Refunding of delivery charge for wrong address delivery

bertical

Basically, an online clothing store uses a courier company that I've had problems with in the past. This company delivers my package to a relative of mine in a different town, rather than bother to attempt delivery to me. They mark the package as if I have signed, and leave it at this relative's workplace. I only found about the delivery after a colleague of my relative gave the package to her. Until then, I thought my package had been stolen, because the online tracking listed me as the person who signed, but I didn't.

I complained, but received no response from the courier company. The clothing company apologised. Anyway, it's happened again and it looks like I will have to collect the package from my relative again.

My query is, am I within my rights to request a refund from the clothing company of the delivery charge? It was 5.99 and once again, my item was not delivered to me and I don't think it's fair that I pay for delivery to my house but in the end have to collect the item myself.

Fosterdog

How exactly did they get the other address and know that you have a relative working there? Have you previously had some sort of agreement with this courier that any deliveries for you would go to the other place?

seashore22

Did the company get your address from a paypal transaction or an address on Amazon or something similar? The address must have been supplied by you at some point. Have you checked your settings?

What is the address on the package?

bertical

Hi,

I have never had any arrangement to have it delivered elsewhere.

I'm baffled as to why they started dropping my stuff off there. I'm guessing that they know the name of my relative, or just guessed that she was related to me and tried to save themselves a drive to where I live.

The address on the package is my home address, in a different town and with no similarity to the other one. At no point was an attempt made to deliver to me, or was I contacted by phone. The address of the other place was never supplied by me, I don't even know the proper address of that place. It's just a local type person must think it's okay to drop the stuff for me there. As to whether my relative ever ordered stuff and had it delivered there, I don't know, but I don't think so. Anyway, this has nothing to do with me, her name is not on the package.

Queries to the courier company after it happened last time went unanswered.

Fosterdog

That certainly is incredibly strange then, most couriers don’t have the same person delivering to multiple towns, they have a set coverage area so for it even to be on the van for another town is unusual (barring occasional mistakes).

Are you certain you input your address correctly? Is there any chance just a part of your postcode was incorrect (particularly the first part) meaning it is sent to a different town? That way it could then be just a local driver happened to recognise the surname and delivered to the only place he/she knew that someone with that name worked.

Although that theory doesn’t explain why it has happened more than once unless the same mistake is made regularly. Unless as asked already, if it is from the same retailer, is the address on the account definitely correct?

sheramber

If your name was on the package and your relative's name os not on the package ( her name is not on the package.0 how did the person at the company it was delivered to know to give it to her?

bertical

Fosterdog wrote: »

That certainly is incredibly strange then, most couriers don’t have the same person delivering to multiple towns, they have a set coverage area so for it even to be on the van for another town is unusual (barring occasional mistakes).

Are you certain you input your address correctly? Is there any chance just a part of your postcode was incorrect (particularly the first part) meaning it is sent to a different town? That way it could then be just a local driver happened to recognise the surname and delivered to the only place he/she knew that someone with that name worked.

Although that theory doesn’t explain why it has happened more than once unless the same mistake is made regularly. Unless as asked already, if it is from the same retailer, is the address on the account definitely correct?

I live in rural Ireland. The town/village is around twenty minutes drive away. It happened once before, I thought my item was stolen as it had been marked as delivered and signed by my name. But then my relative gave the package to me many days later and said it was dropped in to her workplace when she was not there. The courier who did this is dealing with this order too, from a different retailer. I don't have this problem with any other retailers.

The last time this happened, my correct address was on the outside of the package. What is happening is a driver knows I am related to her and is just taking a shortcut. I am not okay with this, because I paid for delivery to my house.

sheramber wrote:

If your name was on the package and your relative's name os not on the package ( her name is not on the package.0 how did the person at the company it was delivered to know to give it to her?

As I said, the driver must know that it was a relative of mine or perhaps asked someone who worked there. I can't say for sure because the courier company did not respond when I asked why it happened last time. I just received an apology from the retailer. As for the workplace, it is not a big one and my relative is in a senior position.

Can some answer whether or not I would have a legitimate cause to be refunded the delivery, or a rescheduled delivery to my house?

unholyangel

I'd say if you want it to stop happening, stop collecting the parcel from your cousin. Contact the retailer and advise them you haven't received your parcel. If they try to wash their hands, remind them that the goods remain at their risk until the goods come into the physical possession of the buyer or someone identified by the buyer as being authorised to receive it for them and that it would be for them to show that it did enter your possession rather than you to show it did not.

Also remind them that they are liable for the failings of any third party they outsource their contractual obligations to.

If the courier is doing it to save themselves the trip, they'll soon stop when it no longer results in their desired outcome.

Also, if its under irish law, it will still be more or less the same as I have stated above (thanks to EU directives) but you would have to check irish statute to be sure.