Parcel2Go

[dickm]

Be warned if you are thinking of using Parcel2Go. Son in law bought a quite expensive narrow cooker of the 'bay, and used Parcel2Go to collect it. They smashed the cooker comprehensively; it must either have been dropped from a considerable height or hit by a speeding forklift. Initially, they only accepted liability for the £50 cost of delivery, despite obviously having been totally incompetent. He got the Guardian financial guy on to it (see http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/nov/28/parcel2go-insurance-terms-no-compensation and through their intervention has got a further £100 out of them. But is still £300 out of pocket.

Barstewards. How many of us could get away with that sort of thing?

 

[Mike.S]

I've recently used Parcel2Go to transport sash clamps sold via ebay - one lot to UK and another to Belgium.

In both cases the actual carrier was Parcelforce and the cost was cheaper than booking with Parcelforce direct (even though it's my regular parcelforce guy/van that collects them).

In the UK case I opted not to take 'insurance', figuring (perhaps wrongly) that Parcelforce would be liable for any loss if they went missing. P2Go web site asked me several times if i was sure that i didn't want insurance and even sent an email saying 'it wasn't too late' for me to change my mind and take out insurance. I declined. With the Belgian delivery I did take cover (though wonder if it was worth it, given the comments by Dick/Guardian).

In both cases the parcels arrived safely.

I wonder what the legal position is - does the carrier owe a duty of care to the customer or does P2Go being an intermediary complicate matters? Whatever the answer I'm not liking the sound of P2GO's trading practices.

Having said that perhaps the real life lesson here is that items need to be packaged properly i.e. assume the carriers are not motivated to treat items with reasonable care.

 

[sitefive]

I seriously can't understand why the workers must treat the packages like complete crap and no care, is it so hard?
I pack my items super well,yet they still arrive sometimes broken- where an only explanation why would the item get damaged would be that it would be driven over by a car or dropped from 3storey building.

 

[YorkshireMartin]

Other couriers are no better.

I had a customer miss 3 delivery attempts so the package goes back to the depot. Then they tell me it went out again for redelivery at my request (nope) and to a random person at a random address. Then they said it was lost as the person wouldn't give it back. Then said it was found but damaged so offered choice of having it back or insurance. Paid out insurance on it. Two weeks later, it turns up, box crushed and open, covered in a mysterious oily substance but otherwise functional. The delivery driver who dropped it off was as astonished as I was.

So kind of whoever received it to not bother taping the box back up.

Regarding your situation with Parcels2Go, I most certainly would not let them get away with that, not without involving small claims and trading standards.

 

[rafezetter]

Other couriers are no better.

I had a customer miss 3 delivery attempts so the package goes back to the depot. Then they tell me it went out again for redelivery at my request (nope) and to a random person at a random address. Then they said it was lost as the person wouldn't give it back. Then said it was found but damaged so offered choice of having it back or insurance. Paid out insurance on it. Two weeks later, it turns up, box crushed and open, covered in a mysterious oily substance but otherwise functional. The delivery driver who dropped it off was as astonished as I was.

So kind of whoever received it to not bother taping the box back up.

Regarding your situation with Parcels2Go, I most certainly would not let them get away with that, not without involving small claims and trading standards.

I'd also go trading standards and small claims, for the cost of the initial item, plus added costs for the hassle of replacing said item (including any extra money paid out for increased price of the replacement) you can go up to £5,000 and the system is pretty straightforward to use.

Martin, your case sounds like they could have damaged it the first time in some way and tried to cover it up with the "we sent it out again to another address".

If it was UPS they lied to me recently on a delivery, claimed they tried twice and I left a note on the door for the 3rd and when I acertained it was him both other times told the bloke that I had been in the house on both previous occasion, that I was sitting less than 5 metres from the front door and that I was certain he had just posted the card instead of ringing the bell or using the knocker... I also pressed the bell to prove it worked, his reaction? a *shrug*.

RM are no better either - an item was sent to me 1st class signed for on the 14th - still not arrived as I type and all the tracking says is "at the depot for processing" when they were contacted by the sender they basically said they will not look for or do anything about a parcel unless it was "special delivery".

Seems to me they rely on people either taking out insurance or not taking action on losses.

 

[YorkshireMartin]

I've had another thought regarding this.

dickm, if your son received an ex gratia settlement from Parcels2Go, I don't think that means that he automatically waives his consumer rights. Indeed, he may only become fully aware of them later which would be, in my view at least, a reasonable occurrence. As a matter of fact, I don't think its even possible to waive statutory rights without a legal agreement, possibly not even then?

It might still be worth pursuing.

Rafe, you're probably right. It was obviously a cock and bull story from the word go, but theres not a lot I could do. The thing about lost parcels is, the people paid to deliver them don't get paid enough to care. Some will, some wont and it's pot luck for the sender whether they get an honourable delivery person, or someone who couldn't give a toss.

 

[finneyb]

Regarding your situation with Parcels2Go, I most certainly would not let them get away with that, not without involving small claims and trading standards.

I'd also go trading standards and small claims, for the cost of the initial item, plus added costs for the hassle of replacing said item (including any extra money paid out for increased price of the replacement) you can go up to £5,000 and the system is pretty straightforward to use.

.

+1 for Small Claims Court, worked well for me would sue it again.
Breach of contract/ unfair contract terms IMO, but check with Trading Standards.

Brian

 

[dickm]

Thanks, guys - my reactions have been much the same as the majority I.e. don't let the b*****s get away with it, if only for the sake of others in the same position. But son-in-law's father is in a poor way and he basically can't face the hassle.
Just hope getting this as much publicity as possible might help someone.
If anyone wants real horror, I'll post pictures of the cooker!

 

[MIGNAL]

Most (maybe all) couriers try to get out of paying any form of compensation, insured or not. It seems that their first line of defence is that the item is damaged, therefore it was badly packed in the first place. That may well be true in some cases but it seems that they use the same excuse for everything, irrespective of how well the item has been packed.
If I send anything of any value I take a few pictures first, to show adequate packaging. If it means going to the small claims, so be it.

 

[rafezetter]

Most (maybe all) couriers try to get out of paying any form of compensation, insured or not. It seems that their first line of defence is that the item is damaged, therefore it was badly packed in the first place. That may well be true in some cases but it seems that they use the same excuse for everything, irrespective of how well the item has been packed.
If I send anything of any value I take a few pictures first, to show adequate packaging. If it means going to the small claims, so be it.

I've also been doing this for a while, and if buying something fragile from ebay - I send explicit instructions on how I want it packed, offering to pay any extra for that if they want it.

It's got me out of a couple of situations where someone has tried the "badly packed" routine and another where the seller didn't follow the very simple request to remove a tall CPU cooling block from the CPU mount before transit - which arrived with the block broken off it's mount, sans the mounting pins, and had bounced all over the mobo...

all credit to ebay, at least on this occasion; they resolved the issue the very same day (which must be a record) - they must have taken one look at the picture I sent and said..."yup, that's f....d".