Potential problem with delivery of goods ordered online

tomalong

I order some goods from an online retailer last friday and paid for a saturday delivery, the goods were dispatched. However the courier did not attempt the delivery. According to the couriers online tracking they "ran out of time". Being a little cynical I think this has more to do with the fact that I am a 2 hour round trip from the couriers depot.

Anyway I contacted the retailer online and told them the goods had not arrived, but that no one would be avalible to take them so they should wait until saturday and delivery then. By the time the retailer got the message this on monday the courier was attempting delivery again, they left a card so did make it to my door. Whilst the retailer acknowledge the goods were not delivered they merely asked if they could be delivered elsewere, which obviously if that were the case I would not of paid extra for a saturday delivery.

As normal the couriers card states they will attempt to delivery twice more before returning the goods to the retailer. My worry is that twice more will be tuesday and wednesday. Assuming this is the case I would like to clarify a couple of points.

Who is responsible for return carriage if the courier returns the goods to the retailer?

Can I claim the saturday delivery fee back as the courier failed to make the delivery?

Should the courier fail to deliver is this grounds for canceling the order without penalty to myself? It not that I want to cancel as such but I have little faith in the courier to deliver, so would like to know if I have the option of going with a different retailer and courier.

Just to be clear the goods will be quite bulky so it is impractical to have them delivered to my office, and the couriers depot is about an hours drive away so picking them up from there is not an attractive option. Should it matter the retailer is o
Overclockers UK and the Courier PDP.

cybergibbons

I once paid extra for pre-1200 Saturday delivery on an order because I needed the item before I flew the next day.

It ended up coming by DHL's self-employed courier service, which means that it will almost certainly not arrive at the specified time.

So I the item didn't turn up. My flight was cancelled due to the ash cloud, so it wasn't as important.

I wanted to get a refund for the Saturday delivery. I was told they could still have delivered it on Saturday - the following Saturday. I went back to check, and indeed, the delivery options show next day Mon-Fri, and then Saturday delivery. No indicated of "next Saturday". It took quite a lot of arguing before they refunded me, and they were clear it was goodwill and not because of not meeting a delivery schedule.