Courier company took our items instead of their customer’s

bmxsummoner

A courier company driver took some equipment of ours by mistake — he was supposed to pick up for another company. We have no dealings with them and only found out the couriers took them after reviewing cctv footage.

Their depot was informed the afternoon of the morning it was taken, and we were told by the manager it was going to get returned the following morning.

This didn’t happen. Rang again to be told it will be returned the next day. Again, nada. Rang again and was informed the items were actually labelled and sent onwards to a recipient on their books; I asked this information be emailed to me and that I be given update of their efforts to return my items to me.

No emails came, and two days later, I ring again to be told by local depot manager that the receiving customer (not mine) is actually denying the items received matched ours, and he (depot mngr) is now asking for cctv images at the unit we rent at.

To cut an already long story short, and after I told them the landlords are only able to forward footage to police, and after the depot manager/s eventually confirming my items were indeed in their network, I’d like to ask where should I go if want this matter reported to authorities, i.e., if it is Trading Standards or the police?

The reason I’d like to escalate it is that I have had no updates from them: no news of my item’s whereabouts nor any offers of compensation. It seems apparent our items either got lost or stolen under their watch, this AFTER I informed the depot of their driver taking them; note also the depots initial claim that their customer denied my items were what they received in their delivery.

These are items of equipment we use in our business, about £170 worth besides the loss of productivity we have already suffered.

Thanks in advance for any advice from forum members, which I appreciate isn’t to be taken as legal advice.

custardy

I would think the Police would be the next call IMO
May shake up response/action from the courier at least

Sandtree

So you had a box of something laying around your premises at Unit 1, a courier was supposed to collect a box from Unit 2 but got mixed up and collected your box instead? 

Many couriers do the label these days for single item consignments (not sure why personally) and so they've stuck the label on your box and its gone through their system and been delivered to where its supposed to go. The recipient however is saying what they received wasnt what was taken form your property?

So... have you spoken to the company that the courier was actually supposed to collect the goods from? When did their box get collected? Have they had any contact from their customer?

You could report the matter to the police as theft, they'll be reluctant to get involved and tell you its a civil matter and after a lot of pushing you may finally get a crime reference number

bmxsummoner

Sandtree said:

So you had a box of something laying around your premises at Unit 1, a courier was supposed to collect a box from Unit 2 but got mixed up and collected your box instead? 

Many couriers do the label these days for single item consignments (not sure why personally) and so they've stuck the label on your box and its gone through their system and been delivered to where its supposed to go. The recipient however is saying what they received wasnt what was taken form your property?

So... have you spoken to the company that the courier was actually supposed to collect the goods from? When did their box get collected? Have they had any contact from their customer?

You could report the matter to the police as theft, they'll be reluctant to get involved and tell you its a civil matter and after a lot of pushing you may finally get a crime reference number

No, my items weren’t boxed — they were all loose, small equipment while the courier’s collection customer deals with confectionery products. 

As to the recipient claiming what they received was what they expected, that was initial claim of the local depot manager on my 3rd call to them, after he had already said our items were sent onwards and he was unable to intercept them, and after not sending me an email to confirm this info after promising to. He no longer mentions or stands by this after I went through their customer complaints representative and after I mentioned reporting the matter to the police initially (as they didn’t seem to want to investigate at first). The story is now that he did see them on cctv being loaded onto a van at his depot on Wednesday, on route to a receiving depot a 4-hour drive away. Other depot manager says, Friday, that they’ve not received my items but are on the lookout.

It’s obvious someone’s fibbing as, if they were labelled as one manager initially claimed, and it seems reasonable to assume they were, they should be able to track my items and tell me their whereabouts. I have a feeling someone somewhere within the company, after learning they were the wrong items collected and that the owner wasn’t a customer on record, helped themselves to them or disposed of them.

Tigsteroonie

I would treat this as a theft and report to the Police. You didn't have to speak to the courier company or tried to chase this yourself. As far as you are concerned, items were taken from your premises without permission, and you have CCTV footage of who took it. Give that to the Police and let them pursue it.

theoretica

I think it might be crime reference number time - someone came to your site and walked off with your stuff.  You tried to sort it informally, but now need to focus their minds.

user1977

It's not a crime if there's no criminal intent - but it may be stretching plausible deniability to say "we accidentally went to the wrong address and picked up the wrong thing and now can't seem to find it".

bmxsummoner said:

the landlords are only able to forward footage to police

You might want to try gently pointing out to your landlords that this is nonsense

Ergates

Time for a letter before action?

Or a letter saying that if they don't sort this out asap you will have to involve the police.

Ergates

user1977 said:

It's not a crime if there's no criminal intent -

If there is evidence that they took the items, I think it would be on them to prove there was no criminal intent.
"Yes, we took the items and never returned them, but it was a mistake.  Honest. "

user1977

Ergates said:

user1977 said:

It's not a crime if there's no criminal intent -

If there is evidence that they took the items, I think it would be on them to prove there was no criminal intent.
"Yes, we took the items and never returned them, but it was a mistake.  Honest. "

Well, it's up to the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the crime was committed, and the defence might be able to put sufficient doubt in the court's mind about it - particularly if they can prove they were making a legitimate pickup from the neighbours, it wasn't clear whose items they were, etc.

NBLondon

user1977 said:

Well, it's up to the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the crime was committed, and the defence might be able to put sufficient doubt in the court's mind about it - particularly if they can prove they were making a legitimate pickup from the neighbours, it wasn't clear whose items they were, etc.

Given the OP tells us the items were loose equipment (so not packed for transit)  and not in the same line of business as the intended pickup site then it's at least criminal negligence in picking up something that doesn't match what the courier was sent to collect and then more so in losing the item in transit or allowing it to be stolen.