Music Magpie - MacBook return lost by Royal Mail, calling it fraud.

jrtandy

Hi all, I hope you're staying cool in the summer heat!

I'm looking to get advice on where I stand on what is quite understandably a stressful situation with Music Magpie.

I purchased a M1 MacBook Air a few weeks back from Music Magpie, upon receiving and using for a few hours, I quickly realised that I'm going to need a bit more power than what the Air could offer, so I organised a return.

I posted the return using the QR code provided by Music Magpie and dropped the package off at a Royal Mail depot, got a receipt and figured that would be that.

A few days later I hadn't heard from Music Magpie to say they've received the return, on tracking the number provided on the receipt it looked to be stuck at a depot in Leeds somewhere.

I got in touch with customer support who agreed that It looked to be lost, which then they forwarded on to their claims department for an investigation.

3 days later I get an email from Music Magpie that contained the following distressing statement: "...unfortunately, this order has been confirmed as fraud and as such we have calculated the valuation of this order as being £0.00, therefore, no sum of monies will be paid out against this order."

Understandably, Im absolutely shocked and sickened by the fact that they're saying I'm trying to commit fraud here, but I'm more concerned that I'm out £850.

I paid via PayPal and opened a case with them. How likely is it that this will succeed? Would there be any recourse from Music Magpie if the refund via PayPal is successful? and finally, what are my options if PayPal reject the refund? I'd be interested to know if you've had similar experiences.

TLDR; £850 MacBook return via their QR code has been lost, Music Magpie are calling it fraud, will my Paypal case succeed?

Thanks for reading,

Jordan

pinkshoes

I'm not sure PayPal case will be successful as it doesn't show it as being turned. You will need to make it clear to PayPal that THEY supplied the return postage so it is THEIR responsibility to chase the lost item.

Their own T&Cs state:

17.7 If the courier notifies us direct that a Package has been “Lost in Transit” (meaning that the Package can no longer be tracked or located by the courier for delivery to the customer) you will not be required to complete a ‘Letter of Denial’. We will conduct our own internal investigations and once we are satisfied that the Package cannot be located and delivered to you, we will contact you in writing to confirm that your Package has been Lost in Transit and provide you with payment of the Valuation in accordance with condition 17.8.

17.8 In calculating the value of any claim we shall accept no other valuations than our original value for the Items that you may be claiming for and under no circumstances do we accept any liability for any other loss, damage or compensation resulting from our return of your Item.

I would also keep contacting MusicMagpie to ask why it is fraud when you returned it as per their own T&Cs.

If PayPal fails, then you could take MusicMagpie to court...

Jenni_D

As above, if they arranged and paid for the return (which is probable if you used a QR code they provided), then liability for the goods transferred to them as soon as they were handed over to their agent.

mark_cycling00

What did the rest of the email say?

Eg. Did they receive a brick instead of the laptop? Or all the memory taken out?

Royal mail would take this very seriously

Why did they decide it was fraud?

jrtandy

mark_cycling00 said:

What did the rest of the email say?

Eg. Did they receive a brick instead of the laptop? Or all the memory taken out?

Royal mail would take this very seriously

Why did they decide it was fraud?

They didn't give a reason. And the parcel is lost and still stuck somewhere in their delivery network.

Here's the email:

Hello Jordan,   In relation to your Claim for order [Redacted] with the parcel tracking reference [Redacted].   In accordance with our terms & conditions relating to 14.5 and 14.7 musicMagpie has concluded its joint investigation with Royal Mail, unfortunately, this order has been confirmed as fraud and as such we have calculated the valuation of this order as being £0.00, therefore, no sum of monies will be paid out against this order.    Under section 14. paragraph 6 of our terms and conditions we shall accept no other valuation than our own for the items that you may be claiming for and under no circumstances do we accept any liability for any other loss, damage or compensation resulting from the use of our delivery services.   Regards, Claims & Information Security Department

Sandtree

I'd be going back to them and questioning the grounds for their decision

Jenni_D

Agreed. Remind them that the risk passed to them once the package was handed to their returns agent. (And if the goods are lost, how can they in any reasonable way assert that fraud has occurred?)

Olinda99

yes as above - the return is complete once you hand the package over to RM

I think.if they refuse to budge then either your CC if you paid that way or a LBA and small claims court

Jenni_D

OP paid using Paypal.

jrtandy

Thanks for the advice all, I have escalated the case to PayPal, citing that responsibility for the lost parcel lies with them. I emailed them about 2 days ago asking for their reasonings and I still have not heard back from them. I think I'm going to let the case run it's course then re assess the situation if that were to fail.

Jordan

Ergates

jrtandy said:

Thanks for the advice all, I have escalated the case to PayPal, citing that responsibility for the lost parcel lies with them. I emailed them about 2 days ago asking for their reasonings and I still have not heard back from them. I think I'm going to let the case run it's course then re assess the situation if that were to fail.

Jordan

Moreover - if the parcel has been lost, how can they determine it was fraud?  If they found the parcel and it was empty, then that might be an argument they could make, but if it's still lost that seems a strange decision.