Scratched furniture purchase: Courier blames ebay seller, seller blames courier

hander

Hi, Bought a sideboard on ebay. Collection only. Paid by PayPal.
Arranged a courier via shiply. Chose NOT the cheapest but one that had suitable insurance and great feedback.
Excellent contact from seller beforehand and item advertised as (and photographed as) in great condition.
Item arrives today with huge scratches on the top. All circumstances, e.g the way it was transported, top down in the van - with a few sheets, indicate it was the courier's fault. Trust me. I've weighed up the evidence.
Spoke to seller who seemed as disappointed as I was and I am hugely inclined to believe her. There are photos in the acution of the item and they do not have any evidence of damage.
Spoke to courier and he flatly denies having damaged it. He offers wafer-thin evidence and blames the seller outright.
Courier will not answer the question as to whether he has insurance as he says it's irrelevant if he does not accept blame.
Shiply don't do anything apart from send a message to the courier encouraging them to sort it out - and provide me with courier's personal details.

Courier has offered delivery fee back as goodwill gesture. Though he vacillates between that and flatly denying anything. To be honest, I'd like the full cost of the repair - but professionally done would be prohibitively expensive no doubt.

Anyone got any advice? Obviously I have no proof of who caused the damage but not having insurance (and advertising that you do have) is a liability that must be answerable, no?

Sigh...

dj1471

Take the courier to small claims court for the cost of repair, they can forward the claim to their insurers... or not. The judge will decide liability on the balance of probability, if it comes to it.

soolin

All you can do is continue pressing the courier regarding their insurance , assuming you have the full geographic address of the courier you might need to do a letter before action and then take a legal route.

RFW

dj1471 wrote: »

Take the courier to small claims court for the cost of repair, they can forward the claim to their insurers... or not. The judge will decide liability on the balance of probability, if it comes to it.

I wouldn't immediately jump to that. We can assume it would be worth it but we don't actually know what value we're talking about. If a judge deems that the cost of repair would be minimal then it's possible that costs would be incurred for wasting court time. That may not happen but is a possibility. There is also the possibility that if the courier is more a man and a van then he might not have funds to pay for the repair, court or not.


Personally I'd make a couple more polite attempts with the courier then if that doesn't get anywhere leave poor feedback and see what happens. I would consider if the refund of the delivery offered is substantial enough to make a difference.


There is also the consideration of the terms of how the item was collected. Were arrangements made to protect the item? Was it to be wrapped/protected by the courier or was that your responsibility?