Courier destroys BOTH of my parcels, refuses to compensate. What are my options?

magiccake

Hello!

Bit of a horror story here but I will appreciate any advice very much.

Recently, I posted two parcels with Parcel2Go.com, who employed the "MyHermes" courier to deliver them. One of the parcels arrived damaged (smashed to bits) and the other did not arrive at all, but was later found damaged at the depot, and was binned.

The main parcel contained a PS3 console, which was worth at least £50. At the time of purchasing, I chose not to pay extra for Parcel2Go's "premium insurance" because I had packaged the items very securely and was confident they would not be damaged. How wrong I was!

Parcel2Go have been refusing to pay more than the standard £20 cover for my £50 parcel. Under normal circumstances I might understand this, because I didn't accept paying for the "premium" service.

However, what I have tried to make them understand is that my complaint is an exceptional one, because both of my items were damaged so badly that I propose their delivery service is not fit for purpose under the Sales of Goods Act. This, if proven true, would mean that my consumer rights have been breached as they did not handle my parcels with due care or attention.

The items were packed so securely, and the damage is so bad, that I am claiming that there was wilful negligence involved on the part of the courier, and that my statutory rights have therefore been breached.

For that reason, I have asked Parcel2Go to raise the compensation from £20 to £50 for this exceptional case.

Parcel2Go are maintaining that they cannot pay more than this (except an extra £10 they offered as a "gesture of good will") because I chose not to pay for the premium insurance.

My response is that I feel their service was legally not fit for purpose -- and so the argument goes round in circles!

At the moment I truly can't afford to be over £30 out-of-pocket, so I really am trying to fight this tooth-and-nail.

I saw on the very helpful MSE Guide to Consumer Rights that "any service provided ... should be carried out with Reasonable care and skill, Within a reasonable time and At a reasonable cost". I feel the first point has definitely been broken in this case!

So my question is: what are my options now?

- How do I pursue my claim that the service breached my statutory rights?
- How do I report the service as not being fit for purpose?
- If I ask my credit card provider for a chargeback, which I do plan to, am I able to claim the £50 damages on the chargeback request as well, or am I limited to the actual amount I paid them via the credit card?
- Are there any other avenues through which I can get my money back?

I have written to Consumer Advice about this as well, but have not yet received a response.

Please understand I am well aware that the common response might be "you should have paid for extra insurance or you don't have a leg to stand on" -- but I feel that is not always true, and especially not in this case. My response to that is "where do you draw the line between accidental damage to your parcel, and actual negligence from the courier?"

I posted two parcels with them, and both were damaged exceedingly badly -- that's a 100% failure rate, and that seems more like negligence to me.

It's almost like the old "warranty vs. extended warranty" debate!

Thank you so much for any help!

:A

Hintza

I will address one point, you have two companies involved here the broker and the courier which is always going to end up with a stramash this why I don't use brokers any more. I want a contract with one company.

As for negligent damage I think you have a point if nothing else and I will be interested in hearing what others think. But the only way you will get them to change their mind will be getting a court to agree with you and I would say that is far from certain to happen.

It will all come down to unfair terms and conditions, but are they unfair? The company will argue that they have to cater for items worth nothing and items worth tens of thousands and it would be uneconomic to force people to pay catch all insurance.

One question though, why was an item binned, that is a bit strange!

visidigi

Agree that this will take court to happen.

The tricky thing here is if there was no compensation for damage by default then you would have a much stronger case, because there is £20 coverage then its clear that they have coverage should there be a problem.

The fact is P2g are not refusing you compensation, they are offering up what you agreed to, are those terms unfair on this point? Personally don't think so. You knew the services, you knew the compensation, and a court might see that the same way.

pinkshoes

Regardless of how well you package things, you need to make sure you have sufficient insurance.

Or are you suggesting they maliciously damaged your parcel knowing that you had insufficient insurance?

Your only hope is to send a letter before action showing the damage being beyond accidental and giving them 14 days to compensate you with £X otherwise you will take them to court.

I presume they took photos of the other parcel that they binned?

bris

There is always an element of risk sending anything by courier and thats why insurance is a necessary evil, you choose to ignore this risk.

You now need to prove parcel2go were negligent in the handling of your parcels but as they used Mhermes you may have to make them jointly liable.

Your case how ever is far from certain, a judge could and may very well consider that element of risk as fair and determine the insurance for a small fee is acceptable.

For £30 you should think twice and accept part of the blame. If you lose you will be court cost down also, if the Judge decides you were frivolous with your claim he would also probably make you pay the other sides reasonable costs.

mattyprice4004

This again? Really?

It's been discussed many times and the upshot is the same - you chose to cheap out and under-insure your item. Insurance exists for this reason, items get lost or damaged in the post.

Next time insure your item properly and you won't have this issue - after all if they limit their liability to £20 it's not right that you send something worth a lot more and then whinge at them when they don't compensate you fully.

I also suggest the thread title is changed as it's inaccurate - they are compensating you according to the level of cover you paid for. Something along the lines of 'I under insured my parcel and now they're paying out all they need to - can they do this?' would be more appropriate.

earthstorm

ive only had 1 issue with parcel2go which was handled fast by contacting [EMAIL="fil.mercer@parcel2go.com"]fil.mercer@parcel2go.com.[/EMAIL]

my issues was i ordered a collection through them by myhermes. the collection date come and went and no collection, so contacted p2g and they were very helpful and arranged yodel to collect and no extra cost, so another day waiting for yodel. yodel collected at 5pm on the day they were instructed. At 7pm the same day ( 2 days late) myhermes turned up to collect and they were not happy that their was nothing to collect ( even though p2g stated that contacted myhermes to cancel). i then got £25 placed in my p2g account for my issues.

pinkshoes

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

This again? Really?

It's been discussed many times and the upshot is the same - you chose to cheap out and under-insure your item. Insurance exists for this reason, items get lost or damaged in the post.

Next time insure your item properly and you won't have this issue - after all if they limit their liability to £20 it's not right that you send something worth a lot more and then whinge at them when they don't compensate you fully.

I also suggest the thread title is changed as it's inaccurate - they are compensating you according to the level of cover you paid for. Something along the lines of 'I under insured my parcel and now they're paying out all they need to - can they do this?' would be more appropriate.

This isn't as clear cut. The op insured against accidental damage, but the damage incurred was due to negligence. Two separate things and I think the op is right to query it.

ThumbRemote

Every courier company will lose or damage some parcels, and have to pay out compensation. As their only source of money is from people sending parcels, they need to ensure that a part of every payment goes into their compensation pot. Essentially it's a compensation surcharge.

They have two choices; apply a flat surcharge to every parcel, or apply a stepped surcharge based on the value of the parcel.

A flat surcharge would mean low value items subsidise high value ones, and become prohibitively expensive to send. Therefore they have a stepped surcharge based on value.

You refused to pay the right amount into the pot, so why should you get more out? All this does is increase the costs for the rest of us.

gardner1

Simple solution....use a reliable company with good reputation, might cost a couple of quid more than the cowboy companies like my Hermes/parcel2go etc.
Ups are good not the cheapest but you get what you pay for

Hintza

gardner1 wrote: »

Simple solution....use a reliable company with good reputation, might cost a couple of quid more than the cowboy companies like my Hermes/parcel2go etc.
Ups are good not the cheapest but you get what you pay for

Same thing could happen with any company though. Of course it could be argued that it is less likely to happen.