No delivery received - who is responsible?

a2mn1lt

I ordered two potted roses from Roots Plants and paid £6 for delivery (so no small amount).  The delivery was due 2 June and we received notification of the time slot from the delivery company DX.  I was in for the duration of this time slot, but nobody came and then I received an email saying that the roses had been delivered and left in the porch.  We don't have a porch and had asked for the roses to be left in our unlocked garage if nobody was in.  The roses have obviously been delivered to the wrong address.  We have driven around the locality to see if we can spot them, but we can't. I have tried to contact DX, but the recorded telephone message from their website says to chat online and the chat online says there is nobody available to help.  I have emailed them on their 'urgent' email and not received a response yet.  In the meantime, I contacted Roots Plants to say that the roses had not been delivered and they have today responded saying that they can't help and we need to contact the delivery company.  My opinion is that my contract is with Roots Plants and it's their responsibility to find out from DX where our roses were delivered to.  Could anyone advise on this. Thank you in anticipation. 

Aylesbury_Duck

You are correct.

km1500

Yes your contract is with Roots not the delivery company.

GrubbyGirl_2

you have no contract with the delivery company so they won't talk to you anyway.  Your contract is with the retailer.  Maybe take a pic of the front of your house showing there is no porch and send that to them

born_again

Is there a local facebook group?
If so post on there. Works well round us when something gets to the wrong address.

tightauldgit

Yep, risk doesnt transfer to you until the goods are in your possession (or an agent acting on your behalf) so until you have received the items then it's down to the seller to sort it out. 

Things do get delivered to the wrong addresses all the time - I've got a parcel here I haven't gotten round to re-delivering yet that's for the same number in a neighbouring street and it's not your responsibility as a buyer to deal with that. Also since you have no contract with the courier they have no obligation to talk to you or help you in any way. 

a2mn1lt

Thank you everybody. Since I posted my original question, the kind lady at the address the roses were erroneously delivered to has walked the roses round to us.  I advised Roots of this and that the roses were left at her house half a mile away and just chucked over the fence. Roots have emailed to apologise for the error on behalf of the DX courier and have refunded the postal charges, but nothing else . We would have expected a bit more compensation than this since we spent ages looking for these roses, both walking and driving around our neighbourhood to find them and then finally buying another gift for the intended person.  Am I just being daft?  My opinion is that the contract I had with Roots to deliver the roses to my address wasn't fulfilled, regardless of the fact that they contracted out the job to a third party.  Does anyone know what my rights are or am I entitled only to the postal charges back?  

Jonboy_1984

Section 13 of their terms of service excludes any liability for consequential damages of any kind, so you effectively agreed they won’t be liable for such costs when you placed the order.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Jonboy_1984 said:

Section 13 of their terms of service excludes any liability for consequential damages of any kind, so you effectively agreed they won’t be liable for such costs when you placed the order.

Not that OP has a claim, did you read the last sentence of Section 13?

MalMonroe

Hi, in my own extremely humble opinion, you can always ask for what you want.  Of course 'they' can always say no but I'd try.

If you think you deserve compensation for your inconvenience - and I'm inclined to agree - then I'd certainly ask them for some.

If they don't know that you want compensating, they aren't going to contact you.

Contact them and ask. See what they say. You may be pleasantly surprised. It has worked for me with BT, Octopus Energy, Sainsbury's groceries (online), Royal Mail (lost parcel) and countless other entities. But if you don't ask, they are mostly reluctant to come forward. 

Good luck. It's worth a try anyway and you won't have lost anything.     

a2mn1lt

Thank you to everybody who replied to my post.  I emailed them back to say that we didn't think they had offered adequate compensation and received an email this morning saying that they would refund the whole amount (roses and postage).  Of course, we have to wait 7 days for this to happen!  We're happy with that resolution and have told them so.  Took a bit of pushing, but at least they compensated us although it may have been the fact that I mentioned posting a review on Trust Pilot that clinched the matter. Thank you all again.