Charged without Invoice

MancBee

Hi, I've had a quick look and couldn't see anything that really fitted my situation previously posted so here goes:

I won a prize in a website competition from the UK base of a company. They didn't have my size so - unbeknownst to me - ordered a jersey from their USA base to be delivered directly to me. It arrived whilst I was on holiday and the friend that was housesitting for me didn't know what it was, so paid the charge UPS demanded on delivery.

I have since had a long train of emails with both UPS and the company I won the jersey from and been refunded by the prize company as they accepted they made a mistake in the forms and generally their poor communication. Mostly out of curiosity, but also frustration with an extremely unhelpful string of UPS customer service reps, I want to know if the following is OK...

UPS never gave my friend a copy of the invoice or any details for the charge they made her pay to accept the delivery and I have only just had a copy emailed to me with persistent questioning of the UPS people (the parcel was delivered in early October). Even then it doesn't actually detail the full charges (it shows the calculation of the VAT charged on the item but not the UPS charge for processing the VAT because I am not a VAT registered person/company). I
I know as a customer you must pay an invoice when given but I can't find anything on being charged without being given the explanation of what those charges are for? I have wasted a huge amount of time chasing them and the way UPS have dealt with me and the situation has been massively frustrating so if I had a right to make a complaint I would like to register that with them.

Thanks in advance!

Aylesbury_Duck

MancBee wrote: »

Hi, I've had a quick look and couldn't see anything that really fitted my situation previously posted so here goes:

I won a prize in a website competition from the UK base of a company. They didn't have my size so - unbeknownst to me - ordered a jersey from their USA base to be delivered directly to me. It arrived whilst I was on holiday and the friend that was housesitting for me didn't know what it was, so paid the charge UPS demanded on delivery.

I have since had a long train of emails with both UPS and the company I won the jersey from and been refunded by the prize company as they accepted they made a mistake in the forms and generally their poor communication. Mostly out of curiosity, but also frustration with an extremely unhelpful string of UPS customer service reps, I want to know if the following is OK...

UPS never gave my friend a copy of the invoice or any details for the charge they made her pay to accept the delivery and I have only just had a copy emailed to me with persistent questioning of the UPS people (the parcel was delivered in early October). Even then it doesn't actually detail the full charges (it shows the calculation of the VAT charged on the item but not the UPS charge for processing the VAT because I am not a VAT registered person/company). I
I know as a customer you must pay an invoice when given but I can't find anything on being charged without being given the explanation of what those charges are for? I have wasted a huge amount of time chasing them and the way UPS have dealt with me and the situation has been massively frustrating so if I had a right to make a complaint I would like to register that with them.

Thanks in advance!

I'd just include in your complaint the fact that your friend was asked to pay without being given any information about the charge or a receipt. Are you sure your friend wasn't given that information, though? It's a bit odd for your friend to have stumped up a fee for something they knew nothing about and for which they were given no information. If it were me, I'd have rejected the delivery and asked UPS to return when the addressee was at home.

davidmcn

There's no general obligation to provide an invoice (except in the context of charging Vat to somebody who is also vat-registered). If you're not sure what you're being charged for, the time to query it is before you pay rather than after the event.

eddddy

MancBee wrote: »

I know as a customer you must pay an invoice when given but I can't find anything on being charged without being given the explanation of what those charges are for?

That's not really an accurate way of looking at things.

If a takeaway owner offers you fish and chips for £7.50, they are not required to give you an invoice, or give you an explanation of how they arrive at £7.50.

It's the same for UPS.

But perhaps it would have been good customer service for UPS to tell you in this case, and perhaps it would have been good customer service to offer you an invoice.

The only time the law makes it mandatory to provide a VAT invoice is if both parties are registered for VAT.


Your friend could have said "I won't pay unless you give me an explanation of the charges" - then it would have been up to UPS to decide whether to give an explanation, or maybe return the parcel to the sender.

(Just like you could say to the takeaway owner "I won't pay £7.50 for the fish and chips unless you explain how you arrive at that price". Then the takeaway owner can decide whether or not they want to tell you.)