due to an ‘unpaved path leading to the property’. The buyer gave me an alternative address but Evri said he could not deliver there either.

I have tried to contact Evri by phone and email to re-arrange delivery or to return the package, but have not heard anything.

A week later I received an email from Evri informing me that my package had been lost “somewhere in the network”. By then I should have refunded the buyer, so I was out of pocket.

I filled out a claim form and 28 working days later I was told that Evri would refund me £20 plus postage and the case would then be closed. This money was automatically credited to my account.

But £20 is far less than the value of the item. It is also a rare and unique collectors item and I want Evri to keep looking for it. It doesn’t seem right that it can just be given up? DH, Southeast

Helen Crane from This is Money responds: Sending or receiving a letter or package through the mail right now can feel like walking through fire.

There’s just so much that can go wrong, from being shocked at the cost of a stamp after the latest Royal Mail price increase, to having your parcel stolen from your doorstep, or simply swallowed up by a courier company’s vast warehouse network, never to be seen again. You could even be scammed by a fake delivery text.

No parcel company is loved by its customers, but Evri – formerly known as Hermes – seems to be hated more than most.

In Ofcom’s latest customer satisfaction survey, which ran from January to June last year, the company received by far the worst rating.

A net 46 percent of customers said they were dissatisfied with Evri’s service, while the second worst company was Yodel 31 percent.

Undeliverable: DH sent the enamel sign with courier Evri, but it never arrived at its buyer

Evri, like most parcel delivery companies, offers its customers the option of purchasing insurance when they pay for the shipping of their parcel.

You chose not to do this. Since you had paid for next day delivery, you figured there was barely enough time for something to go wrong.

Furthermore, you said, “The package I sent was quite large and well packaged. I find it very hard to believe that it could have been lost.”

Unfortunately, you were wrong.

This problem appears to have arisen because the address the buyer provided was on a country road on the edge of a small town and was only accessible via a short unpaved path.

The delivery person was unable or unwilling to come to the location, so it was marked as undeliverable on the first attempt.

When the buyer provided a different address, Evri said it couldn’t be delivered there either because no one was home.

Then you were told it was gone.

I looked up the area in question and although it is easy to find on a map it is very rural, situated on the edge of the Peak District.

Could it be that Evri, or one of the independent drivers, simply didn’t feel like going back and trying again?

People in remote areas need reliable mail delivery just as much as anyone else. But on the other hand, most couriers for parcel companies are gig economy workers with no hourly wage who are paid per parcel delivered – so a long round trip to deliver a single item is not in their financial interest.

Whatever happened to your sign, it is unacceptable that your package has disappeared without a trace because it could not be delivered.

After five days of finding nothing, Evri closed the case.

At this point you were required by Ebay to refund the buyer £365 as their item had not arrived and did not look like it would arrive, leaving you with no money and no sign.

Unfortunately, you couldn’t claim the full value of the board, £365, from Evri.

If something is lost and the sender has not taken out insurance, it will be insured up to a maximum of £20, plus postage costs.

Lost to the world: DH’s board has gone missing ‘somewhere in the network’… or is it damaged?

If you had insurance and met the conditions, you might have been reimbursed the full amount.

But given that parcel delivery is so unreliable, I think it’s a bit unfair to make people take out insurance to get their money back if their parcel gets lost – through no fault of their own.

Customers must be able to trust that their package will arrive at its destination.

I reached out to ask why it had disappeared and what Evri was going to do about it.

After I did that, the company agreed to refund £345 as a goodwill gesture, on top of the £27.78 it had already paid.

It said that if you had taken out insurance the package would be covered up to £999.

Evri also contacted you and you asked if it could continue to look for the sign. It’s a shame that such a unique piece of memorabilia is simply lost to the world.

The object was initially reported as lost, but was later reported as damaged.

An Evri spokesperson said: ‘We offer a cheap and reliable service: 99 percent of the millions of parcels we handle are delivered on time.

‘Our standard service includes free cover up to £20 for most items. For more valuable goods we recommend all customers take out additional cover.

‘Every parcel is important to us and we regret that DH’s experience was not positive. That is why we have offered a goodwill refund.’

Sadly I don’t think we’ll ever know what happened, but I’m glad you’re no longer out of pocket and can move on with selling your garage memorabilia.