Delivery rights discussion

Flyboy152

JohnDowell wrote: »

I ordered some leaflets from a company called SK Print. They weren't delivered to my customer so I contacted the printers, who contacted UPS. UPS told them they had delivered the leaflets, but the address they claimed to have delivered to does not exist and they had been signed for by someone who my customer has never heard of. As my contract was with the printer I tried to claim back the cost from them but they said that their terms say: "SK Print Design cannot be held responsible if the delivery is late due to a third party such as a courier or no one was available to sign for the order."

Any suggestions?

That sounds like an unfair term. I would suggest challenging the legality of their condition.

arcon5

Flyboy152 wrote: »

That sounds like an unfair term. I would suggest challenging the legality of their condition.

It would be unfair if in this situation they refused to do anything about it. But I imagine their terms allow them the right to offer a replacement of "missing" goods.

You need to be careful sometimes as a reseller/dropshipper, as the end transaction involving B2C (online) gives them the rights to return the goods, whereas the supplier may not offer the retailer the right to return leaving the middle man with goods to resell directly (no doubt at a smaller price also). Still, I don't see how the contract with the consumer can determine the contract with the supplier is unfair.



EDIT: actually, re-reading the post, i'm reading it to possibly mean the printer is washing their hands of it -- in which case, I can't ever see a judge upholding this term.

arcon5

smala01 wrote: »

Actually i do remember as a student getting my meal free from macdonalds for it taking longer than x minutes to prepare. A friend told me about their guarentee and being a pennyless student tried my luck...

But thats a different scenario to what Martins article is about. In your example they willingly offered a guarantee and honoured the reward when they didn't meet it.

Congrats on the free meal though Nothing wrong in claiming your prize!

Ooh, I feel a drive to McDonalds coming on. 3rd time today!!!

joveejam

Hi all!

I ordered an item last week, and received text through the mobile and email to confirm the actual date the item will arrive. Toys R Us delivery time slot is from 8am - 9pm. Waited a whole day and nothing came, so I emailed them that night to query where the parcel had gone?

By 9am the next day they sent me an email the item will arrive in an hours time slot between 11am - 12pm that day.

I had to request for 2 days annual leave in total. Having wasted my extra day annual leave to wait for the parcel, I wrote in to complain, following Martin's advice and template letter to claim compensation.

They have replied back with the below:

"Thank you for your recent e-mail.

Please accept my apologies for the delay in receiving your order.

When we despatch an order we put faith in our third party couriers to deliver within our specified timeframe and I apologise that this was not the case for your order.

As advised in Part 6 of our Terms and Conditions, which must be accepted in order to place an order, any date or period for delivery will be considered as indicative only and I apologise that we are therefore unable to issue a refund of this amount to you.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused. Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind regards,"

What shall I do next!!?? :mad:

arcon5

joveejam wrote: »

Hi all!

I ordered an item last week, and received text through the mobile and email to confirm the actual date the item will arrive. Toys R Us delivery time slot is from 8am - 9pm. Waited a whole day and nothing came, so I emailed them that night to query where the parcel had gone?

By 9am the next day they sent me an email the item will arrive in an hours time slot between 11am - 12pm that day.

I had to request for 2 days annual leave in total. Having wasted my extra day annual leave to wait for the parcel, I wrote in to complain, following Martin's advice and template letter to claim compensation.

They have replied back with the below:

"Thank you for your recent e-mail.

Please accept my apologies for the delay in receiving your order.

When we despatch an order we put faith in our third party couriers to deliver within our specified timeframe and I apologise that this was not the case for your order.

As advised in Part 6 of our Terms and Conditions, which must be accepted in order to place an order, any date or period for delivery will be considered as indicative only and I apologise that we are therefore unable to issue a refund of this amount to you.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused. Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind regards,"

What shall I do next!!?? :mad:

You shall accept these things happen, bang your head against a wall and ignore Martins advice! (on this occasion only, usually it's pretty good).

Please all remember, you have a duty to mitigate your losses!
This could mean rearranging delivery for your next available day off, whether it this week or next week. But the chances are you wanted it sooner rather than later, there is an opportunity cost to everything in life!

John_Pierpoint

audirob wrote: »

As MSE is well viewed I hope many people will see this and hopefully improve your delivery success.

I am a trainer for a delivery company.

When ordering online in the third line of address detail that is rarely used put your telephone number. As this will always be printed on the delivery label and on his handheld scanner and the driver can call you if he has problems locating.

If you know your having a delivery please leave a note on the door or in your window specifying what neighbour will take your delivery in your absence.

If you want the parcel left leave a signed note saying where you want it left with a signature and the driver can take that away as your signature and leave the parcel as instructed.

I deliver between 50-110 stops per day and if people would do the above it would make things so much easier.

And also before I go it's busy this time of year and sometimes staff sickness or poor quality agency staff prevent us from being able to deliver first time but we want you to get your parcel as much as you want it!!

If you are looking for a job, get work as a courier driver - provided you don't have one of those spy in the cab trackers, you have a set of wheels with your interview suit hanging in the back and minimum wage is better than Job Seekers Allowance.

So here are some of my thoughts as a customer with a difficult to find address and as a courier driver getting the rounds that none of the permanent staff wanted.

First a rant: Please can we have summer time all the time, like we had back in the 1960's - If the Jocks don't like going to work in the dark, let them change the clocks at Gretna Green.
Delivering in the dark is next to impossible, especially for those houses that have names not numbers, but loading the van in the dark in a mercury vapour lit warehouse is as good as a summer's day.

Now suggestions for the "control" staff:
Install software that can plot the suggested delivery round or at least allow the driver time to load the van in a sensible order. Hiring a gorilla to throw parcels into the van at this time of year, so that is is filled to the roof, achieves nothing; all that will happen is that the driver will park up in the motorway service area and repack the van in the rain. Driving to the delivery address of the huge big box just to make a bit of floor space in the van might be the most sensible use of time.
If Mrs Smith telephones and gives you a hard time, be sympathetic, but be aware of the "fairness" of the situation; because if you just try to pass the Mrs Smith problem onto me, it won't work I don't accept other peoples "monkey's" on my back. You are asking me to make an hours detour and waste £10 of diesel, so just authorise me to not deliver half a dozen other parcels including 3 that say "before noon".
Somehow tape parcels that say 2 of 2 together if possible with 1 of 2 - delivering half an order causes more trouble than not delivering anything, especially when the little 2 of 2 contains all the fittings for 1 of 2.
Ask your boss if you can go out delivering too on a "job and finish" basis perhaps on a Saturday, so you learn the Geography of the area you are trying to control.

Now some suggestions for the customers:

Telephone numbers please. Phoning ahead to check you are at home before making a 10 mile round trip, is in both our interests.
As a customer I can put out a pallet daubed with my house name at the corner of the lane - yes honest Google maps know where I live, even though you don't believe it.

Just because you are a big powerful organisation and it is your lunch break, that does not give you the right to tell me to join the Q and get unloaded in 2 hours time. That might make sense when the forklift is required to unload a 40' artic, but I am standing here with a small box on a sack barrow, I just need your signature. I happen to be one of your customers too and I will wheel this box round to customer services and cause a nice loud fuss for the rest of your customers to listen to. I think you are getting the message ASDA.
This isn't France.

With a telephone number, you can come down from the sixth floor in your block of flats and we can get a chain going, I deliver to the lift. That way I avoid getting my van clamped by some cow boy clamping firm. Alternatively, you give me one of your expensive visitors parking permits. In London the van driver gets photographed and ticketed the minute his wheels stop turning. Parking on a single yellow doesn't work either, you get back to the van to find a ticket marked "observed for 3 minutes - no sign of unloading".

Normal working hours are 8:00 - 18:00, if you have funny requirements, like shutting for lunch or going home at 15:30 on Fridays or requiring a pre-booked delivery time - please say that on your order.

Know what it is you have ordered and check that you appear to have received it all before you sign that tablet - be aware that the package says 2 of 3. The driver might assume you have already had the other two. Date and time your signature. I was frequently given the round for some bottom of the pile driver who had failed to turn up for work. It would be after 10:00 before I was on the road let alone delivering, if I could get a signature without a time I would.

Well here is my new year's resolution:
I am going to get a lock for that redundant horizontal dustbin that is used at the end of the drive for parcel deliveries.

There are some rewards, like delivering the photobook, intended as a present for the grandparents, at 16:00 on Xmas eve.
or
Being the driver who sussed that the local council had driven a new access road through a factory estate to gain access for a "waste transfer station" and half a dozen units had been marooned 300 yards away on foot or a mile and a half by road.
That parcel had been out for redelivery for a fortnight.

lcharm

Clearly a rule created and written by someone with no clue about the stresses of running an online business.

I run a small online business and rely on Royal Mail to do the deliveries.

So basically, while i'm all FOR consumer rights, I can now get screwed over by people demanding extra money for additional time off work for something which was not my fault in the first place and which Royal Mail won't compensate for.

Whenever RM lose a parcel, we get the stick, and either have to refund or replace the order and attempt to claim off Royal Mail. The claim form itself takes about 15-20 minutes to complete, I lose time and money!

We're not a big company, just enough to scrape by and with this ridiculous rule only the big businesses can survive.

Here's a thought, if you are planning a day off to wait for a home delivery, surely it will defy the logic and you should be going to the shops anyway to buy your items!!

tomjonesrules

lcharm wrote: »

Clearly a rule created and written by someone with no clue about the stresses of running an online business.

I run a small online business and rely on Royal Mail to do the deliveries.

So basically, while i'm all FOR consumer rights, I can now get screwed over by people demanding extra money for additional time off work for something which was not my fault in the first place and which Royal Mail won't compensate for.

Whenever RM lose a parcel, we get the stick, and either have to refund or replace the order and attempt to claim off Royal Mail. The claim form itself takes about 15-20 minutes to complete, I lose time and money!

We're not a big company, just enough to scrape by and with this ridiculous rule only the big businesses can survive.

Out of interest, and to give it some context, could I ask what impact someone claiming two days wages as 'compensation' would do to you? I'm guessing it would be a fair chunk of your profit?

lcharm

tomjonesrules wrote: »

Out of interest, and to give it some context, could I ask what impact someone claiming two days wages as 'compensation' would do to you? I'm guessing it would be a fair chunk of your profit?

A massive chunk, if not all of it and more depending on what the customers salary is.

I work with low margin products as well.

It's deeply upsetting and after reading some previous posts, I agree that this "compensation culture" being promoted will eventually create the same price increase effects as we are already experiencing with car insurance

unholyangel

lcharm wrote: »

Clearly a rule created and written by someone with no clue about the stresses of running an online business.

I run a small online business and rely on Royal Mail to do the deliveries.

So basically, while i'm all FOR consumer rights, I can now get screwed over by people demanding extra money for additional time off work for something which was not my fault in the first place and which Royal Mail won't compensate for.

Whenever RM lose a parcel, we get the stick, and either have to refund or replace the order and attempt to claim off Royal Mail. The claim form itself takes about 15-20 minutes to complete, I lose time and money!

We're not a big company, just enough to scrape by and with this ridiculous rule only the big businesses can survive.

Here's a thought, if you are planning a day off to wait for a home delivery, surely it will defy the logic and you should be going to the shops anyway to buy your items!!

Contract a company to deliver for you then? We used to have one that was much much cheaper and we didnt even use them all that much....you could possibly get a better deal if you're using them regularly with a guaranteed amount of work. They should also have liability insurance should anything go wrong.

Plus as a business, you're supposed to have projected loss and write these in your overheads so you account for these costs over the course of the year and build them into your prices.