Virgin Wines - ordered one case, got two, now email received

texranger

Poppy9 wrote: »

I would email them saying they can collect them after 5.30pm and offer 3 dates which is more than most companies offer when you are awaiting delivery!

the same thing happened to me with Virgin Wine last year and i gave them a time of after 5pm and 3 dates.

got home from work one day to find a courier note, " we attempted to collect a parcel today at 11am but could not collect please call the below number to arrange collection"
i called Virgin and they said they would get intouch with the courier as they were told after 5pm, well 2 days later another note this time they tried at 1pm.
I again called Virgin and they apologised and said they would contact the courier again. I then told the girl on the phone hows £10 a day sound and she asked what did i mean i so i told her £10 a day storage fee for storing their wine, she said you cant do that and i said well you cant seem to be able to collect them at a time i gave. Amazing a hour later a courier turned up for these.

unholyangel

jwg wrote: »

I have just come across this post after finding myself in the same position. While I would agree with responses from other people that to morally/legally correct thing to do is to return the wine, I wonder how far we are expected to accommodate their mistake.

The OP and I have been offered the option to return the wines which is an option I originally took. I told Virgin Wines my partner and I are almost always out but they could pick the wines up from outside of the house. However the weather is bad and box was likely to get damaged. I attempted to protect the case from the rain but there is no shelter outside of my house and a black plastic bag will only keep the rain off for so long until water leaks in. I don't have anything else to protect the box with. The operator at Virgin Wines informed me that he understood the limitations, accepted them and would have the courier come as quickly possible with a new box that he could use if necessary.

The first time the courier failed to turn up. Virgin wines apologised and said that they would send a second courier. According to Virgin Wines, the second courier turned up and refused to take the box because it was too damaged, even though the operator had instructed him to take a fresh box in case this exact situation arose. My partner returned to find wine bottles rolling around the street. The box is completely destroyed by water, although the black plastic bag was originally tied up so the wines should not have escaped. I guess the courier tried to lift the box and the bag tore but I'm only guessing.

Now, I have sympathy for both individuals and companies making mistakes but their mistake is becoming a large inconvenience. While looking into my problem I found a description on the law of inertial selling (source out-law dot com/page-430)

It is an offence under the Regulations [UK distance selling] for a supplier to send unsolicited goods and then demand payment or threaten legal proceedings to get payment for the goods. The recipient of the goods may use, deal with or dispose as if they were an unconditional gift.

The second case was unsolicited. Virgin wines have demanded (all be it quite politely) either payment or the return of the wines. However, they do not take the wines and keep trying to arrange for them to be collected which is causing a growing inconvenience to me. I'm not trying to look for a loop hole here - I'm trying to get this problem to go away as quickly as possible and at present the best option seems to be to tell them that they are in violation of inertial selling laws by trying to bully me into buying the case. Must I give them more attempts before I do this and buy a waterproof container to put the wines in or take a day off work so that the delivery man can collect them? At what point do their mistakes become passive aggressive attempts to get me to buy the wine?

I take it you dont understand what unsolicited means for the purpose of the Unsolicited Goods Act.

From the Act itself:

Interpretation.

(1)In this Act, unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires,—
“acquire” includes hire;
“send” includes deliver, and “sender” shall be construed accordingly;
“unsolicited” means, in relation to goods sent to any person, that they are sent without any prior request made by him or on his behalf.



Goods sent in error are not unsolicited goods. You have a statutory duty to take reasonable care of the goods and make them available for collection. If you want to assume ownership there are steps you must follow (such as writing to them to give them warning if they're not collected within x time, you're going to sell it - and you cant sell for knockdown prices, it must be at a reasonable price and that money then belongs to the retailer and they have 6 years to chase you for payment).

zenmaster

mountainofdebt wrote: »

Since when has MSE been a site for people to find loopholes when both legally and morally they know the answer to the situation.

Ever since I have been visiting the site and probably long before.

I've often thought it should be renamed moneygrabbingbastards.com.

Mat_s

Apologies if this topic seems to have annoyed some people. Not my intention.

Well I emailed virgin wines to arrange a collection last week. I've had a card left for a collection even though I told the company I'll be at home between certain times.

Let's see if/when they try to collect next time.

jwg_2

unholyangel wrote: »

I take it you dont understand what unsolicited means for the purpose of the Unsolicited Goods Act.

From the Act itself:

Interpretation.

(1)In this Act, unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires,—
“acquire” includes hire;
“send” includes deliver, and “sender” shall be construed accordingly;
“unsolicited” means, in relation to goods sent to any person, that they are sent without any prior request made by him or on his behalf.



Goods sent in error are not unsolicited goods. You have a statutory duty to take reasonable care of the goods and make them available for collection. If you want to assume ownership there are steps you must follow (such as writing to them to give them warning if they're not collected within x time, you're going to sell it - and you cant sell for knockdown prices, it must be at a reasonable price and that money then belongs to the retailer and they have 6 years to chase you for payment).

Thank you for the clarification. Indeed, I did not know what the legal definition of 'unsolicited' in this context.

After reading this I contacted Virgin wines again and was put through to their head of operations. I told him that I realised I didn't have the right to keep the wines but was frustrated with the situation and just wanted it to go away. I told him that my partner would be at home in the morning the next day so a courier could come then.

In response, the superviser told me that he had spoken with the people who had dealt with me so far and they all agreed that I was genuinely agrieved and not just a chancer. He was upset that the delivery had failed so many times and dispite me offering another collection date, he wanted to offer the case of wine to me as a gift so that I had a positive end to this experience.

So, the moral seems to be - be fair and honest and good things will happen. While I could grumble about the courier service, the virgin wines staff have always been very friendly, polite and ultimately very generous.

@Mat_s: I wish you luck with your collection. Based on my experience, the problem seems to lie with the courrier, not virgin wines.

unholyangel

jwg wrote: »

Thank you for the clarification. Indeed, I did not know what the legal definition of 'unsolicited' in this context.

After reading this I contacted Virgin wines again and was put through to their head of operations. I told him that I realised I didn't have the right to keep the wines but was frustrated with the situation and just wanted it to go away. I told him that my partner would be at home in the morning the next day so a courier could come then.

In response, the superviser told me that he had spoken with the people who had dealt with me so far and they all agreed that I was genuinely agrieved and not just a chancer. He was upset that the delivery had failed so many times and dispite me offering another collection date, he wanted to offer the case of wine to me as a gift so that I had a positive end to this experience.

So, the moral seems to be - be fair and honest and good things will happen. While I could grumble about the courier service, the virgin wines staff have always been very friendly, polite and ultimately very generous.

@Mat_s: I wish you luck with your collection. Based on my experience, the problem seems to lie with the courrier, not virgin wines.

Grats and hope the goodwill gesture somewhat makes up for the inconvenience If not, just drink until you forget jk