Courier reseller refuses compensation for a misdelivered parcel

Fitzy47

Hi

After some advise/pointers on what to do.

A customer purchased some items from us and paid for a next day courier service. We had a contract with Inxpress who are a courier services reseller. The parcel was sent with interlink express properly packaged in a box.

A few days later customer calls to ask when we are sending his items. Check online and the tracking says it's been delivered and signed for the day after it was sent. We raised a query with inxpress who contact his local depot and report back that the driver says the homeowner was on his way out the drive and told him to put it round the back of the house. Customer vehemently denies this and says he wasn't at home at the time it was supposedly delivered.

Report this back to inxpress who say the driver is going to call back as "his job is on the line" but to put in a claim anyway. Claim is submitted and we point out that the parcel isn't lost or damaged as it has either been delivered to the wrong address or stolen. Either way our claim is for the full value £700 as the courier has not fulfilled their obligation to deliver the parcel to our customer. The driver never went back to the property.

After several conversations asking for progress reports and constantly being told it's being investigated and they will report back by the end of the week but never do. Eventually contact interlink direct to be told they cannot discuss it with us as we are not the customer and must go through Inxpress. After weeks of chasing for the driver to go back to the customer we are told it's been too long now and driver doesn't remember. Inxpress process a claim as a list parcel and pay a fraction of its value.


Just read another thread on here about a similar situation but after sending the courier reseller a letter saying they had basically breached the contract and were liable the reseller paid up.

Before I go down this route I would value the opinions of this forum on whether it's a viable action to take.

Thanks in advance

wealdroam

Fitzy47 wrote: »

Hi

After some advise/pointers on what to do.

A customer purchased some items from us and paid for a next day courier service. We had a contract with Inxpress who are a courier services reseller. The parcel was sent with interlink express properly packaged in a box.

A few days later customer calls to ask when we are sending his items. Check online and the tracking says it's been delivered and signed for the day after it was sent. We raised a query with inxpress who contact his local depot and report back that the driver says the homeowner was on his way out the drive and told him to put it round the back of the house. Customer vehemently denies this and says he wasn't at home at the time it was supposedly delivered.

Report this back to inxpress who say the driver is going to call back as "his job is on the line" but to put in a claim anyway. Claim is submitted and we point out that the parcel isn't lost or damaged as it has either been delivered to the wrong address or stolen. Either way our claim is for the full value £700 as the courier has not fulfilled their obligation to deliver the parcel to our customer. The driver never went back to the property.

After several conversations asking for progress reports and constantly being told it's being investigated and they will report back by the end of the week but never do. Eventually contact interlink direct to be told they cannot discuss it with us as we are not the customer and must go through Inxpress. After weeks of chasing for the driver to go back to the customer we are told it's been too long now and driver doesn't remember. Inxpress process a claim as a list parcel and pay a fraction of its value.


Just read another thread on here about a similar situation but after sending the courier reseller a letter saying they had basically breached the contract and were liable the reseller paid up.

Before I go down this route I would value the opinions of this forum on whether it's a viable action to take.

Thanks in advance

Hi, welcome to the forums.

What insurance did you have on this package?

angryparcel

your contract is with Inxpress, so they should compensate you and it is up to them to claim from whichever courier they used.
I would sent a LBA to Inxpress

bris

You can't take any action, the courier says it's delivered on the customers instructions then that's what you go by. There is just as much chance the customer is at it for 700 quid as there is the courier is lying.


But apart from that the above question is relevant, did you have full insurance as you get what you pay for.

Fitzy47

The standard loss or damage. However the parcel was not lost or damaged. Surely by paying the small amount they have paid is an admission that they know it wasn't delivered to the right person.

shaun_from_Africa

IMO, this is the important part:

Fitzy47 wrote: »

A few days later customer calls to ask when we are sending his items. Check online and the tracking says it's been delivered and signed for the day after it was sent.

If the courier is telling the truth and the customer signed for the item and then told the driver to "put it round the back of the house" then the customer is totally to blame if the item was subsequently stolen.

If however no proof of the delivery being signed for can be provided then either the driver or someone at Interlink Express would be to blame and as they can't provide verifiable proof of the delivery then they must be liable.
If they can't or won't provide verifiable proof of the package being and signed for then I would suggest you do as angryparcel has suggested and send an LBA (Letter Before Action.)

Fitzy47

But they have paid a minimal amount for a lost parcel. So if it was lost then it cannot have been delivered as they say it was. Can't have it both ways surely.

Fitzy47

By "they" I mean interlink

Fitzy47

A squiggle that could have been done by the driver.

angryparcel

Fitzy47 wrote: »

Inxpress process a claim as a list parcel and pay a fraction of its value.

Which would imply that the correct insurance for the item was not taken out. Also Inxpress may be like Royal Mail and parcelforce and that is compensation is only paid on what you paid for the item and not what you sold the item for.
So if you paid £100 and sold for £700 , you would only get £100 as that is what you paid for the item

Fitzy47

If the parcel had been lost or damaged then that's my lookout. However they said the parcel had been delivered. So if it's delivered it's not lost. It's either been delivered to the wrong address or stolen. Either of which surely mean that interlink have breached their duty of care. Inxpress are then surely complisite by not pursuing the claim properly.

By processing a claim for a "lost" parcel surely that's an admission that it wasn't delivered. And that means either the driver fraudulently signed on behalf of the customer or left it in an unsecured location and it was stolen.