Compensation for goods damaged in transit

DominicM

I brought a John Lewis desk on eBay and elected to use a courier company to transport my item. It was damaged beyond repair in transit. An initial offer was made to cover the cost of the desk and half the transport costs, after a polite exchange explaining that paying for the privilege of having my property damaged beyond repair was unfair full transport cost refund was also offered. 

I have found an identical replacement for £10 less, the cost of transporting it is £26 more than the original cost. I have asked for the £16 difference to be refunded, the transport company are sticking with their original offer. 

Am I being unreasonable or unrealistic to expect this difference to be honoured? I am not looking to profit from this episode, apart from the inconvenience of not having a working desk I also had to take the damaged desk to my local tip for disposal which ate up an hour of my precious free time, not to mention the cost of the return journey.

Penguin_

As far as I know you have to be put back into the position you were before you actually bought the item which, given you got a full refund including the delivery costs, you have been.

Anything above that is down to the discretion of the company.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

If it could be demonstrated that the courier company were negligent you may have a claim for damages but due to the low amount it wouldn't be practical to enforce unfortunately. 

DominicM

Thanks for the advice. The desk was damaged in transit, it was not secured properly and broken beyond repair as a result. It was not treated with adequate care, to my mind that is negligence.

DominicM

My argument is that in obtaining an identical replacement I will be out of pocket due to the increased transport costs, had my original item been handled with care and delivered without damage I would not have needed to source the replacement. As I stated originally I am not seeking to profit merely to not be out of pocket.

mr_stripey

things get lost and damaged in transit. It happens. They have refunded what you paid so you are not out of pocket. Your time and hassle are not really quantifiable "losses" and are consequential and therefore not really the responsibility of the transport company.

If you get something out of them then all good, but I don't think it is reasonable or realistic to expect to do so

tightauldgit

The courier is only responsible for shipping the item you bought and compensating you if it is damaged. They aren't responsible for you replacing the damaged item.

You've been offered a full refund which puts you in the same position you were at before you bought the desk so yes I think it's unreasonable to expect any more than that.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

DominicM said:

Thanks for the advice. The desk was damaged in transit, it was not secured properly and broken beyond repair as a result. It was not treated with adequate care, to my mind that is negligence.

Couriers are in this grey area where they can poorly handle your goods and then claim it's just a part of the process that some will inevitably be lost or damaged and it's not their responsibility.

With damage it does often come down to packing but I assume this was a specialist courier who agreed to carry a fully assembled desk so any packing or such probably doesn't come in to it. 

It does sound like they were negligent and I can understand your request for the difference in acquiring the replacement but personally I would write it off and accept their current offer if they won't willingly cover the extra £16  

DominicM

On reflection I am going to bow to the inevitable and accept their offer based upon the wisdom of those who have been kind enough to respond to this post. I am a great believer in that if you don’t ask you don’t get. Whilst I will accept their offer my Trust Pilot review will not be effusive.

unholyangel

Penguin_ said:

As far as I know you have to be put back into the position you were before you actually bought the item which, given you got a full refund including the delivery costs, you have been.

Anything above that is down to the discretion of the company.

The primary position is actually to put them into the position they would have been in had the contract been performed correctly.

Only where that isn't possibly will they then look to put them into the position they would have been in had the contract not been entered into. 


But no one (in their right mind at least) is taking legal action over £16 and if they've said no, spending any amount of time on it would quickly make it an inefficient exercise.