Interparcel threading court action

rach83

Hi

Sent a parcel to Belarus about two months ago. I got a quote and paid for this online at a cost of £42. The parcel reached the recipient.

About two weeks later I got an email from interparcel saying that the parcel was wrongly sized by myself and that I would have to pay an admin fee of £19. I ignored this and today they have sent another email headed notice of intended court proceedings if I don't pay in 7 days. They want £19 out of me but I don't feel I did anything wrong.

What should I do?

hollydays

Well it looks as though they are saying you paid for the wrong category. Do you have any proof you didn't?
Do they have any proof you did?

deanos

i presume it goes through a machine that automatically weighs and checks dimensions, i would ask for there proof

hollydays

Ask them for photographic evidence. Is this a one off or have you sent any similar sized parcels with hem?

visidigi

rach83 wrote: »

Hi

Sent a parcel to Belarus about two months ago. I got a quote and paid for this online at a cost of £42. The parcel reached the recipient.

About two weeks later I got an email from interparcel saying that the parcel was wrongly sized by myself and that I would have to pay an admin fee of £19. I ignored this and today they have sent another email headed notice of intended court proceedings if I don't pay in 7 days. They want £19 out of me but I don't feel I did anything wrong.

What should I do?

You stated a package size and weight. The package you sent was scanned in excess of what you declared.

The systems used by the couriers that Interparcel use are three dimension scanners and scales in one, everything goes through them for airline calculation and/or revenue protection of road volume.

They don't make mistakes and are calibrated and signed off.

At £19 that will be the overcharge, size and admin fee levied against interparcels courier account when they were charged for your shipment by the actual courier.

As per the terms and condtions of Interparcel to which you agreed.

6.3.4 By entering the weight and dimensions of your Consignment/s you are pre paying for the postage. If the Consignment /s are heavier or larger then the additional weight/size will be charged at the applicable rate to the card that the order was placed on together with a surcharge of £15 + VAT. We refer to this charge as the 'Admin Charge'.

You owe it, I would pay it...

Altarf

If the charge is £19, then the underpayment of the postage is £1 and the admin charge £18 (£15 + VAT).

That is taking the !!!!.

shaun_from_Africa

visidigi wrote: »

The systems used by the couriers that Interparcel use are three dimension scanners and scales in one, everything goes through them for airline calculation and/or revenue protection of road volume.

They don't make mistakes and are calibrated and signed off.

In which case it must be the only type of machinery ever manufactured that never makes mistakes or goes wrong
I work on aircraft using all manner of electronic measuring equipment (digital meters of many types, radio test sets, autopilot testers, fuel calibration testers etc), all of which are legally required to be calibrated and signed off on a very regular basis yet some of this equipment still misreads or fails occasionally.

visidigi

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

In which case it must be the only type of machinery ever manufactured that never makes mistakes or goes wrong
I work on aircraft using all manner of electronic measuring equipment (digital meters of many types, radio test sets, autopilot testers, fuel calibration testers etc), all of which are legally required to be calibrated and signed off on a very regular basis yet some of this equipment still misreads or fails occasionally.

In the same way a petrol station will not entertain an under fill as they are regularly calibrated etc.

The thing here is its only going to be a failure if its massively obvious - e.g. it weights something of 1kg at 80 x 80 x x 80 etc etc.

It will not be slightly out, it will either be out by a lot or not at all.

visidigi

Altarf wrote: »

If the charge is £19, then the underpayment of the postage is £1 and the admin charge £18 (£15 + VAT).

That is taking the !!!!.

Not really, fixed fee. Same way with Royal Mail. It could be 3 tonnes and still be the same fee. The effort and recovery the third party provider has to go through for the processing of it is no different.

And its an important point, interparcel is a third party - not direct with the carrier, the carrier would have been more expensive upfront but they wouldn't have charged an admin fee for an over size, they would just charge the higher shipping rate.

Its a bit like Ryanair and British Airways, what you get included for a price and what you don't.

shaun_from_Africa

visidigi wrote: »

It will not be slightly out, it will either be out by a lot or not at all.

That statement simply isn't correct.
Anything that is calibrated can go out of tolerance by a small amount just as easily by a large one.
Many complicated measuring devices have built in temperature sensors to automatically account for changes in ambient temperature as without these their accuracy would change if the temp varied.
This sort of thing generally only makes small changes to the measured result so if it failed, a slight difference in the item being measured could result.

I have seen cases where two so called identical devices which are both within their calibration life give different results when used to measure the same signal.

In the same way a petrol station will not entertain an under fill as they are regularly calibrated etc.

Think about that statement for a moment.
If they never went wrong or out of adjustment, why would there be any need to go to the trouble and expense of regular calibration?

stork_2

How confident are you that you got the measurements right?

Why not ask the recipient if they still have the box? I sometimes hang on to boxes when I get a delivery, so that I can re-use them.

If they do, maybe they'd take measurements/photos for you, particularly if they are delighted with what you sent them.