Incorrect shipping address - item not delivered or returned

KIJ25

Hi everyone,

I ordered a travel book from Lonely Planet on Friday 7/7 in the evening. Upon receiving my email order confirmation, I noticed that my shipping and billing address had somehow blended to create two addresses in one but with only one postcode. I received my order confirmation on Friday 7/7 at 20:09 and I followed the website instructions by submitting the issue on the Lonely Planet website on Friday 7/7 at 20:17. In this I stated the error and confirmed the full correct shipping address as well as my order number.

On Monday 10/7 13:22 Lonely Planet Customer Support emailed to say:

“We work with a 3rd party warehouse (which dispatches orders for multiple publishers), so that means once an order is placed it is very difficult for them to make any changes. I'm sorry to say that they weren't able to catch this order before it left the warehouse - we had someone looking for it amidst a pile of hundreds, but they didn't find it in time.”

They also stated that if the order is returned they would be in touch and “If you need the print edition quickly, we'd suggest you place a new order and we can then refund the original should it ever find its way back to us.”

I replied that I had no idea how the address mix up occurred, as I double checked my shipping address before submitting as usual. Also, the shipping address is unusually long e.g. with two lines of street numbers and roads – I wouldn’t have typed out the two addresses in this small section. Lonely Planet Customer Support were adamant it wasn’t a fault on their side.

I received a dispatch email notification on Monday 10/7 at 21:03.

I paid £3.95 for first class post through Royal Mail. I’ve checked every day to see if it has been delivered to either address and it hasn’t. Lonely Planet stated “If an address is incorrect and Royal Mail is unable to locate you, they usually return parcels pretty quickly to us.” I’ve just chased Lonely Planet who say they haven’t had the parcel returned to their warehouse. They also reiterated that I could reorder and pay again for another copy (including £3.95 first class delivery).

It has now been over a week and I still don’t have my book.

My question is, what are the next steps I can take? I can’t prove it was a fault with their system, the same way I can’t prove if it was a fault on my side.

As I told Lonely Planet about the incorrect shipping address before dispatch and within a reasonable time frame (8 minutes after email confirmation), what are my rights here?

Thanks in advance.

naedanger

KIJ25 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I ordered a travel book from Lonely Planet on Friday 7/7 in the evening. Upon receiving my email order confirmation, I noticed that my shipping and billing address had somehow blended to create two addresses in one but with only one postcode. I received my order confirmation on Friday 7/7 at 20:09 and I followed the website instructions by submitting the issue on the Lonely Planet website on Friday 7/7 at 20:17. In this I stated the error and confirmed the full correct shipping address as well as my order number.

On Monday 10/7 13:22 Lonely Planet Customer Support emailed to say:

“We work with a 3rd party warehouse (which dispatches orders for multiple publishers), so that means once an order is placed it is very difficult for them to make any changes. I'm sorry to say that they weren't able to catch this order before it left the warehouse - we had someone looking for it amidst a pile of hundreds, but they didn't find it in time.”

They also stated that if the order is returned they would be in touch and “If you need the print edition quickly, we'd suggest you place a new order and we can then refund the original should it ever find its way back to us.”

I replied that I had no idea how the address mix up occurred, as I double checked my shipping address before submitting as usual. Also, the shipping address is unusually long e.g. with two lines of street numbers and roads – I wouldn’t have typed out the two addresses in this small section. Lonely Planet Customer Support were adamant it wasn’t a fault on their side.

I received a dispatch email notification on Monday 10/7 at 21:03.

I paid £3.95 for first class post through Royal Mail. I’ve checked every day to see if it has been delivered to either address and it hasn’t. Lonely Planet stated “If an address is incorrect and Royal Mail is unable to locate you, they usually return parcels pretty quickly to us.” I’ve just chased Lonely Planet who say they haven’t had the parcel returned to their warehouse. They also reiterated that I could reorder and pay again for another copy (including £3.95 first class delivery).

It has now been over a week and I still don’t have my book.

My question is, what are the next steps I can take? I can’t prove it was a fault with their system, the same way I can’t prove if it was a fault on my side.

As I told Lonely Planet about the incorrect shipping address before dispatch and within a reasonable time frame (8 minutes after email confirmation), what are my rights here?

Thanks in advance.

If the book is not delivered to you, through no fault of your own, you are entitled to a full refund (including postage).

How did you pay? If by debit or credit card then you should be able to do a chargeback if the retailer refuses to refund.

KIJ25

I've now asked for a refund and Lonely Planet have refused stating " It is your responsibility to enter details correctly when you order from us - otherwise we would be losing goods and money here."

I paid by credit card. I will look into chargeback, thank you!

Fosterdog

The point now will be trying to prove that the fault was not yours, if the address section is filled in manually then to them it looks like you have done something wrong. If they really did have hundreds of orders being shipped then the chances are if it was a system issue it would have affected more than just your sale.

Do you ever use autofill? It could be that as you've started typing your device has auto filled the information.