Problem with beelivery and inadequate refund - what can I do?

born_again

>>- 1 x Lotus Biscoff Spread 400g was subsituted to 380g<<
They are actually 2 different products.
400 is smooth
380 is either crunchy or caramelised.

Just been looking on retailers site. And can not work out how they do the pricing if it is down to driver where they shop.
As local morrisons sells Double decker 4 pack @ £1.00 yet they are charging £1.90 which may be the price elsewhere.

>>We connect you with self-employed delivery drivers who visit a supermarket such as Tesco's, Sainsbury's, etc. and shop on your behalf, buy the products and then deliver them to you.Your delivery driver time to visit the supermarket, buy the products and deliver to you. Of course, no-one is going to do that for free. Therefore, the price you pay is more than the supermarket prices to cover this. The majority of this extra money goes to the delivery driver who may be a taxi driver or a self employed courier.<<

Nice incentive to driver where customer has allowed substitutions. But no mention of just how much of that they get.

Nice to see that in driver help section, there is advise on substitutions.

Thiw made me 
At the moment, we work our mileage out "as the crow flies". Imagine a straight line on a map from you and the customer. So it is likely the actual mileage will be a little further depending on how bendy the roads are in your area. Luckily, this is something we took into account early on and so we increased our extra mileage pay to 90p extra per mile to compensate for this. We are looking into getting a more accurate millage tracker that takes more variables into account in the near future.

Anyone ever seen any roads from supermarkets that are as the crow flies...
As the crow flies from our local supermarket is 1/2 mile. But due to "Bendy Roads" & one way streets it is over 2 miles in a car.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

It's effectively a complicated drop shipping set up with a tech company in the middle looking to have as little liability as possible (don't they all) in the hope their idea will be worth silly amounts of money one day.

Looking through the terms it does state:

Beelivery provides a platform for you to order products from third party sellers. While Beelivery as a service provider helps facilitate transactions that are carried out on the Beelivery website, Beelivery is neither the buyer nor the seller of the advertised products. Beelivery provides a service for customers to order products and complete transactions. Accordingly, the contract formed at the completion of a sale for these third party products is between you and the driver we procure to fulfill your order. Beelivery is not a party to this contract nor assumes any responsibility arising out of or in connection with it nor is it the drivers agent. 

There can be no argument this isn't an off-premises contract and with the above terms it is the drivers who would be responsible for providing the consumer with the required information, dealing with the right to cancel and providing a remedy for goods which do not conform to the contract. 

I very highly doubt this happens and if it doesn't the OP isn't bound by the contract. 

The idea the OP has purchased only a service obviously holds no weight as the terms specifically mention a contract being formed with the driver for the goods. 

Manxman_in_exile

Like Money_Grabber I don't understand why so many posters have been against the OP?

I can't see any merit in a service where the service provider can substitute cheaper items for the more expensive contracted items, yet still charge the consumer the price of the more expensive items*.  I don't care if the consumer agrees to sustitutions where the contracted items are unavailable - the service model is clearly open to potential abuse if the consumer doesn't get refunded the difference!

I further agree with Money_Grabber that if the only way this business model can work is if the consumer is NOT refunded the difference, then the model is simply unviable as well as being an unfair practice.


*At least I assume that is what is happening.  I've asked for clarification twice and nobody has indicated that I'm mistaken in believing that.  I've never used any sort of food delivery service, but I assume that if you order from one of the supermarkets or from Ocado or somewhere, that they refund you the difference if they have to substitute cheaper items, and don't pocket it themselves.  The beedelivery idea is nonsense...

[Edit:  But I also keep mis-spelling "substitute" and have to re-type it, so I must be mistaken just like the OP!]

Money_Grabber13579

Manxman_in_exile 

*At least I assume that is what is happening.  I've asked for clarification twice and nobody has indicated that I'm mistaken in believing that.  I've never used any sort of food delivery service, but I assume that if you order from one of the supermarkets or from Ocado or somewhere, that they refund you the difference if they have to substitute cheaper items, and don't pocket it themselves.  The beedelivery idea is nonsense...

My experience with the supermarket deliveries has been that if the substituted item is of lesser value, you pay the price of the substituted item but if it is more, you pay the price of them item originally ordered (although it’s been a long time since I had a supermarket delivery). In my view, that works, because the consumer is given the choice to amend the contract and pay the price they would have paid had the substituted goods been ordered in the first place (but with a potential goodwill upside if those goods cost more) or to send the goods back and get a full refund.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Money_Grabber13579 said:

Manxman_in_exile 

*At least I assume that is what is happening.  I've asked for clarification twice and nobody has indicated that I'm mistaken in believing that.  I've never used any sort of food delivery service, but I assume that if you order from one of the supermarkets or from Ocado or somewhere, that they refund you the difference if they have to substitute cheaper items, and don't pocket it themselves.  The beedelivery idea is nonsense...

My experience with the supermarket deliveries has been that if the substituted item is of lesser value, you pay the price of the substituted item but if it is more, you pay the price of them item originally ordered (although it’s been a long time since I had a supermarket delivery). In my view, that works, because the consumer is given the choice to amend the contract and pay the price they would have paid had the substituted goods been ordered in the first place (but with a potential goodwill upside if those goods cost more) or to send the goods back and get a full refund.

In additional Asda for example won't charge you the extra if the item substituted costs more.

Issues arise when you order 500g of something at £1 and thy substitute for a different item that costs £1.50 but is only 400g, although with Asda you only pay the £1 it's still effectively costing you 20% more. They will however just refund you if you complain afterwards. 

Money_Grabber13579

Likewise, your driver does not guarantee that the items you order will be available. You will not be charged if an item is not available because it is out of stock. If an item does not match the item that you ordered, then you can ask the driver to take it back and you will not be charged for that item.

It actually seems that the consumer does have the same right to reject items if the correct items aren’t supplied but I have no idea how that works in practice. Is the driver left with a 190g packet if Haribo because it’s not a 175g packet? I can’t see the supermarket being willing to give the driver a refund because they bought the wrong thing in the first place!

The T&Cs says that the contract for delivery is with the driver and not Beelivery but it also says that the driver is acting as agent for the consumer and so any dispute on product quality is between the consumer and the supermarket. This seems to conflict with the section quoted above, on the basis that the ability to reject goods with the driver does not suggest an agency relationship.

It all just seems like a nonsense business model where they are trying to take all the benefits of supermarket deliveries whilst distancing themselves from any of the associated obligations which a supermarket would have to abide by, when delivering directly.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Money_Grabber13579 said:

Likewise, your driver does not guarantee that the items you order will be available. You will not be charged if an item is not available because it is out of stock. If an item does not match the item that you ordered, then you can ask the driver to take it back and you will not be charged for that item.

It all just seems like a nonsense business model where they are trying to take all the benefits of supermarket deliveries whilst distancing themselves from any of the associated obligations which a supermarket would have to abide by, when delivering directly.

I think this sums it up, they also say mistakes cant be rectified if you don't notice when the shopping is delivered but if the driver is doing two shops and scans a box of cornflakes to your order instead of a joint of beef it doesn't mean they say can say tough luck because you didn't notice soon enough. 

Carrot007

These type of companies (and there are many of them) are going to end up having to put big disclaimers up at some point but it will not help those currently being ripped off.

My OH wanted a pizza and some bits one night so we tried one (had been drinking so were not going out ourselves). The drivers clearly know what they are doing (well this one did), said could not find the pizza and woudl this one do. OK. Turns out instead of a nice fresh pizza he had made a beeline (you see what I did there ;-) ) to the frozen section and got the cheapest one he could find. No refunds as we had agreed to it on the phone. Would not even have considrered he was in the frozen section.

Will not be using again unless drunk and will know to specifically interoogate then a lot if they ring up.

I think the eventual disclaimers will probably say the products yo uare selecting are just indicative and not what you are actually ordering. They should probably also require a breathaliser test to make sure you are drunk as non complaining drunks are what they are going for.

Bad for OP but these services were never meant for a quick shop, just drunks probably wanting more beer (and still getting upset as tesco value lager ;-) ). Can't remember but I think call me was the option I selected for substitutions. (I think the options are leave it up to the driver or call me (no option for none as it is not appropriate to the sservice)).

born_again

Money_Grabber13579 

My experience with the supermarket deliveries has been that if the substituted item is of lesser value, you pay the price of the substituted item but if it is more, you pay the price of them item originally ordered (although it’s been a long time since I had a supermarket delivery). In my view, that works, because the consumer is given the choice to amend the contract and pay the price they would have paid had the substituted goods been ordered in the first place (but with a potential goodwill upside if those goods cost more) or to send the goods back and get a full refund.

The biggest problem here. Is the company providing the service does not know which supermarket is going to be used by the person picking up the delivery. So just how they work out the cost to the customer is a mysterious joke. 

It's a bit like ordering a Just Eat pizza from Domino's but driver decides to go to a local pizza house, which will be a lot cheaper..

Carrot007

born_again said:

The biggest problem here. Is the company providing the service does not know which supermarket is going to be used by the person picking up the delivery. So just how they work out the cost to the customer is a mysterious joke. 

It's a bit like ordering a Just Eat pizza from Domino's but driver decides to go to a local pizza house, which will be a lot cheaper..

No, the biggest problem is that often the customer does not realise what they are paying for.

A premium expensive delivery probably double the cost it should be for pure copnvienience reasons.

That is probably another disclaimer they need to add and will be made to eventually.