Delivery rights discussion

urban469

Hi everyone,

I had a horrible experience with Better Bathrooms a few months ago.

First, I ordered some tiles with next day delivery. The guaranteed delivery day was Friday. By 5pm they hadn't turned up, I called BB and they told me it would definitely arrive by 6pm. I called at 6pm and they THEN tried to call the delivery company, but they couldn't get hold of anyone because the office was closed.

The tiles arrived on Saturday, and some were cracked.

Next, I ordered a toilet from them with a 48 hour delivery. It arrived on time but it was second hand (someone had written "please return to..." etc on the packaging).

The next toilet arrived and it was cracked.

A third toilet had to be sent out!

So I wasted one day on the tiles, and I wasted a further two days on the toilet delivery. I do freelance work, and time is money for me. I can typically earn £175 a day, so I lost £525 in wages. I wrote to them claiming a reduced rate of £350 (i.e. only claiming for the two weekdays that I couldn't work, not the Saturday as well), and this was their reply...

Dear Mr xxxxxxx
WITHOUT PREJUDICE
Thank you for your letter dated 30 July in regards to the items you have purchased from Better Bathrooms on 20 June 2013.

It is disappointing to hear your purchase did not progress as smoothly as anticipated and as a company Better Bathrooms are very aware of the need for our customers to receive an excellent level of service at all times.

I note your orders did not arrive with you when expected and I would like to apologise for any inconvenience you feel you have suffered as a result of this matter. I have raised your salient points direct with our courier and warehouse for them to improve in areas were prudent.

I understand you have requested for compensation due to loss of time and two days off work; however we do not ask our customers to be there in person to sign for the goods, you just need to make sure you have abled bodied people available.

Subsequently I am unable to fulfil you request for a claim of £350.00. I am sorry again for any inconvenience you feel this matter has caused.

Thank you for the time you have taken to write to us about your concerns, ii you have any questions you can contact me directly on 0844 xxxxxxxxxx.

Yours sincerely
For and on behalf of BETTER BATHROOMS UK LIMITED

What's the next step? MCOL? What do you make of this line:
"I understand you have requested for compensation due to loss of time and two days off work; however we do not ask our customers to be there in person to sign for the goods, you just need to make sure you have abled bodied people available."

priyap

Hi All
Looking for a bit of advice on my next move - I ordered from victoriaplumb.co.uk - they apparently delivered and no-one was home (I know this is untrue as there were 5 people in the house and noone heard the door), they left and took the items back to the depot. after ringing both them and the courier company several times, i managed to re-arrange delivery and arrange for a relative to be in to collect. the day of the delivery they called to say they couldnt find the items so they wont deliver. again after numerous times chasing up they re-send the order (original order still nowhere to be found) and arrange a re-delivery. again i arrange for someone to be in. on the day get a call saying the driver will be a bit late. no sign of him by 5pm - so more chasing up and waiting around - he eventually turns up at 8.15pm. i did get a refund for the delivery charge but was really inconvienced by the whole saga, lost money in phone calls to them and paid for someone to be there twice when the delivery didnt show up. I used the template from the article, and emailed VP - they offered £50 goodwill gesture but that doesnt cover my costs and they are adament that this is their final offer and i should take it to trading standards if i want.

does anyone have any advice? should i keep trying to persue it with them? has anyone had any luck getting anything out of victoriaplumb before?
thanks.

batesy2000

Ok here goes.
Parcel ordered from Bioveo on 2nd Feb - UPS no signature required 2-3 working day delivery.
6th Feb no notification of despatch so I emailed and coincidentally parcel was despatched 4 days late.
10th Feb the UPS tracker says a correct street number is needed for delivery despite the fact I know all details given were correct.
12th Feb they try to deliver it but I'm ok, that's ok as its no signature required and it can fit in letterbox. However they take it to my neighbour who was going to take it but see the parcel looks opened/damaged/tampered with. He refuses to take it.
I have to organise redelivery to my parents as they will be in all day. Next day my folks wait, and wait, and wait. Its now 9pm and tracker says out on delivery.
I chase it up on 13th Feb via email. No response until 14th via a call. They say cannot locate parcel, they said they will look and call Monday. No call Monday or Tues.
19th Feb Biovea send out another parcel as replacement for lost one. UPS tracker says scheduled delivery Fri 21st. However as of now - 20th at 22:12 the tracker shows the parcel is still in Germany and not moved since 19th. I doubt I'll get it tomorrow.

As you can see. A catalogue of errors and I'm fuming. I want to make an official complaint and I'm sure this demands compensation but where do I start?

shaggie44

Hi guys avoid !!!! I made the mistake of ignoring others pleas and chanced it = bad experience.

I am here to share my story and also ask for help for way forward.

As you know ipostparcel operates through web form 99% of the time(there is a reason for this!! have a guess.)

Following are extracts from email i sent to CEO after having a headless chicken dance with the rest.

Dear Sir
On Friday I had to ring the Stafford depot to send out a driver to go and collect my parcel, from what I could tell there was no intention of collecting it on the day that was paid and agreed (21/02/2014) until I pointed out that the company you were to collect from charged a £25/day storage charge that I would pass onto you. That is when i was told a driver would go and collect within 30 mins!!!

On Saturday a delivery driver rang to say they would deliver on Monday, I made him aware that I paid for a Saturday service because the goods had to be on a plane to Zimbabwe that very evening hence the Saturday delivery. The driver said he would be with me at 1 pm. I cancelled my appointments and waited till 1.30 pm driver did not turn up and was not answering any of my calls. At 2 pm I rang 01213351004 and spoke to a lady who put me on hold and rang the driver, surprisingly enough immediately answered. After speaking to him the lady got back to me and said the driver could not get to me because "he was stuck in traffic" and had to rush back to the depot as it closes at 12 pm on Saturdays. At which I pointed out to the lady that the driver said he would be with me at 1 pm and if the depot closed at 12 pm this only meant that he had no intention of ever delivering or honoring the contract in the first place!

I was assured that our conversation was recorded, because I am compelled to contact Channel 4 dispatches, OFT and be out on Social media voice my disgust at the service I received. Before I engaged your services I had googled ipostparcels.com and had seen the 100s of appalling customer feedback and I felt that since the Channel 4 expose, just maybe the service had improved to an acceptable level.

Unforseen events beyond your control I understand, but what excuse do you have for unresponsive customer services? Customers having to literally ringing and beg for their parcels to be collected and delivered? Drivers who cannot be bothered to do their jobs?

At this point I have not only been left frustrated by the level of service I received but also out of pocket as I have now got to pay for shipping of these goods as I missed the slot on Saturday.

I very much hope you are a bit more responsible than your employees and get this sorted asap.

Within the hour response from Head of Customer Care (Apparently they have one!!) series of emails below.

Good morning,
Mr Buswell has requested that I contact you on his behalf as Head of Customer Care for UK Mail following receipt of your email below.
Please do accept my sincere apologies for this incident.
I have contacted the Site Manager of the delivery location this morning and have asked him to investigate this incident as a matter of urgency.
I have of course arranged for a full refund of your order.
Could I ask whether delivery would not be acceptable or whether you require the goods to be redirected?
Kind regards,
Tracy

I’m waiting confirmation of an estimated time of arrival for today for you. As soon as I have this information I’ll will update you accordingly.
I am afraid that any cover taken would be cover for the actual items incase of loss or damage and would not be for consequential loss due to a delay in onwards shipping.
You have my assurances that this incident will be fully investigated.
Kind regards,
Tracy

Dear Tracy
I am afraid this is not good enough, a sorry and a refund does not cover a financial loss, this is beyond that. You cannot divorce yourself from responsibility simply because your are using a faceless platform as ipostparcel.com.
If I had not prompted Stafford depot to go and collect that would not have happened, secondly my delivery didn't arrive at the time we agreed, which is a breach of contract. A contract which you had no intention of honouring in the first place as evidenced by your driver's statements "I will deliver on Monday", then "Okay I will be with you at 1pm (Sat 22/022014)".
I have had to re-arrange forward shipping, there is a person incurring losses waiting for this parcel and if we do not receive the parcel today, I will have to take a day off work tomorrow for re-delivery, all of this has left me out of pocket. I would like to claim for this consequential loss, as is my legal right.
Should I take this email as you official denial of liability?
Regards

Good afternoon *******,
I have received confirmation that the driver will be with you today between 14:00 and 16:00.
The credit is available for you to pull down immediately from the account if you would prefer to do rather than waiting for the credit via refund.
I am afraid that a request for monies for consequential loss will not be considered as I have explained below. I do apologise for the non delivery on Saturday and action is being taken with the driver concerned by the Site Manager.
Kind regards,

Tracy

This is where I am now, waiting for goods to be delivered today, and really hoping there is no damage as this is gonna get ugly.

Gurus please help, what is my next course of action?

Terry_A

Good Evening All,
I'm looking for some advice if someone could help please?
Below are two e-mail that I have sent to Asda, this is for good ordered on the 4th January, yes! The 4th January and I still have yet to receive the order. The second e-mail was sent on the 12th March, advising them that I would like to cancel the order. I am yet to receive a response to this e-mail. Although I did take a call last Friday, to advise me that they would deliver on Monday, just gone the 24th. I told the gentleman from XDP, that I would not be in to accept delivery and that I had told ASDA I could only accept delivery on a Saturday, the gentleman was quite obnoxious and stated that I would need to speak with Asda, as there is an extra charge for Saturday deliveries, I did ask if he was taking the p*ss, as I had been waiting for this order for two months, he didn't want to know. So I informed him that he can send it back to the supplier, I had cancelled the order, he said OK. My wife the called ASDA to be told that they would sort it out, the delivery didn't arrive Saturday as requested, guess what they tried to deliver Monday whilst we was at work. We sent an e-mail to ASDA last night stating that we was not going to accept delivery until they replied to the 2nd e-mail below. We haven't had a reply and yes they tried to deliver again today.
What should I do next, sorry if I'm a bit vague, this is my first time posting.
Thanks
Terry A


2nd e-mail
Good Afternoon,
As a gesture of goodwill, you offer a £10 e-voucher, I am totally speechless.
Have you actually read the detail below?
am herby making time of the essence and giving notice that unless the goods are delivered to me no later than 17th March, I will treat you as having repudiated the contract and call on you to refund all sums I have paid you, together with damages for breach of contract. This will include my expenses in having to but the same goods elsewhere and any amount in excess of the price I paid you.
I would now like to exercise this right and cancel the full order.
I have the two bedside cabinets made up at my home and would suggest that you have your courier company call me, to arrange a suitable time for collection.
I will calculate my costs, some of which are already detailed below, plus additional costs for me to wait in for the collection of the bedside cabinets.
I will then forward these costs to you, in addition to these I would expect some form of compensation for loss of enjoyment waiting for delivery and also compensation for inconvenience.
Should you choose not to pay these costs, I will forward the details to the (MCOL) HM Courts online service.
Best Regards
Terry A


1st e-mail
Dear Sir or Madam,
Order number:1499****
Ref: Delivery complaint due to breach of contract
On 4th January you agreed via your website to sell me x1 Ashford Wide Chest and x2 Ashford Bedside Cabinets.
I requested that you deliver to me on Saturday 11th January and I would like to point out from your confirmation e-mail:
Your item(s) will usually leave our warehouse within 2 working days of your order being placed, unless you've chosen to have your order delivered on a specific date, the item is being made to order or is being shipped directly from the supplier.
So we requested delivery 5 working days later to cover each scenario.
You failed to deliver.
After waiting in for the best part of the day, it was not until we called you to find out where our furniture was, that we had any idea that it would not be delivered on our chosen day.
To make matters worse you were unable to give us a delivery date.
I then took a call from a very unhelpful young lady, unfortunately I haven’t got the date to hand, but I’m sure you will be able to gain this from your supplier, which I presume was from a courier company, advising me that my delivery would be with me the following day. I advised the lady, that this was not convenient for me and requested a Saturday delivery, again she was very unhelpful and would not accommodate the Saturday delivery and I had no choice to accept the delivery for the following day, to make matters worse, she could not give me a delivery time.
However, I incurred loss due to your breach of contract.
I was compelled to take annual leave for half a day which represented a net loss to me of £78. I am writing to claim this amount from you.
The delivery was made on said date, low and behold only the bedside tables arrived, so now I have wasted half a day of my holiday, only to receive half of my order.
It was agreed you would deliver the remaining goods on the 3rd March again I had to book half a day off from work, unfortunately due to the timescale of being told that this was not going to happen, I could not cancel the time off from work and wasted half a day holiday, again I am advising you that I wish to claim this amount from you.
We have now been given a new delivery date of the 17th March, 10 weeks after the initial order!! Again I have to book half a day from work to accept this delivery, again I am advising you that I wish to claim this amount from you and that this delay has been undue and cannot reasonably be expected to continue indefinitely.
Therefore, I am hereby making time of the essence and giving notice that unless the goods are delivered to me no later than 17th March, I will treat you as having repudiated the contract and call on you to refund all sums I have paid you, together with damages for breach of contract. This will include my expenses in having to buy the same goods elsewhere, and any amount in excess of the price I paid to you.
In addition to this I would expect to receive some form of compensation for loss of enjoyment waiting for delivery and also compensation for inconvenience.
look forward to a full and prompt response to this letter within 14 days. Failing this I will bring county court proceedings against you for damages, interest at the rate of 8% per annum and costs.
Yours faithfully,
Terry A

jmm8997

Yesterday got an e-mail from City Link telling me our delivery was returned to depot as no-one was in!
We'd paid extra for delivery on a Saturday as we were in all day!
On the tracking website it said a card had been left (it hadn't - or else at the wrong address?!)
City Link's contact telephone number is 0844 ... with 15p connection charge on Talk Talk, and more than 7p/min. Called only to get automated message that "service was not working- try again later"- teasing to fill their coffers for no service!
Awful!
(Order from John Lewis, to be delivered by City Link)

wealdroam

jmm8997 wrote: »

Yesterday got an e-mail from City Link telling me our delivery was returned to depot as no-one was in!
We'd paid extra for delivery on a Saturday as we were in all day!
On the tracking website it said a card had been left (it hadn't - or else at the wrong address?!)
City Link's contact telephone number is 0844 ... with 15p connection charge on Talk Talk, and more than 7p/min. Called only to get automated message that "service was not working- try again later"- teasing to fill their coffers for no service!
Awful!
(Order from John Lewis, to be delivered by City Link)

Loads of cheaper Citylink numbers on SayNoTo0870.

As you will have read in the article linked to from the first post on this thread, chase John Lewis.

jmm8997

wealdroam wrote: »

Loads of cheaper Citylink numbers on SayNoTo0870.

Thanks. I did look up several numbers on SayNoTo0870 and call using these, but after a long-winded introduction (leading me on into thinking I'd get through to someone) City Link told me the numbers would no longer connect to their service!
So this was just a waste of time.

wealdroam wrote: »

As you will have read in the article linked to from the first post on this thread, chase John Lewis.

We have contacted John Lewis too, but on a weekend, have had no response. We regret ever having ordered the thing to be delivered, but at the moment have very little time to leave the house to collect in store etc.

Scamp64

Hi what can I do I had a parcel collected on the 13th May to return to very Two days later it is at local depot with address query(It has a returns label) I phone very who tell me to ring them and put them right. It has now on 8 different occasions been on Van to warehouse and back to depot Very keep saying when the parcelis returned I will get my money back they will ring me or leave a note on my account. Yodel say the will ring me back both companies never do. It is now 2 weeks since i returned this parcel I just want my money back. Where do I go from here?

mazman777

Hi,

I had a missed delivery by B&Q waited all day and they failed to deliver my wardrobes which i booked and paid for, i did not receive my complete order until a week later, they tried to re-schedule but they could not offer a weekend delivery and i was not prepared to take another day off work for nothing.

I used your template letter and asked for compensation for my day off and also £50.00 for my time spent going to the store and for my petrol and calls etc..they sent me a cheque for the full amount requested and also got a call from the manager to apologise...

Many thanks