Evri rated worst parcel delivery firm in MSE's annual service poll – here are your rights if you've had problems

Evri told us 99% of the 700 million parcels it handles annually are delivered on time, but admitted its service had slipped over the busy Christmas period due to "a unique set of challenges", including unprecedented volumes, Royal Mail strikes and labour shortages.

It added that it's setting up dedicated customer service teams in each of its depots – with satisfaction rates "almost doubling" in recent weeks.

Below we detail the poll results in full and explain how to challenge poor service from a delivery company. For full details on your rights, you can also see our Parcel delivery rights guide.

Evri performed worst in our poll – while Amazon Logistics topped the table for the second time in a row

We asked users to rate their experience of each delivery firm they had used during the past 12 months. They were given the option to rate specific couriers used throughout 2022 as either 'great', 'OK' or 'poor'. More than 43,000 MoneySavers took part, casting over 300,000 votes.

Evri received more than 39,000 votes, with 62% rating it as 'poor', up from 48% in 2022. This was significantly worse than the other firms at the bottom of our poll – 39% rated Yodel as 'poor', while 22% rated UK Mail as 'poor'.

Amazon Logistics, meanwhile, came top for a second year in a row, while DPD remained in close second place for a third year, followed by sister company DPD Local.

Overall, five of the 17 firms were rated better this year compared to last year's poll, with UPS and Fedex UK both rising three places. However, Royal Mail performed significantly worse this year, dropping from fourth to eighth place. This comes after Royal Mail workers took strike action on the 23 and 24 December last year.

See the table below for the full results.

'We've seen many reported issues in recent months – so it's more important than ever for consumers to know their rights'

Our top three need-to-knows on delivery rights

1. Your contract is always with the retailer, not the delivery company. Unless you paid directly for the delivery with a parcel firm, then it's the store that owes you a duty of care. If the item doesn’t turn up or is damaged, your rights under the Consumer Rights Act kick in and you should be due a full refund or replacement.

   If that doesn't work, try escalating a complaint to the retailer. If that doesn’t work, and you've paid for even a proportion of the cost by credit card, then you could try to claim via Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act (for items worth between £100 and £30,000). If you've used a debit card or paid for an item worth less than £100 on a credit card, you might be able to apply the Chargeback rule.

2. If your parcel is late, you can likely send it back. If you ordered something online and it turns up late, under the Consumer Contracts Regulations you’ve got 14 days after you receive a package to notify the seller that you have changed your mind, regardless of whether it's faulty or not. You then have a further 14 days to send back the item. This means if your parcel doesn’t arrive in time for what you need, you can send it back and get a refund. (Some items – such as personalised or perishable items – aren't covered by these rules.)

   You have fewer rights if you buy something in store and request it for delivery, but you can boost your delivery rights when buying in store with the ‘time is of the essence’ trick.

3. If you had to wait in for a delivery that was delayed, you may be able to get compensation. If you had to take extra time off work for a redelivery, you may be due compensation for ‘consequential loss’, such as loss of earnings or holiday taken. Importantly, you can’t claim for the original no-show day, this is about EXTRA time taken off.

For full help, see MSE’s Parcel delivery rights guide.