An increasing number of Hampshire villages are seeing their parcels go missing or be lost in transit, despite a giant delivery company and police claiming they are taking urgent action.
EVRi has come under fire in recent months following a spike in missing parcels and company misconduct, affecting residents of Broughton, Sutton Scotney, Swanmore, Twyford, Waltham Chase, and further afield.
The fiasco was first reported to police in late August, following more than 200 complaints to the courier service from disgruntled residents who noticed a pattern of untraceable orders marked as delivered.
Since then, Hampshire Constabulary has investigated, leading to the arrest of a man from Swindon for the theft of 98 parcels. However, over the last month, the investigation has hit a wall locally due to an alleged lack of evidence.
A police spokesperson said: "Officers have made a number of enquiries, both with the delivery company and relevant subcontractors, and with customers who had reported issues.
"As part of our enquiries, a 31-year-old man from Swindon was arrested on suspicion of theft. He has since been released with no further action, due to there being insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of prosecution.
"The reports were all investigated, and with no further proportionate lines of enquiry to follow, this matter is now being filed. Findings from the investigation have been handed to the delivery company for action."
However, this latest statement has only led to more anger. Cllr Susan Cook, of Winchester City Council, said that people were growing increasingly frustrated by the situation.
She said she had heard from scores of residents who were upset about not getting parcels or having the stress of trying to track them when incorrect delivery information is logged.
She said: "I'm really frustrated and I'm not stopping at this point. It's completely wrong that the police are brushing this situation off and labelling it as fraud. It's much bigger than that, and they are doing a U-turn.
"It's disappointing for the recipient too, as they aren't the ones that should be losing out! Of course, there are some fantastic EVRi drivers who do a great job, but it's something deeper and EVRi isn't sticking its head above the parapet. The police should be looking into this much more than they are because it's grossly unfair to those affected."
Most recently, Winchester witnessed an unexplained event in which seven parcels were dumped in Tower Street. When the parcel’s tracking numbers were entered on the EVRi website, the parcels were listed as delivered.
Other community groups across the area have been flooded by posts from fed-up people searching for their parcels.
Swanmore residents' Facebook page has repeatedly seen posts looking for information, as has Broughton's.
Emily, a Broughton resident, said: "Evri is driving residents to distraction with their lies and misleading claims. Images in the 'we delivered your parcel' messages are either abstracts of grass, tarmac or unidentified doorways - or, worse still, taken from Evri's own website.
"Our village email group is overrun by people desperately trying to track down missing parcels and has been for the past few weeks. The odd thing going astray is expected, but on this scale, it's far more than that. Personally, I'm on parcel number four missing, but multiply this across the village and it comes to something more sinister."
The Chronicle has contacted EVRi for comment; however, EVRi said it was unable to help without specific tracking details for every missing parcel.
A spokesperson said: "We really want to be able to help these customers, but we can’t do that without more information."
At the time the Chronicle went to press, they were asking for more time to allow for further investigations to take place.
However, for residents like Emily, who are still waiting on deliveries, time has run out.
She said: "It is driving everyone bonkers. The money it must be costing small businesses, let alone normal people, is outrageous. Something needs to be done."