Royal Mail Damaged Goods

voddyman

Hi, My wife sent our baby monitor away to a repair service through eBay as the charging port was damaged using the signed for delivery that is available through the Royal Mail.. The Ebay repair service fixed the monitor he sent my wife a picture of the monitor to show as proof that the monitor was now fixed and working before he posted it.

However, when it was delivered to us we found that the monitor had been damaged and when we switched it on we found that there was damage to the internal screen [not the external] of the monitor. We first of contacted the repairman who said it was all working and fine before he posted it, which to be fair was true as he emailed a picture of the repaired monitor. 

So my wife then contacted the Royal Mail who were most unhelpful and to cut a long story short. As we bought the monitor second hand [ cost £45 ] and as we didn't have a receipt for it [ who does get a receipt for second-hand sales? ] they told her that they would not refund any money to her as she didn't have a receipt. 
So I thought I would ask in here to see if there was anything my wife could do to get the Royal Mail to refund her the cost of the monitor as it was obviously damaged in the post.

TIA 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

eBay currently shows your purchase history for 2018, 2019 and 2020. If you paid with Paypal I think they go back further. 

A print out of either would be a receipt. Royal Mail (as with all couriers) are terrible with claims and will do their best to avoid paying you. Once you get past the receipt barrier they may question whether the packaging was good enough. 

Really the company that did the repair should be sorting this out but you can claim with Royal Mail as the recipient. 

It's worth noting if the postage label the repair company used to send the monitor back had RM24 or RM48 on it then these services don't carry any compensation (not to be confused with RM24 or 48 Tracked which has £100 compensation). 

Just to add, I may have misread and you've purchase a repair on eBay that has nothing to do with the original purchase of the monitor?

stragglebod

You aren't Royal Mail's customer. It's up to the repair service to send you the fixed, undamaged item. They need to refund their charges plus pay you the value of the monitor as it was with the original damage.

Were_Doomed

stragglebod said:

You aren't Royal Mail's customer. It's up to the repair service to send you the fixed, undamaged item. They need to refund their charges plus pay you the value of the monitor as it was with the original damage.

Bingo!                  

voddyman

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

eBay currently shows your purchase history for 2018, 2019 and 2020. If you paid with Paypal I think they go back further. 

A print out of either would be a receipt. Royal Mail (as with all couriers) are terrible with claims and will do their best to avoid paying you. Once you get past the receipt barrier they may question whether the packaging was good enough. 

Really the company that did the repair should be sorting this out but you can claim with Royal Mail as the recipient. 

It's worth noting if the postage label the repair company used to send the monitor back had RM24 or RM48 on it then these services don't carry any compensation (not to be confused with RM24 or 48 Tracked which has £100 compensation). 

Just to add, I may have misread and you've purchase a repair on eBay that has nothing to do with the original purchase of the monitor?

My wife bought the monitor secondhand from someone on Facebook Marketplace, hence there is no receipt available. The package that she received back from the repairer only had a label on it stating "first-class large letter signed for " on the front of it.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

1st Class Signed For will carry the £50 cover but a large letter only has 25mm thickness allowance, how was the monitor packaged?

Was the repair service person on eBay registered as a business with their address showing at the bottom of the listing or is there a return address shown either as part of the label or written on package?

Again to add, I guess you have their address from posting the monitor to them for the repair.

I would be asking the repair person for a refund of the fee you paid and the cost of replacing the monitor. Check on eBay for average second hand prices and use this figure.

If they won't assist it comes down to letter before action and small claims. The letter may do the trick without having to go through the court process but I would start on a polite basis and see how it goes.  

voddyman

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

1st Class Signed For will carry the £50 cover but a large letter only has 25mm thickness allowance, how was the monitor packaged?

Was the repair service person on eBay registered as a business with their address showing at the bottom of the listing or is there a return address shown either as part of the label or written on package?

I've just checked it is registered as a business, however, the address that we sent the monitor to is different from his eBay business address. On the back of the Jif envelope is a return address sticker stating the name/address of the person she sent it to.
The Monitor was wrapped in bubble wrap and it also had a piece of cardboard over the front of the monitor screen and it was all inside a bubble Jiffy envelope.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

voddyman said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

1st Class Signed For will carry the £50 cover but a large letter only has 25mm thickness allowance, how was the monitor packaged?

Was the repair service person on eBay registered as a business with their address showing at the bottom of the listing or is there a return address shown either as part of the label or written on package?

I've just checked it is registered as a business, however, the address that we sent the monitor to is different from his eBay business address. On the back of the Jif envelope is a return address sticker stating the name/address of the person she sent it to.
The Monitor was wrapped in bubble wrap and it also had a piece of cardboard over the front of the monitor screen and it was all inside a bubble Jiffy envelope.

I think Royal Mail will say the monitor wasn't packaged well enough and refuse the claim any way.

The packaging is likely fine from a business perspective in that the cost of wrapping everything really well would outweigh the cost of the odd damaged item but with that thinking comes the responsibility to cover the customer for any that do become damaged. 

voddyman

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

voddyman said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

1st Class Signed For will carry the £50 cover but a large letter only has 25mm thickness allowance, how was the monitor packaged?

Was the repair service person on eBay registered as a business with their address showing at the bottom of the listing or is there a return address shown either as part of the label or written on package?

I've just checked it is registered as a business, however, the address that we sent the monitor to is different from his eBay business address. On the back of the Jif envelope is a return address sticker stating the name/address of the person she sent it to.
The Monitor was wrapped in bubble wrap and it also had a piece of cardboard over the front of the monitor screen and it was all inside a bubble Jiffy envelope.

I think Royal Mail will say the monitor wasn't packaged well enough and refuse the claim any way.

The packaging is likely fine from a business perspective in that the cost of wrapping everything really well would outweigh the cost of the odd damaged item but with that thinking comes the responsibility to cover the customer for any that do become damaged. 

So if Royal Mail says the monitor wasn't packaged well enough and refuse the claim anyway, does that mean that the onus will fall back on the repairman to compensate us for the cost of the monitor?  As he has said that the monitor was in perfect working order before he posted it back to us and as I stated earlier technically he is correct as he sent a picture of the repair he had done and it looked, therefore it's looking like we're going to have to admit defeat and accept that we are not going to get any compensation for this and bite the bullet and put it down to a bad experience and move on, also to remember that we need to get some form of receipt when buying any second-hand goods in the future lol.  

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

I would at a minimum push back a bit and request they cover the cost advising it's their responsibility to safely package the monitor for it's return. 

Even if they refund for the service it's better than nothing. 

voddyman

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

I would at a minimum push back a bit and request they cover the cost advising it's their responsibility to safely package the monitor for it's return. 

Even if they refund for the service it's better than nothing. 

Yup, that's looking like the only option that we have left to us mate. Oh well, as I said, we'll put it down to experience and shall learn from it.
Thank you so much for all your help, it is very much appreciated