Courier has stolen my parcel!

annah1212

Hi all! Apologies in advance for potentially long story - will try to keep it brief.

On Monday, I ordered a new mobile phone from a mail order company I deal with a lot, and have a credit account with. I chose delivery on Saturday between 7am and 9pm as I thought I would be at home all day, and the parcel required a signature. Moments after placing the order, I remembered I needed to be at work on Saturday afternoon so emailed to ask for a different delivery slot.

I received a reply saying the delivery slot couldn't be changed so I would need to cancel the order and place it again - seemed a bit weird as the company would need to process the order twice, but there we go! The order could only be cancelled via an email request, so I emailed on Tuesday asking for the order to be cancelled, then reordered the phone for delivery to my office on Friday.

On Friday, I went onto the company's website to track the reorder, and realised the original order was still showing in both my credit account and my pending order history, and was now showing as in transit. I emailed and asked why it had not been cancelled, and received a reply saying the company had "tried" to cancel the order but had been unable to, and the parcel had definitely been sent twice. I was advised that if I was at home when the parcel arrived, I should refuse to sign and ask the courier to return it to the depot.

I duly received the reordered parcel at work on Friday, and then just as I was leaving for work on Saturday afternoon, the courier arrived at my house with the original order. I explained what had happened and asked her to return it - she said that was fine and I didn't sign for it.

Last night I went online to the company's website and discovered the original order was now showing as delivered to me, and signed for by me! I emailed the company to explain I had refused to sign as per their advice, and got a reply saying the courier says I took delivery and they have a signature on file in my name, so as far as they are concerned I have received both parcels and have to pay for them both. It's pretty obvious to me that the courier has taken the opportunity to steal the phone :mad:

I have replied that I want them to compare the signature they say is mine with previous signatures they have from me, and I want them to speak to the courier again as I am adamant I have not signed for the parcel. No reply yet.

Any similar experiences out there, or any advice on where this might go next and what else I can do? The total order is £115 so I am obviously not keen to pay it twice

Thanks in advance

bod1467

Ask them to provide verifiable proof of delivery. (I think you already have really). If they can't (or won't) advise your card company that you are disputing the 2nd charge.

annah1212

Thanks - unfortunately I paid using my credit account with the company, so only they can cancel the payment I guess!

nuttyp

It is possible that as you refused delivery that theitem is in transit being returned, Oh is a courier for a very large company and if you refuse the first time to sign, it takes up to 3 days to be returned to the original sender. NOT all COURIER DRIVERS are theives. They have a job to doa nd i can assure you that all parcels are coded and they know exactly what vehicle they areon, also they are randomly checked for this sort of behaviour.

I hope the company correct your account soon.

unholyangel

bod1467 wrote: »

Ask them to provide verifiable proof of delivery. (I think you already have really). If they can't (or won't) advise your card company that you are disputing the 2nd charge.

OP said it was a credit account.

OP ask to see the signature yourself. Put your complaint/dispute in writing and keep a copy of it for your own records.

If everything is correct (courier signing your name etc as obviously we can only assume this) then theres every chance they thought the phone was sent twice in error and that no one would miss it - never mind that you would be billed for it.

Its technically up to the retailer to prove it was delivered. They have a contract with the courier. Not you.

annah1212

nuttyp - I am certainly not saying (and did not say) that all couriers are thieves and indeed I have dealt with plenty of other couriers who are perfectly lovely - as I'm sure your OH is. But given (as I said in my original thread) that they have spoken to the courier herself and she says I signed for it, and has produced a signature of my name that I didn't provide, I'm not sure what other conclusion I am supposed to jump to?

unholyangel - You may have hit the nail on the head, I actually told the courier it had been sent twice in error - probably a bad idea, doh.

nuttyp

All signatures on their machine thingys are printable, so they will be able to check both the original parcel signature and the second one. Wher OH works they have to sign out all phones and electrical gadget parcels fromthe secure cages they are kept in.
I hope that it has been returned at least you can then get a credit for the item. Maybe it might of been easier to sign for it and then return it the next day, who knows. But it is common for people to refuse to sign for orders when they have changed their minds about something they have ordered.

annah1212

It may well have been easier to return the item, but when the company told me it had been sent out twice, they advised me to refuse the delivery at the door rather than accept it and return it. Had I done the latter, they still would have charged me for the delivery costs.

wealdroam

OP, get the mail order company to request both signatures from the courier company that they employed.

When they compare the two, it should be clear that they are different.

annah1212

wealdroam wrote: »

OP, get the mail order company to request both signatures from the courier company that they employed.

When they compare the two, it should be clear that they are different.

I have asked - fingers crossed I was telling my dad about it earlier and he said "but what if the courier's handwriting is exactly the same as yours?" Helpful :rotfl:

unholyangel

annah1212 wrote: »

I have asked - fingers crossed I was telling my dad about it earlier and he said "but what if the courier's handwriting is exactly the same as yours?" Helpful :rotfl:

A handwriting expert would be able to say it wasnt signed by the same person. Believe it or not, banks look out for signatures that are exactly identical. As apparently we never sign our names the exact same way twice.....and fraudsters used to use tiny pinholes on a blank cheque then sign over it to forge a signature - so it would be identical.

Anyway.......the company should have the IMEI of the handset. Providing it hasnt been unlocked, they should be able to blacklist the handset. Not really sure how companies deal with such matters but theoretically they could trace he IMEI to the sim number it is currently connected to. Its also possible to tell what postcode a call/text originated from.

As a student i worked for T-Mobile. Regularly had people calling and claiming they never called premium rate (ie sex line) numbers. T-Mobile had a thing where they could run such a trace, but if the trace came back as their house/work address, customer would be liable for the trace cost (which was a few hundred pounds at the time). Funnily enough, after telling them this......they always seemed to remember some time their "friend" or "son" had their phone and perhaps they had made the calls.

And for genuine theft cases, if the customer provided a crime reference number.....t-mobile would run the trace but they would only provide the results to the police (naturally).

Not sure if its still the same. Very possible that the trace still costs a lot of money to do and its not economically viable for them to run the trace compared to replacing the handset. Blacklisting the phone (or bricking) used to only work on the network it was locked to. However at the time, the IMEI was entered into a database and no other network operator would unlock it if it were on that list. This was before you could take it to the market to get it unlocked though :S But perhaps if you suggest they do this, it might make them believe you didnt actually receive the 2nd handset. Its been nearly 10 years since i worked with t-mobile so the knowledge i had back then is very likely to be out of date now!