Parcel delivered to wrong address, what can I do?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

MarvinDay said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

To be fair to the OP here they filled out their current address on the trader's website but the trader then used an address attached to their payment method for delivery.

Aside from the OP's mistake, there are plenty of sites that ask for both delivery and billing addresses, it's understandable that if a customer enters their delivery address on the trader's site that is where they would expect it to be delivered to.

It could be viewed differently if you simply clicked a "Pay with Paypal" button and all the data for the order was pulled from Paypal as part of their checkout flow. 

But I don't think any of it matters as we come back to our old friend passing of risk and the goods are unlikely to have come into physical possession of the OP if they don't live at the address they've been delivered to.

I'm sure there could be a 14 page debate on the matter but ultimately it is the trader's obligation to ensure the goods reach the consumer into their physical possession, if they don't wish to verify data they accept or make checks upon delivery that is their risk to bear.

OP assuming a UK company send them a letter before action (templates on Google) quoting the below:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/29/enacted

(1)A sales contract is to be treated as including the following provisions as terms.

(2)The goods remain at the trader’s risk until they come into the physical possession of—

(a)the consumer, or

(b)a person identified by the consumer to take possession of the goods.

(I assume you didn't arrange the courier nor request one specifically that the trader doesn't name)

If that doesn't yield a result you have the option of small claims which would depend upon the value, my view is the above covers you (some will disagree). 

I'm one of those who will disagree with you.
As neither Royal Mail nor any of the major courier companies deliver to a specific person, simply to a given address then if what you think is true, what would stop me from ordering expensive items from multiple retailers and getting them delivered to my house whilst I'm not there but someone else is, someone who is untrustworthy and who would steal the goods before they came into my physical possession?

If what you have quoted above was taken literally then although the goods were delivered to the correct address, I would have no problem getting a full refund from the sellers although they had done exactly what I requested of them.
After all, in the vast majority of postal deliveries, what proof is there that the person who ordered and paid for the goods actually received them? All there may be is proof of delivery to the nominated address.

What you say is correct however fails to take into account that the courier doesn't have a responsibility to the consumer, they have a B2B relationship with the trader. On the other hand the trader has a B2C relationship with certain obligations and should the trader choose to employ the services of a third party to carry out their obligations then it is the trader who accepts that risk. Therefore it is for the trader to pick a third party that meets their obligations and if it were demanded by retailers couriers would meet such demands.  

You comment is also very simplistic Royal Mail may deliver to an address but they are able to carry out age verification upon delivery. There are also retailers who offer to carry your goods to a room of choice, unwrap them, possibly install them or put them together and then take away all the rubbish, we live in a wonderful age of possibility, just because the status quo is one where your parcel is dumped anywhere that is of convenience to the courier that doesn't make it correct. Just because "All there may be is proof of delivery to the nominated address" doesn't mean that is the only possibility. 

As I've said before the issue is one of cost, the trader will weigh cost vs risk and it is cheaper to accept refunding the odd person who pushes for their rights when saying they didn't get the parcel despite proof of delivery rather than ensure 100% delivery to only the consumer by way of verification at the point of delivery. 

You may also argue that it is convenient to you as you don't wish to be home to receive the goods but the legislation has afforded you the luxury of not having to bear the risk of indulging in such a convenience if the trader wishes to offer it in the pursuit of profit.

You may argue you don't wish to share your personal information with a delivery person but we give so much data away by using the internet or having smart devices in our home for the sake of convenience or novelty so that argument wouldn't hold any rationale.

You may argue it's unfair for you to bear the cost of such service but if they were commonplace the costs would be reduced. The idea of all these goods being delivered to separate houses brought up 50 years ago would likely have had the same arguments about cost and complications.  

You mentioned high priced goods, if you buy this watch (priced 275,200.00) or according to the terms anything over £100:

https://www.goldsmiths.co.uk/Ulysse-Nardin-Marine-Mega-Yacht-44mm-6319+305/p/17720459

The company will not leave it with a neighbour and they will require a signature, so the customer's convenience factor (safe place, letter box, etc) is gone, checking an ID to ensure the person at the door is the actual customer isn't much of a step further than having to be home to sign.

Goldsmiths have deiced that £100 is their limit on risk, each retailer is entitled to decide that for themselves. 

And you may argue that for quarter of a million someone will fake an ID and I'm sure you are correct, that would be fraud which is a separate issue and something all traders accept and bear a risk of when conducting business. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Money_Grabber13579 said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

*You didn't do your "due diligence" though, did you?  That's why they were sent to the wrong address.  If you had done "due diligence" you would have specified the correct address.

To be fair to the OP here they filled out their current address on the trader's website but the trader then used an address attached to their payment method for delivery.

Aside from the OP's mistake, there are plenty of sites that ask for both delivery and billing addresses, it's understandable that if a customer enters their delivery address on the trader's site that is where they would expect it to be delivered to.

It could be viewed differently if you simply clicked a "Pay with Paypal" button and all the data for the order was pulled from Paypal as part of their checkout flow. 

But I don't think any of it matters as we come back to our old friend passing of risk and the goods are unlikely to have come into physical possession of the OP if they don't live at the address they've been delivered to.

I'm sure there could be a 14 page debate on the matter but ultimately it is the trader's obligation to ensure the goods reach the consumer into their physical possession, if they don't wish to verify data they accept or make checks upon delivery that is their risk to bear.

OP assuming a UK company send them a letter before action (templates on Google) quoting the below:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/29/enacted

(1)A sales contract is to be treated as including the following provisions as terms.

(2)The goods remain at the trader’s risk until they come into the physical possession of—

(a)the consumer, or

(b)a person identified by the consumer to take possession of the goods.

(I assume you didn't arrange the courier nor request one specifically that the trader doesn't name)

If that doesn't yield a result you have the option of small claims which would depend upon the value, my view is the above covers you (some will disagree). 

How much verification of data do you think they should do? They asked the customer where they wanted them sent, the customer supplied an incorrect address and that’s where the supplier sent them.

Do you think traders are expected to follow up at a later data and ask them to confirm the address? What is the customer isn’t paying attention and inadvertently confirms the incorrect address? Should they hire a detective to ensure that the address really is correct before sending the goods?

At the end of the day, if the customer supplies an incorrect address and that is where the supplier sends the goods, the supplier is not going to be held liable for the customer not receiving the goods. Expecting anything else would just be ridiculous.

As an example the trader could give the customer a QR code to stick on the door, no QR, no delivery left, this of course doesn't 100% guarantee goods will come into physical possession but it is a simple step to reduce risk whilst retaining convenience. 

Equally if I haven't logged in to a site for an extended period (say at least 6 months), when placing an order and blasting through checkout without paying attention wouldn't it be nice if a tiny piece of code prompted to review the data or re-enter the address from scratch. Might be an inconvenience to you or I who are perfect but it might be of great benefit to someone who is absent minded. 

The above from the top of my head may well be rubbish ideas but if you have companies studying psychology and spending vast sums of money to squeeze as many pennies out you as possible I'm pretty sure they can come up with some workable ideas on this as well if they wanted to. 

powerful_Rogue

OP, personally I would ignore all the above. By all means write a letter before action, however be prepared to follow it through to court. At that time it will cost you money and anyone sensible hearing this will not put the blame on the retailer.

greensalad

Manxman_in_exile said:

I think that if you made it clear you were cancelling the contract, then if they told you the purchase "wasn't cancellable at all", they probably were not telling you the truth - unless one of the exceptions to cancellation of a distance sale applies.

But I don't think you have much hope if you did not even make it clear you were cancelling, not just changing delivery address.

I requested "to change the address of my order and if not possible, cancel the order". So I feel I did outlay pretty well that I wished to cancel. They came back and said neither was possible.

Manxman_in_exile said:

*You didn't do your "due diligence" though, did you?  That's why they were sent to the wrong address.  If you had done "due diligence" you would have specified the correct address.

Personally I think I did do my due diligence. I typed my delivery address into their website in the "delivery address" box. I then pressed the button to make payment with PayPal. I've just gone through the site again and cannot see anywhere where it states that my delivery address will be my PayPal address. I did not see the delivery address until I went back to view my orders moments after the order went through. That was when I realised the retailer had switched my address. I never specified using my old address, that was done automatically by the retailer.

Sandtree

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

*You didn't do your "due diligence" though, did you?  That's why they were sent to the wrong address.  If you had done "due diligence" you would have specified the correct address.

To be fair to the OP here they filled out their current address on the trader's website but the trader then used an address attached to their payment method for delivery.

Aside from the OP's mistake, there are plenty of sites that ask for both delivery and billing addresses, it's understandable that if a customer enters their delivery address on the trader's site that is where they would expect it to be delivered to.

It could be viewed differently if you simply clicked a "Pay with Paypal" button and all the data for the order was pulled from Paypal as part of their checkout flow. 

But I don't think any of it matters as we come back to our old friend passing of risk and the goods are unlikely to have come into physical possession of the OP if they don't live at the address they've been delivered to.

I'm sure there could be a 14 page debate on the matter but ultimately it is the trader's obligation to ensure the goods reach the consumer into their physical possession, if they don't wish to verify data they accept or make checks upon delivery that is their risk to bear.

Without knowing the website and seeing the flows and what its T&Cs etc say anything is going to be speculation... the issue with PayPal is that the vendor must use the delivery address on file with PayPal to get their Seller Protection 

If the flow is as it is with many sites where they capture the delivery address first but then kick you to PayPal which also shows the delivery address to be used then the latest delivery address the OP gave before binding the contract was the PayPal one... you could argue a good website would spot two different delivery addresses and raise a query to confirm but ultimately the last one given is likely to be the one the vendor should reasonably use if they dont query it.

born_again

greensalad said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

I think that if you made it clear you were cancelling the contract, then if they told you the purchase "wasn't cancellable at all", they probably were not telling you the truth - unless one of the exceptions to cancellation of a distance sale applies.

But I don't think you have much hope if you did not even make it clear you were cancelling, not just changing delivery address.

I requested "to change the address of my order and if not possible, cancel the order". So I feel I did outlay pretty well that I wished to cancel. They came back and said neither was possible.

Manxman_in_exile said:

*You didn't do your "due diligence" though, did you?  That's why they were sent to the wrong address.  If you had done "due diligence" you would have specified the correct address.

Personally I think I did do my due diligence. I typed my delivery address into their website in the "delivery address" box. I then pressed the button to make payment with PayPal. I've just gone through the site again and cannot see anywhere where it states that my delivery address will be my PayPal address. I did not see the delivery address until I went back to view my orders moments after the order went through. That was when I realised the retailer had switched my address. I never specified using my old address, that was done automatically by the retailer.

Think about this from retailers point of view.

What you tried to do is exactly what a fraudster tries to do with a hacked PayPal account.
Which is why when paying via PP they go by the address on the PP acc and no other.

Yes, we know it was a genuine error on your part. But at least you can contact your previous address to arrange to either pick it up or forward it on.

greensalad

born_again said:

greensalad said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

I think that if you made it clear you were cancelling the contract, then if they told you the purchase "wasn't cancellable at all", they probably were not telling you the truth - unless one of the exceptions to cancellation of a distance sale applies.

But I don't think you have much hope if you did not even make it clear you were cancelling, not just changing delivery address.

I requested "to change the address of my order and if not possible, cancel the order". So I feel I did outlay pretty well that I wished to cancel. They came back and said neither was possible.

Manxman_in_exile said:

*You didn't do your "due diligence" though, did you?  That's why they were sent to the wrong address.  If you had done "due diligence" you would have specified the correct address.

Personally I think I did do my due diligence. I typed my delivery address into their website in the "delivery address" box. I then pressed the button to make payment with PayPal. I've just gone through the site again and cannot see anywhere where it states that my delivery address will be my PayPal address. I did not see the delivery address until I went back to view my orders moments after the order went through. That was when I realised the retailer had switched my address. I never specified using my old address, that was done automatically by the retailer.

Think about this from retailers point of view.

What you tried to do is exactly what a fraudster tries to do with a hacked PayPal account.
Which is why when paying via PP they go by the address on the PP acc and no other.

Yes, we know it was a genuine error on your part. But at least you can contact your previous address to arrange to either pick it up or forward it on.

Yeah I knew that it would sound like I was a scammer, so that's why I said if it's not possible please cancel (and I'll reorder). I was very surprised when they said that they would contact UPS to re-route the parcel. I thought they would refuse and just cancel. They did ask for a copy of my ID to confirm my name/address. I'm just annoyed that after they said it wasn't a problem and they would contact UPS, they didn't and it got delivered anyway.