Paying for added shipping protection is it legal or a rip-off

dave57000

Hi all my first post here but I thought you might be interested in this. Companies are now starting to try and charge you for damage done whilst they are delivering your goods (implying that if you don't pay for the extra insurance and the goods get damaged it is your responsibility and they will refuse to replace them If you don't take out the extra insurance) as far as I'm aware in this country the company is responsible until the goods are delivered to you, therefore, making an extra charge to ensure your goods before you have even received them does not sound correct to me, as far as I know, delivery contracts are with the company making the delivery not the recipient of the delivery and it is up to them to ensure goods are delivered in good condition. What a weird world we live in please see the screenshot for details.

Stay safe and don't get ripped off  

bris

Some companies, certainly not all, in fact very few ask for extra insurance. It's by no means compulsary and sure denying your consumer rights is certainly wrong and illegal but you just need to avoid these companies.

The thread however shouldnt be seen as scare mongering as one company doesn't mean they all do it.

powerful_Rogue

dave57000 said:

Hi all my first post here but I thought you might be interested in this. Companies are now starting to try and charge you for damage done whilst they are delivering your goods (implying that if you don't pay for the extra insurance and the goods get damaged it is your responsibility and they will refuse to replace them If you don't take out the extra insurance) as far as I'm aware in this country the company is responsible until the goods are delivered to you, therefore, making an extra charge to ensure your goods before you have even received them does not sound correct to me, as far as I know, delivery contracts are with the company making the delivery not the recipient of the delivery and it is up to them to ensure goods are delivered in good condition. What a weird world we live in please see the screenshot for details.

Stay safe and don't get ripped off  

Totally legal nor a rip off for someone that needs this kind of protection.

They don't imply anything of the sort if you read what it actually covers.

If you do not have Shipping Protection on your order and your order is Lost, Stolen or damaged during transit, there can be a delay in organising replacements as a dispute needs to be submitted to the carrier of the materials. This may require additional information from the customer (depending on if the order was Lost, Stolen or Damaged) that is then passed onto the carrier so that a dispute is processed or the materials located. This can take a few days to be processed and also then allow a few days for materials to be redelivered.

MarvinDay

The way it's worded on the checkout page of the website does imply that loss or damage is only covered if you take out their shipping protection:
"Yes, I would like to protect my order against loss, theft and damages during delivery" 
because it doesn't state that loss, theft or damage is already covered and what the extra protection actually does is to minimise any delays caused by loss theft or damage and consumers who didn't know that the risk during shipping is normally covered by the seller may well feel that they need to pay for this extra.

For many people, that extra "shipping protection" may not be worth paying for but in some instances such as if your building project is on a tight deadline and a delay in getting replacement goods delivered following loss or damage in shipping could cause major disruption then it could offer extra peace of mind.

porkisnotmeat

dave57000 said:

Hi all my first post here but I thought you might be interested in this. Companies are now starting to try and charge you for damage done whilst they are delivering your goods (implying that if you don't pay for the extra insurance and the goods get damaged it is your responsibility and they will refuse to replace them If you don't take out the extra insurance) as far as I'm aware in this country the company is responsible until the goods are delivered to you, therefore, making an extra charge to ensure your goods before you have even received them does not sound correct to me, as far as I know, delivery contracts are with the company making the delivery not the recipient of the delivery and it is up to them to ensure goods are delivered in good condition. What a weird world we live in please see the screenshot for details.

Stay safe and don't get ripped off  

Fiver says they're not UK based.

Their address is an address held by 4000 other companies, which is a bit odd for someone selling building materials.  And they haven't even bothered to pretend that the T&C's are subject to some random countries laws either.

I suspect the stuff will end up, ultimately coming from China, they're no strangers to charging for "Insurance."

Sandtree

porkisnotmeat said:

dave57000 said:

Hi all my first post here but I thought you might be interested in this. Companies are now starting to try and charge you for damage done whilst they are delivering your goods (implying that if you don't pay for the extra insurance and the goods get damaged it is your responsibility and they will refuse to replace them If you don't take out the extra insurance) as far as I'm aware in this country the company is responsible until the goods are delivered to you, therefore, making an extra charge to ensure your goods before you have even received them does not sound correct to me, as far as I know, delivery contracts are with the company making the delivery not the recipient of the delivery and it is up to them to ensure goods are delivered in good condition. What a weird world we live in please see the screenshot for details.

Stay safe and don't get ripped off  

Fiver says they're not UK based.

Their address is an address held by 4000 other companies, which is a bit odd for someone selling building materials.  And they haven't even bothered to pretend that the T&C's are subject to some random countries laws either.

I suspect the stuff will end up, ultimately coming from China, they're no strangers to charging for "Insurance."

There are signs of it not being what it claims thats for sure but the domain has been owned by the same people since 2005, the site consistently refers to insulate for less which is a registered company with Ireland based owners/directors and has correctly filed evrything with companies house for years. It only ships to mainland UK whereas overseas crews ship anywhere...

I'd take the bet that "they" arent far east based... never going to bet that goods dont come from the far east given the proportion that do even on the high street.

Assuming Insulation4Less really is the company behind Build4Less... sites are almost identical etc... then they are telling Companies House they have a £7.3m turnover which isnt a bad number

powerful_Rogue

Sandtree said:

porkisnotmeat said:

dave57000 said:

Hi all my first post here but I thought you might be interested in this. Companies are now starting to try and charge you for damage done whilst they are delivering your goods (implying that if you don't pay for the extra insurance and the goods get damaged it is your responsibility and they will refuse to replace them If you don't take out the extra insurance) as far as I'm aware in this country the company is responsible until the goods are delivered to you, therefore, making an extra charge to ensure your goods before you have even received them does not sound correct to me, as far as I know, delivery contracts are with the company making the delivery not the recipient of the delivery and it is up to them to ensure goods are delivered in good condition. What a weird world we live in please see the screenshot for details.

Stay safe and don't get ripped off  

Fiver says they're not UK based.

Their address is an address held by 4000 other companies, which is a bit odd for someone selling building materials.  And they haven't even bothered to pretend that the T&C's are subject to some random countries laws either.

I suspect the stuff will end up, ultimately coming from China, they're no strangers to charging for "Insurance."

There are signs of it not being what it claims thats for sure but the domain has been owned by the same people since 2005, the site consistently refers to insulate for less which is a registered company with Ireland based owners/directors and has correctly filed evrything with companies house for years. It only ships to mainland UK whereas overseas crews ship anywhere...

I'd take the bet that "they" arent far east based... never going to bet that goods dont come from the far east given the proportion that do even on the high street.

Assuming Insulation4Less really is the company behind Build4Less... sites are almost identical etc... then they are telling Companies House they have a £7.3m turnover which isnt a bad number

They are one and the same:

insulation4less

tiles4less

build4less

They advertise each other at the bottom of each site.

dave57000

MarvinDay thanks  At least you have been able to see what I'm talking about and nowhere does it say that you will receive preferential treatment and orders would be replaced quicker due to loss or damage or theft if you take out this insurance, so basically you're paying for nothing. I have seen other companies offering standard delivery at one price, signed for delivery another price & for Insured delivery, another price. This should be their choice, not the customers as they are responsible for making the delivery, not the customer. If companies want to keep their prices low to get orders and not include the proper cost of shipping in those orders then they need to take responsibility for delivering those orders as they are required to do so and not con people into paying for nothing, I see this as a dangerous trend that degrades Consumer rights. I'm amazed at how people assume this is a correct way to behave, where has all the commonsense gone. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1277/schedule/1/made

Commercial practices which are in all circumstances considered unfair

10.  Presenting rights given to consumers in law as a distinctive feature of the trader’s offer.

There are two aspects to consider, the first it how it is advertised, if the wording used would lead the average consumer to believe they are not covered for loss and damage without paying extra then it would be misleading.

The other aspect is the service itself, if the goods do not conform to the contract the trader must already perform a remedy within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience.

By acknowledging the main selling points of the service are time and convenience it may raise questions to whether the service is in contradiction to the above requirement as what is reasonable and significant is subjective and any delay to a remedy with regards to building materials could cause significant inconvenience.

A short delay in itself isn't an issue in my view but saying they can resolve matters immediately, if you pay extra, may imply they aren't resolving issues quick enough if you don't pay extra.

Given the rest of their terms, some highlights below, consumer law isn't their strong point.

https://build4less.co.uk/pages/returns

In addition to our returns policy under the distance selling regulations you have the legal right to cancel your order within seven working days

In the unlikely event that any goods are damaged on arrival please notify us immediately via email to ..... and no later than 24 hours after the goods have been delivered. Failure to do this may result in the damaged goods not being exchanged for replacements. 

Please note that if the item has already been shipped from our warehouse a restocking charge will apply. Your statutory rights are not affected.  

 Any orders cancelled outside of the first 2 hours of being placed may be be subject to a cancellation fee of £30 plus vat.