Parcelforce - small claims court advice wanted

wickedlemon

I've recently taken Parcelforce to court to try and get compensation for a damaged parcel.

The basic situation is that PF took over two months to deliver it and when it arrived it was trashed to bits.

They refused my refund claim due to their T&Cs stating all claims must be made within 30 days of posting! Obviously this was impossible!

I've pursued the matter through Postwatch after they ignored or sent stock letters to my enquiries. Unfortunately they have no power so gave up, despite seeing the idiocy of PFs case.

PF have now responded to my court claim, again hiding behind their T&C of a 30 day limit.

It's obvious that it was impossible for me to place a claim within 30 days for a parcel that wasn't delivered till after this and common sense says this 30 day condition shouldn't apply. Otherwise PF could just delay any damaged parcels to avoid paying out!

I now need to respond to the courts after PF's reply and am after any advice that may be helpful regards laws that would make PF's T&C in this instance void.

I found this link, http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/consumer-regulations/traders/359/1/ , which suggests PF accept later claims in 'exceptional circumstances' which is what I would class my claim as, yet is was never given any consideration.

Does anyone know of any other legal angles I could use? First time through the Small Claims court, so any help appreciated.

DaisyFlower

They will argue it was possible to claim within the time limits, maybe not for damage but surely you would have claimed for loss rather than leaving it for 2 months and then claiming damage.

Their terms and conditions will be pretty water tight.

gibby

from your post Im not too sure if it was a parcel you were sending or receiving

If it was you were receiving then the firm you purchased it from should handle the matter not you.

If its something you sent & they & have taken so long to deliver it then their T&C's are not valid.
I would have got onto Consumer Direct in the first place.
Im sure you will win in court and any judge will rule in your favour.

We use parcelforce for our business and lately there service has become very poor.
Claims do take forever to be sorted and customers are moaning as they are paying 35p a min from a mobile to track parcels

Dont give up & let us know how it goes in court

G

DaisyFlower

Having looked at their terms and conditions online it does state 30 days as the time limits for GIT claims. Thats a good amount of time considering delivery should take place within a few days after despatch. Their terms are pretty standard for a courier.

Even if the claim was submitted in time, can you guarantee it would have been accepted? I.E what damage occured, was it adequately packed, was it signed for damaged etc.

TBH why would you wait 2 months for the parcel to have been delivered? After 2 weeks surely you would have claimed for loss?

The "exceptional rules" may not apply in this case - its there to protect people who may have been rushed into hospital, were out of the country etc - ie a valid reason why the claim could not have been made within the time limits.

The judge would have to be shown a good reason as to why he should overturn their terms and conditions of carriage. Unless you have a very good reason for not chasing the delivery until it occured 2 months later and can be certain you actually had a valid claim then you may end up paying more in costs.

Another thing to take into account is that the defendent usually gets the court hearing in their area so take this into account if their head office (or whichever address you issued against) is not local.

superscaper

I agree with DaisyFlower, I think not making a loss claim within two months will have undone most if not all of the argument of claiming for damage. I think in general small claims courts are usually quite good at adhering to common sense (in particular because they don't need proof beyond reasonable doubt etc) but that'll also mean they'll want to know why you didn't make a claim for a loss, which is really what the 30 day limit is also there for. I don't think the argument that it was still in their tracking system will help as even a few weeks is an awfully long time and indicative of something very wrong. I'd have been screaming blue murder at that point no matter what their tracking system said.

superscaper

wickedlemon wrote: »

Have you tried 'screaming blue murder' at a company like Parcelforce? Can you provide me with an email address or telephone number where somebody the other end would have actually responded to screaming? I wasn't aware they had a 'we really care' department!

Strange as it may seem, during the delivery period I was more concerned with finding out why my parcel wasn't being delivered and getting it to its destination than thinking 'claim, claim, claim!!!' Is that a strange response to have? Surely we haven't drifted so far down the slippery slope to American culture that legal action is the first and desired option? 'Advice in hindsight is all well and good, but I don't believe anybody would consider placing a claim for loss, when they could see online which depot a package was siting in!

I think you're missing my point. I'm not saying you're not in the right or that you won't win your case but you need to make sure you've got these things covered when they're brought up in court. It's fine the explanation you've given, so long as you give that to the court as well up front. You didn't give much of an indication in the OP of much effort prior to the parcel arriving. That's how it came across. Fine with all the examples of points of contact you've given which I hope is already part of your case, which will make it stronger but it would have been much weaker just going by what you've said up until I posted.

smcaul

Try 01908 687000, head office reception number, then ask for Dawn Cox, she should be able to either sort out your issue or pass it onto someone who can actually deal with it rather then reading off of a script.