Have I been scammed? Failed delivery fees?

mattham187

Hi all,

I'm feeling pretty down these last few days and think I've been scammed.

I ordered a pair of headphones from a well known online musical retailer, although never ordered from them before. The cost was £18 plus an extra £4.99 for delivery. All seemed well and got a text from a very well known delivery company saying they would be at mine on said day between 8:57 - 9:57. I waited in and decided to go work later. Still at 11am they hadn't arrived and no update from delivery service.

After the weekend I checked online and apparently my package was on it's way back to the retailer - without informing me or arranging a re-delivery! This particular delivery firm is usually pretty good at updating their customers, not this time.

Anyway long story short my postcode was wrong, well the last few digits, everything else including the address were fine, They kept it for two days over the weekend then sent it back. I called the retailer to ask why it was sent back before asking me and they said they did - they didn't I received nothing, not from the delivery firm or the retailer! They also tried to say I was lying, I admitted my mistake with the post code, it was for an old address in the same area.

The problem is, they then said they will charge me either a £10 return to sender fee or £15 redelivery fee...the item only cost £18 and the delivery was £4.99 this doesn't make sense? I opted for the refund but they took £15 anyway. I never received my product and have had £8 refunded...so I am down £15. I honestly don't know what to do, it's not really the money, it's more the principle and the feeling that I've been scammed.

On their website they do not mention anywhere about a failed delivery fee. There is a return fee of £10-£15 they say if you are not happy with the product. Although I never received the product! Have I been scammed? What rights do I have?

Thank you in advance for any help guys. I have never experienced anything like this before and have kind of lost my faith in online retailers.

km1500

My guess is that the £10 retrun fee is what the courier charges the company plus some element of admin.

Refund will be what you paid, less £10 (to return it) and less £4.99 (the outward postage) - both of which the retailer has to pay hence why they are deducting it.

mattham187

 km1500 said:

My guess is that the £10 retrun fee is what the courier charges the company plus some element of admin.

Refund will be what you paid, less £10 (to return it) and less £4.99 (the outward postage) - both of which the retailer has to pay hence why they are deducting it.

Thank you for the reply but surely this should be stated on their website, in their terms? I'm sure they can't just go randomly charging without prior warning, or am I wrong? Also I don't understand why they didn't just deliver the actual package to the address given? The postcode had a few digits wrong the address is correct, is this still my fault?

Aylesbury_Duck

Which retailer is it?

You shouldn't feel scammed, this won't have been a personal situation, it's just an unfortunate combination of your postcode error and their processes.

mattham187

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Which retailer is it?

You shouldn't feel scammed, this won't have been a personal situation, it's just an unfortunate combination of your postcode error and their processes.

Thank you for your words. And it's Anderton's, and delivery is DPD. Not sure if I was allowed to mention names on here or not? :S

sienew

mattham187 said:

Anyway long story short my postcode was wrong

Was this your mistake or theirs?

eskbanker

sienew said:

mattham187 said:

Anyway long story short my postcode was wrong

Was this your mistake or theirs?

From OP: 

mattham187 said:

I admitted my mistake with the post code, it was for an old address in the same area

cymruchris

As you entered the wrong address details - the post code is an integral part of the delivery system - I would say you'd only be able to request a goodwill gesture, but it's unlikely as your initial error caused the chain of events costing the retailer accordingly. If you baked a cake, but only left out the flour, but everything else was perfect - would you still have a decent cake to eat? It's not always the best experience when we get something wrong. I did something similar - with a £100 worth of clothing that went to a previous address. You'll have to keep a close eye on the details you're entering in future orders.

Retailers can't have a sentence that covers every single eventuality on their website - and if they did - would you have read them prior to ordering?

- If you have a dog we'll only deliver if it's locked up
- If you have more than 4 steps we won't bring it upstairs
- If you don't have a clear door number, we'll leave it on the street corner
etc
etc
etc

You'd soon stop reading as the list would become long and unmanageable. (Most people only read terms and conditions once something has gone wrong)

The error you made has caused a loss, and sadly it's you that has to foot the bill. 

mattyprice4004

mattham187 said:

 km1500 said:

My guess is that the £10 retrun fee is what the courier charges the company plus some element of admin.

Refund will be what you paid, less £10 (to return it) and less £4.99 (the outward postage) - both of which the retailer has to pay hence why they are deducting it.

Thank you for the reply but surely this should be stated on their website, in their terms? I'm sure they can't just go randomly charging without prior warning, or am I wrong? Also I don't understand why they didn't just deliver the actual package to the address given? The postcode had a few digits wrong the address is correct, is this still my fault?

We used to use DPD at work, and they do charge for returns like this. 

Ultimately the business had to pay this so you do too - you’ve admitted it’s your mistake so just take it in good grace and be a little more careful in future. 

The postcode is how the parcel is routed and these things are automated, so unfortunately yes it’s your fault. 

The address by definition is incorrect if you’ve used a completely random postcode. There’s only 6/7 digits in a postcode, so a few wrong means half the postcode is meaningless. 

custardy

DPD use predicta software. 
The parcels are scanned in and the route scheduled/put in order
So these details are important. People want cheap postage and with this comes less times to fix issues.
Contacting people and chasing up address issues takes time.