Why did I put my trust in the Uk’s worst Postal service?
Why Did I Trust the UK’s Worst Postal Service? A Hard-Learned Lesson in Customer Care
I’ve been asking myself the same question for days: why did I trust the UK’s worst postage service? The answer isn’t straightforward, and maybe that’s part of the problem. Maybe we assume that if a company exists, especially on a national scale, then surely—surely—they’re fit for purpose. They must be doing something right, right?….right??
Well, I found out the hard way that sometimes, our trust is misplaced. And worse still, we often know better. This blog is a bit of a rant, a reflection, and hopefully a helpful insight for anyone running a small business—or just trying to send something important from A to B.
The artwork all packaged up the day before it was collected
The Setup: When Everything Goes Wrong
It all started with what should have been a straightforward delivery—a piece of original art, something personal, something irreplaceable. I’ve sent artwork all around the world without issue. Australia? No problem. USA? Done it dozens of times. Even using services like Evri, which are often people’s and mine, “last resort,” I’ve never had a single issue other than taking longer to get there. So yes, I’ve heard the horror stories about them, but my experience had been smooth enough to give them a cautious pass.
But this time, it all came crashing down.
My trusty inkjet printer had broken. The thermal label printer I bought to replace it? Also broke after just one label. Talk about bad timing. Meanwhile, other courier services required printed labels—no digital alternatives. And I didn’t feel like playing measurement roulette with FedEx, who warned me that being off by one centimetre and I was near to the limit, could turn a £21 parcel into an £85postage instead. That didn’t inspire confidence, though I did trust them more to get it there, and quicker .
In my desperation, I turned back to Evri. A last resort after having just had success with international Evri due to the same printer issues, but one I thought I could still count on in a pinch, be it at a slower turn around. Spoiler: I couldn’t.
The Disappearing Act
The parcel was headed to Oxford, it never got so much as within a 100 mile of Oxford, it went hurtling up North instead.. It should’ve been a simple journey. But somewhere along the line, it got scanned in... Barnsley. For context, that’s not just out of the way—it’s an entirely different region, a good 5 or so hours away, Oxford is hour and half to two hours . I didn’t even see Barnsley listed on the tracking, but after driving all the way to the Bristol depot in person, I was shown their system that revealed what the public couldn’t see. There it was. Barnsley. Where there is no known Evri hub at the more local Cheltenham Barnsley but there is at the one near to Manchester WTF?
, no logical explanation, and no further tracking updates since. I wish I had asked them which Barnsley when at the depot!
How does a parcel meant for Oxford end up in Barnsley (Manchester Barnsley or otherwise!), vanish from tracking, and elicit no follow-up or meaningful communication from the courier since the 25th? The very date it was meant to have been delivered! That’s a mystery even Sherlock Holmes would struggle to solve.
The Cost of Convenience
Looking back, I realised I chose what felt like the "easier" path. Not the right one. Not the best one. Just the one that seemed quicker in the moment. I didn’t want to drive it myself. I didn’t want to risk another printer mishap. I didn’t want to deal with overly rigid courier rules.
But you know what? Doing what’s easiest isn’t always what’s right. And it definitely isn’t always what’s best for your customer!
Ironically, I almost did drive it myself. I thought, “That’s silly. Who hand-delivers parcels across counties multiple times for their art business? I might as well open a postal service at that point” But now I see: it would have arrived. It would have been safe. I would have met the customer (I will when repaint it and drive the 1 hour 40 over- unless I go via Barnsley in search first as that is a logical route to get to Oxford according to Evri) And I wouldn’t be repainting something I poured my time, energy, and passion into, using energetic happy accidents to lead the way for someone who was kind enough to be understanding through all this.
This one experience has completely changed my business policy when it comes to fulfilling artworks arriving with who they are destined to be with and who has just purchased “the adoption fee” to give them a forever home.
freshly finished with the happy accident scrapping off of the face (that hadn’t worked) but ending up liking the result - now I need to re create that purposefully !
A New (Old-Fashioned) Way Forward
From now on, if the destination is within two hours, I’ll deliver it personally—wherever possible that is. It might not allow for expansion but it is more personable. It’s the only way I can truly guarantee the kind of care and commitment I want associated with my artwork and myself as an Artist.
I’m not Amazon. I’m not a faceless corporation nor a massive operation working on stats of numbers, not indaviduals.
I’m a human, an artist, and I care deeply about the people who choose to bring my work into their homes. When a large corporation, such as Evri, messes up, you’re just a statistic. They don’t care. I haven’t spoken to anyone at customer service yet. Only those I forced to speak to me, not customer service but those working at the depot (thankfully didn’t seem to mind too much )
When I mess up however, it keeps me up at night.
I can’t help but take the decision to use their postal service as a personal failing, a failing of judgement.
This is the difference between small creators and big systems. They optimise for efficiency and more accurately for expansion and money whether the precision and service goes down or not. We optimise for connection and a good service. That’s why going the literal extra mile isn’t silly—it’s the most authentic thing I can do. And I should have done in the first place. All I can do now is put it right and just hope im able to recreate the painting and do the memory of the original original justice.
The Role of (Bad) AI in Customer Service
Let’s not forget the frustration of trying to resolve this issue. Every email response I got sounded generic, robotic—probably AI-generated (not to say using ai in collaboration with a human is bad but this felt like something else).
I replied, hoping a human would step in. But then silence. Not hearing back . The AI is the gatekeeper now. And it doesn't care how much that parcel meant, or how much this lost delivery has cost me in time, energy, and credibility. when I called, a recorded Ai system answered after inputting my tracking number on the keypad “I see we are processing this, I will let them know you are chasing it , good bye “ click hangs up.
what the hell Ai?!? not cool, not cool at all!
Rebuilding and Repainting
I hope whoever ended up with the missing painting is enjoying it. Maybe they needed it more than I knew. But I’ll be painting again for the second time, next week, from scratch from the photos I have, for the person who was actually meant to receive it. Recreating a loose, happy-accident kind of painting is surprisingly difficult. It’s like trying to replicate fate on command.
But I’m up for the challenge and I trust myself for this particular painting I will be able to archive it. And I’m thankful to the customer who’s been kind and patient through it all. Their understanding has helped me move forward, instead of spiraling into self-blame.
Trust, Reconsidered
So, why do we trust companies we know aren’t trustworthy? Habit, mostly. Thinking it won’t happen to us and trusting the reputation of the fact they are here and serving a lot of people, 2.5 million a day according to one of the workers - with me replying in my head I dont care how big a number it is per day, I am one of that 2.5 million , that doesn’t justify the artwork being lost!
Convenience. Another is Familiarity, but the thing that snagged me….the fact they easily print the label for you….simple but its a good service….except that its where the good service starts and ends.
We say it won’t happen to me…..
But sometimes, it does happen to you. in this case with Evri it seems it is very likely to happen to you and with no customer service to put it right either! And when it does go wrong, you learn—hopefully—to do things differently. To listen to that gut feeling. To not let the standards of big corporations and society at large dictate your own decisions. Because we can do better.
And I will do better.
If you want something done right, sometimes you really do have to do it yourself.
I will; be hand delivering and meeting more of you where ever possible in the future (will see if friends can dog sit, and cooler days he can come with when sitter not possible ) and I will look into automation with showing quotes from postal companies direct on the website, and hopefully have a quote calculator for flight logistic fine art shipping which I wish to give a go for times its too far a field for me to do…….though their prices are higher, it will get there.
I certainly don’t wish to be painting the same painting on loop like groundhog day if they’re lost every time I post them, so Oxford I will be with you soon, once I have figured out how to repaint the painting
Our time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. Steve Job
the painting on display at the crafty egg Church road branch, 32 × 40 inch size, seen by customer visiting Bristol and went home to Oxford waiting for painting to arrive….Evri stop losing Each and Evri parcel!
perhaps ironic but this was edited in collaboration with Chat GPT (I will begin to state this) some written freehand, some asked chat gpt to improve the grammar and then edited again and so forth until read ok
