Taking Parcel Monkey to Court - Advice Please

fryster2006

Hi all. I posted an item by next day delivery to an ebay buyer using Parcel Monkey and delivered by Citylink. I paid extra for compensation up to £300, as the item sold for £262 including delivery. The ebay buyer claimed that they received an empty box within a few minutes of signing for the item. They opened a claim through ebay for an item significantly not as described, got a crime reference number using the Action Fraud website and won the case.

From day one of the buyer contacting me I was in contact with Citylink using the number on the Parcel Monkey website, and the person I was speaking to stated that they worked at Citylink dealing with Parcel Monkey issues/claims. They opened an investigation into the missing item at the Birmingham depot where the item was to be delivered from. After a while they came back to me stating that they had interviewed the driver and he had stated that the item was signed for, weighed a significant amount and the contents of the box had not been found at the depot. When I booked the delivery the parcel weighed 9kg. By the time it had got to my local depot Basingstoke according to them it weighed 5kg. So already there was a discrepancy of 4kg.

Anyway, all of this took time to conclude. Once this had concluded the person I was in contact with from Citylink referred me back to Parcel Monkey to open a claim. At this point Parcel Monkey replied stating the following:

'Clause 5 provides that all damaged claims must be reported to Parcel Monkey within 3 working days from the scheduled delivery date. Our records indicate that your shipment was delivered by Parcel Monkey on the 29th of May 2014 and that your first notification to Parcel Monkey was on the 12th of June 2014'

After a bit of me arguing my point about being led to believe that a claim was underway and that the investigation naturally took time I then contacted them again stating that I would be looking to take them to the small claims court. I used the following from the OFT to try and persuade them to reimburse me:

'I believe that these terms are unfair and I refer to section 2.4.2 of the Office of fair trading’s Unfair Contract Terms Guidance which states:
‘The OFT is likely to object to a term that frees the supplier from his responsibilities towards the consumer where the consumer does not make a complaint immediately or within an unduly short period of time. This applies particularly where:

(a) a time limit is so short that ordinary persons could easily miss it through mere inadvertence, or because of circumstances outside their control, and

(b)faults for which the supplier is responsible which could only become apparent after a time limit has expired.’

After sending them this they replied that in light of this they would review my claim and get back to me. After chasing them up they have still denied my claim, but this time not stated any reasons for doing so. I believe that the next step would be to take them to the small claims court based on the above OFT guidelines. However, I need to know if I'm completely wrong as I really don't know what I'm doing with all this!

Many thanks for any help, and sorry for the long winded and badly worded post!

RFW

I'd keep chasing Parcel Monkey before going down the court route. Write (a letter in an envelope, to be signed for) to the Chairman or the highest up person you can find for Parcel Monkey at their registered address. Outline the problem and that you are consulting various media for advice/help, maybe name drop Watchdog or here. Be to the point and state that you want £x back by a date (usually 7-14 days from the letter) and await to hear from them.

I'd start by contacting them via Twitter and/or Facebook briefly asking for Chairman's contact details and then explain why. Social media is usually a good place to get a response.

Failing any of that, try Trading Standards. I'd suggest trying as many avenues as possible before actually going to court. You may well win a court case but it can be costly initially and take quite a long time.
In a similar problem with a similar company and courier I pursued from early November to the following February and eventually got a cheque. My guess would be they'll cough up some amount but not admit responsibility.

mrs_sparrow

I would not bother mentioning Watchdog, simply send a letter stating the terms outlined above. Hopefully you have kept all of the correspondance details with CityLink (phone records will do for court) and, for this you will also have the weight discrepacy on the form. Put all of this together and tell ParcelMonkey (sending a copy to the CEO and Financial Director) and tell them that they have 21 days to pay you £xx else you will have no alternative but to recover the costs from the small claims court.

Upshot is whether Parcel Monkey want to pay for their day going to court to fight it when the box already had a weight discrepancy at Basingstoke!!

So, 21 days and then fill in the form online and hit them with a small claims court summons.

I stopped dealing with PM years ago. I send a lot of fairly big parcels to Oz and I sent about 6 with PM over a space of 2 weeks - a month later I started getting invoices and it turned out that every parcel was 'under the size declared at booking' and the couriers (DHL, UPS and Paercelforce) laser scale calculator had picked up the discrepancy. PM would charge me more money 3-4 weeks after the shipment arrived, in the end they was charging me £25-£30 extra, per shipment and they were just taking it from my card. My customer is happy to pay the shipping and so I bill them the amount charged at time of my booking the delivery and, next thing, I am £30 out of pocket!!!. I would not touch PM again if they paid me to use them!!! Ironically, the same parcels go on the same couriers with WPS and guess what, never a box undersize. Greedy robbing bar stewards PM are.

fryster2006

Thanks for the reply, this really has dragged on. Their twitter responses have been extremely generic, which they are to everyone, and similarly for Facebook. There has been a lot of contact between myself and them, they aren't budging and have been really unhelpful and keep needing chasing up. I explained my circumstances to them in an effort for them to put things right (my daughter is severely disabled with a life limiting/threatning condition, and the proceeds of the sale were being used to pay for her Disney World Ticket) but they still won't budge. I thought that the threat of legal proceedings may persuade them with the quoted trading standards bits, and this was presented in a formal letter stating that I wished to be compensated. I believe that the next step is to file a letter before action, but need someone with better knowledge than me to see if I have a case before proceeding. I'm hoping that it won't get to court as I believe it will cost them more in legal fees etc. than settling the claim. They've had ample time to settle this, I actually got ebay to potentially reimburse me on production of a letter from Citylink stating the weight, depot search etc., which Parcel Monkey kept on promising to obtain for me, but it never materialised.

fryster2006

mrs_sparrow wrote: »

I would not bother mentioning Watchdog, simply send a letter stating the terms outlined above. Hopefully you have kept all of the correspondance details with CityLink (phone records will do for court) and, for this you will also have the weight discrepacy on the form. Put all of this together and tell ParcelMonkey (sending a copy to the CEO and Financial Director) and tell them that they have 21 days to pay you £xx else you will have no alternative but to recover the costs from the small claims court.

Upshot is whether Parcel Monkey want to pay for their day going to court to fight it when the box already had a weight discrepancy at Basingstoke!!

So, 21 days and then fill in the form online and hit them with a small claims court summons.

I stopped dealing with PM years ago. I send a lot of fairly big parcels to Oz and I sent about 6 with PM over a space of 2 weeks - a month later I started getting invoices and it turned out that every parcel was 'under the size declared at booking' and the couriers (DHL, UPS and Paercelforce) laser scale calculator had picked up the discrepancy. PM would charge me more money 3-4 weeks after the shipment arrived, in the end they was charging me £25-£30 extra, per shipment and they were just taking it from my card. My customer is happy to pay the shipping and so I bill them the amount charged at time of my booking the delivery and, next thing, I am £30 out of pocket!!!. I would not touch PM again if they paid me to use them!!! Ironically, the same parcels go on the same couriers with WPS and guess what, never a box undersize. Greedy robbing bar stewards PM are.

I will have all phone records as my bill is itemised online, I also want to know what amount to claim for. The item sold for £250, and I charged the buyer £12 for delivery. The delivery actually cost me £14.72 with the added insurance, so I'm guessing I should claim for £264.72? Do I have any right to claim above this, due to the fact that I've had to waste my time chasing them up, making phone calls etc.?

fryster2006

Just checked through my phone bill to confirm when I spoke to Citylink using the number posted on Parcel Monkeys website. Upon googling the phone number it is registered to Parcel Monkey Holdings ltd. Surely this also adds to my argument that I was in contact with a parcel monkey representative?

mrs_sparrow

I will write a more detailed replay later DD last day at school so I am about to go out for a day, it has been a busy day, sorry.

In the meantime, write a timeline of events to start the letter - when contacted etc... and yes, I would definately add that from Googling the number before calling you noted that it was PM Holdings so, as far as you was aware, you WAS in contact with PM as this is their entire get out clause. It will be for the judge to decide then, not them.

This letter you send will be the one that you attach to the court documents so it has to be done the right way.

Obviously_the_best

Unfortunately I don't think the courts will get anything back for you. As you had no contract with CityLink you should not have been discussing a claim with them before Parcel Monkey.

As it stated in the contract that you agreed to with Parcel Monkey that if you have a claim you would submit it to them within 3 working days, and you didn't, it's unlikely you'll get anything. It's basic contract law.

fryster2006

Obviously_the_best wrote: »

Unfortunately I don't think the courts will get anything back for you. As you had no contract with CityLink you should not have been discussing a claim with them before Parcel Monkey.

As it stated in the contract that you agreed to with Parcel Monkey that if you have a claim you would submit it to them within 3 working days, and you didn't, it's unlikely you'll get anything. It's basic contract law.

What about what the OFT states, the circumstances were out of my control, and I'm a private seller, far from a business seller. If you google all the numbers for parcel monkey listed on their company info page all of them come back with the relevant couriers page (DHL etc.) apart from the city link one, which only comes back to themselves. They must have a direct link with this number, something that they've set up themselves with citylnk?

Obviously_the_best

fryster2006 wrote: »

I'm a private seller, far from a business seller.

That makes no difference to your claim with ParcelMonkey.

fryster2006 wrote: »

If you google all the numbers for parcel monkey

What does Google have to do with anything? Take any info from the ParcelMonkey website.

fryster2006 wrote: »

They must have a direct link with this number, something that they've set up themselves with citylnk?

Point is though, you still spoke to CityLink not ParcelMonkey, which I presume you realised whilst on the phone as you wrote in your first post you were "in contact with City Link". Under the help and support section of their website, they have a button to report lost or broken parcels (click here)

mrs_sparrow

Obviously_the_best wrote: »

That makes no difference to your claim with ParcelMonkey.

What does Google have to do with anything? Take any info from the ParcelMonkey website.

Point is though, you still spoke to CityLink not ParcelMonkey, which I presume you realised whilst on the phone as you wrote in your first post you were "in contact with City Link". Under the help and support section of their website, they have a button to report lost or broken parcels (click here)

The point is, you ar enot the judge and it will be he/she who decides whether the OP get's their money back.

Anyone is free to use Money Claims Online if they feel they are being done out of what they were owed.

The OP has numerous informations to show she/he was trying to sort the problem out - City Link clearly told her they were there to sort things out City Link and PM are clearly linked - so maybe the judge will decide that CL/PM actually used delaying tactics so the OP was unable to claim on the insurance. And this is something they can point out on their claim form.

'What has Google got to do with it?' This will form part of the OP's claim to show that the number she is calling IS Parcel Monkey so PM are clearly aware of the claim and are using this as a get out clause. Only they seem to have been caught out by Google as the number she is calling is not City Links but Parcel Monkey Holdings...... again, all of this information will be for the judge to decide whether they find in favour of the OP or Parcel Monkey, not you, or I.

You are a bit defensive and trying to put the OP off making a claim, do you work for PM by any chance?