EBay - Hermes/Paclink Delivery problems

ScottySweets

I'm looking for some advice to deal with a specific scenario I've encountered whilst selling and shipping goods on Ebay.co.uk

I am a small business selling on Ebay mostly low priced items and I use a variety of postal options - I have encountered an issue with Hermes and I'm wondering exactly what my rights are.

I sent a customers order out using their under 1kg postable option and paid £2.44 to Paclink via Ebay - this is a fully tracked service with no included insurance.

The tracking seemed to show progress of the package and there was a note to say that the parcel was out for delivery however it was never delivered and there was no additional updates to the tracking number.

A week later I enquire with the customer to find out if they had received the item and they confirmed that they had not recevied their order - I then contacted Paclink who said they would contact hermes - This was there response;

Dear Chris,

Thank you for contacting eBay Delivery powered by Packlink's customer support team.

I've received the following update from Hermes concerning your shipment ******************************

"We are very sorry to hear your customer has not received their parcel.
Please be advised that the courier has been unable to recall this delivery due to the time elapsed and the volumes of parcels being received. If the customer has not received please follow your claims procedure.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused."

We are sorry to communicate that you claim for loss of the parcel GB2021EBAY0007860677 cannot be accepted as your Hermes Postable shipment did not include any insurance. Standard compensation is not included with Hermes Postable shipments and must be purchased when creating the label.


For more information on the Hermes Postable service, please take a look at our help centre article:


We kindly ask for your understanding in the matter.


Sincerely,

___________________________________________________________________

So they have basically said tough luck

I am furious to think that I have paid for a service and sent goods to a customer, the goods have been lost by the courier and I need to replace the goods and resend to the customer at additional cost and Hermes have not delivered the service I paid them for

Surely this cannot be correct and a company cannot be allowed to operate in this way.

All help and advice will be greately appreciated.

Many Thanks

Chris

Aylesbury_Duck

You're operating a business, so whatever rights you have are those in your contract with Paclink.

Things do get lost in transit and I suspect that without insurance, their liability is limited to the cost of the service, £2.44.  That's probably outlined in their terms.  For relatively low value items, I can understand the sense in not insuring the shipment, but a tiny fraction will get damaged or lost.  No courier is going to accept potentially unlimited liability for a parcel you've paid £2.44 to them to deliver.