Parcel Force adding surcharge

Fi1964

Hi everyone. My son used Parcel Force to send his 40 inch TV from Huddersfield to London. Parcel Force are now stating that unless they can prove the size of the TV box they need to pay another £40 on top of what they have already paid as the courier has told them that the TV box was over 3 metres. They no longer have the box as the TV arrived a couple of weeks ago and being so large we had nowhere or no need to keep it. We have sent photos of the TV along with the model number and size and we found the dimensions of the box online. We also still had one piece of the polystyrene but all the evidence we have sent them they are saying is unacceptable. My son has just finished his degree and is still searching for a job so not only can he not afford to pay this, we feel it is wrong. What can we do please?

ZaSa1418

This is a scam.
Parcelforce wouldn't have delivered it if it hadn't been paid for properly. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

ZaSa1418 said:

This is a scam.
Parcelforce wouldn't have delivered it if it hadn't been paid for properly. 

Not necessarily, couriers can come back after delivery with fees for under declared parcel sizes.

OP where was the parcel booked from? Parcelforce direct, the Post Office or a third party like Parcel2Go? 

Sandtree

How large do you think the box was? 
I forget the name they give it but are they saying one dimension was over 3m or the total dimension was? (I know they call it something else than total)

What was the boxed subsequently covered with or did you send it just in the TV box?

sheramber

 Unfortunately, it could have been sent in a box bigger than the original one. 

Jenni_D

As asked above, exactly what dimension are they saying is 3m?

A 40" TV would not be in a box that required a dimension of 3m - not even the diagonal. Even if the box was 20" diagonal bigger than the TV, that is still only a shade over 5 feet ... well under 2m.

Something doesn't add up here.

y3sitsm3

Jenni_D said:

As asked above, exactly what dimension are they saying is 3m?

A 40" TV would not be in a box that required a dimension of 3m - not even the diagonal. Even if the box was 20" diagonal bigger than the TV, that is still only a shade over 5 feet ... well under 2m.

Something doesn't add up here.

From the Parcelforce website

Restrictions

An individual parcel weight limit is 30kg, but there is no maximum consignment weight for all options except Post Office drop off and Post Office recipient pick up where the maximum weight limit is 20kg. Maximum dimensions of 1.5m length and 3m length and girth combined.

Fi1964

Thank you for the quick replies. It was sent in the original TV box with a company called Parcel Compare. I suppose we can't prove it wasn't sent in a 9 foot box but surely there must be rules that the courier can't make it up. As someone above said why would they take it if it's bigger than paid for (which it wasn't).

Jenni_D

Thanks ... a 40" 16:9 TV would have a length of 89cm (plus the bezel ... let's say 95cm total length). Similarly the height would be 50cm, so let's say 56cm with the bezel. Boxed, the dimensions are likely to be a maximum of 135cm x 90cm (assuming 20cm per side extra, which is probably an over-estimate).

The question now is - what do they mean by girth? Even so, the above dimensions (135 + 90 = 225cm = 2.25m) are still well under the 3m limit.

y3sitsm3

Fi1964 said:

Thank you for the quick replies. It was sent in the original TV box with a company called Parcel Compare. I suppose we can't prove it wasn't sent in a 9 foot box but surely there must be rules that the courier can't make it up. As someone above said why would they take it if it's bigger than paid for (which it wasn't).

Because they don't necessarily have the time to measure every box they pick up.  It's likely that it has been scanned at some point by a machine that has determined it to be bigger than allowed.

They're stuck between a rock and a hard place really. If they dump it back on the customer's doorstep they'd likely be just as many people annoyed at that as those who had to pay more money.

Jenni_D

y3sitsm3 said:

Fi1964 said:

Thank you for the quick replies. It was sent in the original TV box with a company called Parcel Compare. I suppose we can't prove it wasn't sent in a 9 foot box but surely there must be rules that the courier can't make it up. As someone above said why would they take it if it's bigger than paid for (which it wasn't).

Because they don't necessarily have the time to measure every box they pick up.  It's likely that it has been scanned at some point by a machine that has determined it to be bigger than allowed.

They're stuck between a rock and a hard place really. If they dump it back on the customer's doorstep they'd likely be just as many people annoyed at that as those who had to pay more money.

Apparently Hermes have a lot of issues like this where the machine measure a parcel but also picks up another parcel at the same time and miscalculates the size. (I think Joe Lycett has featured this on his TV show before?) I wouldn't be surprised if other couriers had similar issues.

Ultimately the courier is making a claim - it is for them to prove their claim. The OP's evidence has already been shared, and my calculations above show that a total of 3m would be utterly ridiculous for a 40" TV box. @Fi1964 - does your son have any photos of the TV box?

Unless the OP caves in, the courier would have to take them to court to try and force payment - such a claim would be judged on the balance of probabilities, which I believe would be in the OP's favour.

Bit in underline - a valid comment, but not applicable in this case as the package was already delivered.