Parcel left on doorstep-not there when i got home

Bexxie1979

Hi-i ordered a jacket for my husband to be for our upcoming wedding last week, with DPD delivery. The company was a clothing retailer called JulesB.

When the message came through with the delivery date (6 days later but that's another story!) I realised i would be at a hospital appointment so updated my preferences to "leave with neighbour" or "leave in porch"

I received a text whilst out to say it had been delivered and left in my porch, but the photo sent was my parcel sitting on my doorstep/driveway. 

When I returned home later that day it had gone, presumably stolen! 

I have been in touch with the retailer who has said that they have contacted DPD who said it was left in a safe place, and as i had specified a safe place they cannot be held responsible for it going missing.

The jacket was a lot of money (for me anyway!) and i'm now panicking as our wedding is only 3 weeks away!

Where do I stand with my consumer rights?

Aylesbury_Duck

Bexxie1979 said:

Hi-i ordered a jacket for my husband to be for our upcoming wedding last week, with DPD delivery. The company was a clothing retailer called JulesB.

When the message came through with the delivery date (6 days later but that's another story!) I realised i would be at a hospital appointment so updated my preferences to "leave with neighbour" or "leave in porch"

I received a text whilst out to say it had been delivered and left in my porch, but the photo sent was my parcel sitting on my doorstep/driveway. 

When I returned home later that day it had gone, presumably stolen! 

I have been in touch with the retailer who has said that they have contacted DPD who said it was left in a safe place, and as i had specified a safe place they cannot be held responsible for it going missing.

The jacket was a lot of money (for me anyway!) and i'm now panicking as our wedding is only 3 weeks away!

Where do I stand with my consumer rights?

Normally, responsibility for the item remains the retailer's until it's in your safe possession, but as you specifically said it could be left in the porch, that may muddy the waters if it was stolen from the porch.  It seems it wasn't left in the porch, though, so that suggests it's the retailer's problem to sort in any case. Someone with more legal knowledge may be able to confirm the exact situation.  It's probably worth reporting it stolen anyway, simply because even if the retailer is minded to act, they will probably ask for a crime reference.

Manxman_in_exile

Not being funny, but would it have been perfectly clear to the DPD driver (whose first language may not have been English) what you would have meant by "leave in porch"?  

Normally goods remain at the trader's risk (ie remain their responsibility) until they have either been delivered into your "physical possession", or have been delivered to somebody you have nominated.

The law is here and you should quote it to the seller:  Consumer Rights Act 2015 (legislation.gov.uk)

If you'd just said "leave with neighbour" and they had left it on your drive, then it would clearly be your seller's problem.  The fact you'd also said "leave in porch" might make it a bit more complicated.  I still think it's the seller's responsibility, but they might argue about it.  Without knowing the layout of your drive and porch it's a bit difficult to say.

If I were you I'd go back to the retailer armed with the law I linked to above and argue that because the goods weren't delivered either into your physical possession or to someone else identified by you, then the goods remained at the sellers risk and were theri reponsibility.  But they might argue that "leave it in the porch" indicates that you were happy for the goods to be left "outside" your house.

pinkshoes

I seem to remember a similar thread where people had quite a different interpretation of a "porch". e.g. I assumed it was an area behind a closed door (where you have a separate locked front door) but others thought it was an open but under cover structure (photo on right).

I assume your porch is more like the one on the left?

The word "in" that you specified will hopefully be your saving grace, given you have a photo showing it sitting on the drive, which is certainly NOT in a porch of any description. 

You need to go back to the retailer and state that the instructions gave the permission for the courier to leave the parcel with a neighbour or IN the porch, and NOT on the driveway as per the photographic evidence. 

JustAnotherSaver

I'm with you on that one pinkshoes. A porch to me is the image on the left.

My mother has a porch & the front door will be left unlocked. Once you're in the porch there is another locked door which you would pass through to get in to the actual house.

For low cost items or items I'm happy taking a risk with, I will tick the box that says I accept responsibility. Thankfully they can leave it inside not on show. Not only that but my mother lives a bit out of the way which is an additional bonus.

That thing on the right is not a porch to me. It's just a bit of a covering in front of someones front door.

Though the other week my sister bought something from Amazon & she had an alert to say it'd been delivered.

She couldn't find it. Story short - it had been launched over the fence & landed inside a drum of water.

Some of these delivery drivers need, well if i finished that I'd probably have my account shut down so we'll leave it there

Torry_Quine

I looked up some pictures and definition of porch. It seems that both pictures shown by pinkshoes would be correctly described as porches. 

Manxman_in_exile

Personally I would not describe the closed structure on the left as a porch.  To me a porch is a structure that projects forwards from the front elevation but is left open to the elements - apart from some sort of roof canopy.

An instruction to "leave in the porch" would simply mean leaving it within the boundary of the porch, but without the necessity of opening any door to do so.  If I was instructed to leave something "in the porch", I wouldn't expect to have to open any doors to do so.

That's why I said in my earlier post that it depends on the layout of the OP's porch and drive, and that an instruction to "leave in the porch" could easily be taken as an instruction to leave it outside the house - which might not be the message the OP intended to convey, but might be the message that was received.

OP might have been better just saying "leave with neighbour".

Thrugelmir

Torry_Quine said:

I looked up some pictures and definition of porch. It seems that both pictures shown by pinkshoes would be correctly described as porches. 

Further options are available. 

photome

i would describe the image on the left as a porch, 

do you have an image of where they left it OP

I had a parcel delivered, emailed me saying left in Porch. I have similar to the pic on the right, I was thinking I didnt have a porch but maybe I do

TELLIT01

To me a porch is an enclosed structure not just a canopy over a door.  American meaning is different, but we don't live in America.  I'm with the majority here and suggest getting onto the vendor with the photo of where it was left and dispute the claim that it was left in the 'safe place' requested.

400ixl

Both of those images can be defined as a porch https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/porch

Hopefully the OP has a fully enclosed porch with a door and can show that the package was left outside on the driveway. Personally I wouldn't give any instructions to a delivery company so as to make it the retailers responsibility until they hand it over physically in person. Its just not worth the risk, re-arrange the delivery if no-one is there on that day.

Good luck OP, hope you get it sorted, use the information posted above if they have not complied with the instructions given.