Item sent to wrong address - no refund or replacement

Buzzzcut

Hi Team,

A subtle one here, I've obv made up the addresses below. 

- I live at 10 Rainy Road, London, N22 4RT
- There is another identical streetname but with a diferent postcode 10 Rainy Road, London, W14 3EZ.
- I ordered an item online but somehow mistyped the postcode, taking the W from this other address and the rest from mine - W22 4RT.
- This postcode doesn't exist, the company probably looked up the 10 Rainy Road and added the wrong "correct" postcode - W14 3EZ. 
- Royal Mail sent me a "successful delivery" note with a photo to the wrong address - I can see from the photo they've used the wrong "correct" postcode.

I emailed the company but they said "go and pick it up, there's nothing we can do as we can't redeliver or change addresses after posting".  I can't go and pick it up as it's 15 miles away, I don't have physical ability, it would cost me £10 and time etc.

I can't contact the other person as I don't have any details apart from the postal address - I'm not going to write a letter explaining the situation - besides, the other address looks like some faceless block of flats with a gated entrance, I have no guarantee they'll even be in.  

What are my options here - I paid via Paypal, can I get a chargeback?  Surely this has to be against Trading Standards, I've paid for an item that I haven't received. Why they didn't contact me via phone or email to confirm my actual postcode I don't know - after all the one I entered was only 1 letter away from my actual postcode, unlike the other one they actually used.

I can't really afford to lose £50 like this but they seem to be washing their hands of me.  Hopefully the other person will simply return the package and all will get refunded, but I can't take that risk.

Thanks for any advice - Buzz

born_again

Non receipt will no doubt see retailer rejecting as they have proof of delivery. 

Nothing to do with trading Std's as you said you entered the post code incorrectly 🤷‍♀️So company have carried out your instructions.

Brie

If you are lucky the gated community gate keeper will spot that you don't live in the complex and return the item to the seller.  I'd wait a couple of days and check if this has happened.

Alderbank

It's not against Trading Standards.

...but the Consumer Rights Act says it is the trader's problem until the goods come into the physical possession of you or a person identified by you to take possession of the goods.

We don't know what the trader's contract is with the Post Office but if you or I take a parcel to the local Post Office the counter clerk checks the post code before accepting the parcel, to prevent items being sent to a non-existent post code. I agree with you that for the parcel to be accepted, the trader must have decided to 'correct' the post code and faced with a choice of two, picked the wrong one.
He should instead have contacted you to confirm your address.

If he can't recover the parcel from that block of flats (and it is his problem to do that, not yours) he should refund you or send out another one.

p00hsticks

The company wasn't Ted Baker by any chance ?
Received parcel that's not mine - should have gone to another town! — MoneySavingExpert Forum

RefluentBeans

When did you realise you typed the wrong postcode in? What did the retailer put on the package - the incorrect address or the ‘assumed’ correct address? 

The ‘right’ thing to do would be to contact you first to confirm the address. But if the retailer just printed what you gave them, and then Royal Mail inferred where the package was meant to go then I don’t think the retailer has done anything wrong. If the retailer assumed the correct address is the one with the postcode beginning with W instead of N, then I think there’s a stronger argument. 

As others have said - the consumer rights act does say the trader has the responsibility to get the goods to you; but I do wonder how that would hold up in court if you test it by sending it to the wrong address. There’s certainly a debate on consumers giving wrong details and whether that constitutes a failure on retailer or consumer and who should be responsible for the loss.

PayPal may or may not refund you - their policies aren’t always clear, and very situational. And in any case, it doesn’t ‘resolve’ the issue as the solution isn’t a legally binding agreement - and either side can still pursue legal action (if you get a chargeback - the retailer can still argue that you owe them money and take you to court for it). 

Aylesbury_Duck

Buzzzcut said:

Hi Team,

A subtle one here, I've obv made up the addresses below. 

- I live at 10 Rainy Road, London, N22 4RT
- There is another identical streetname but with a diferent postcode 10 Rainy Road, London, W14 3EZ.
- I ordered an item online but somehow mistyped the postcode, taking the W from this other address and the rest from mine - W22 4RT.
- This postcode doesn't exist, the company probably looked up the 10 Rainy Road and added the wrong "correct" postcode - W14 3EZ. 
- Royal Mail sent me a "successful delivery" note with a photo to the wrong address - I can see from the photo they've used the wrong "correct" postcode.

I emailed the company but they said "go and pick it up, there's nothing we can do as we can't redeliver or change addresses after posting".  I can't go and pick it up as it's 15 miles away, I don't have physical ability, it would cost me £10 and time etc.

I can't contact the other person as I don't have any details apart from the postal address - I'm not going to write a letter explaining the situation - besides, the other address looks like some faceless block of flats with a gated entrance, I have no guarantee they'll even be in.  

What are my options here - I paid via Paypal, can I get a chargeback?  Surely this has to be against Trading Standards, I've paid for an item that I haven't received. Why they didn't contact me via phone or email to confirm my actual postcode I don't know - after all the one I entered was only 1 letter away from my actual postcode, unlike the other one they actually used.

I can't really afford to lose £50 like this but they seem to be washing their hands of me.  Hopefully the other person will simply return the package and all will get refunded, but I can't take that risk.

Thanks for any advice - Buzz

That seems an unnecessarily stubborn approach when it's probably a good way of resolving the problem.

Trading Standards should just dismiss this if you were to seek their advice.  Please don't waste their time when their extremely limited resources are deployed on much more serious scams that vulnerable people are dealing with, especially a problem of your own creation.  We all make administrative errors occasionally, but you seem to have dismissed a cheap and reasonable attempt at resolving it because...?

Alderbank

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Buzzzcut said:

Hi Team,

A subtle one here, I've obv made up the addresses below. 

- I live at 10 Rainy Road, London, N22 4RT
- There is another identical streetname but with a diferent postcode 10 Rainy Road, London, W14 3EZ.
- I ordered an item online but somehow mistyped the postcode, taking the W from this other address and the rest from mine - W22 4RT.
- This postcode doesn't exist, the company probably looked up the 10 Rainy Road and added the wrong "correct" postcode - W14 3EZ. 
- Royal Mail sent me a "successful delivery" note with a photo to the wrong address - I can see from the photo they've used the wrong "correct" postcode.

I emailed the company but they said "go and pick it up, there's nothing we can do as we can't redeliver or change addresses after posting".  I can't go and pick it up as it's 15 miles away, I don't have physical ability, it would cost me £10 and time etc.

I can't contact the other person as I don't have any details apart from the postal address - I'm not going to write a letter explaining the situation - besides, the other address looks like some faceless block of flats with a gated entrance, I have no guarantee they'll even be in.  

What are my options here - I paid via Paypal, can I get a chargeback?  Surely this has to be against Trading Standards, I've paid for an item that I haven't received. Why they didn't contact me via phone or email to confirm my actual postcode I don't know - after all the one I entered was only 1 letter away from my actual postcode, unlike the other one they actually used.

I can't really afford to lose £50 like this but they seem to be washing their hands of me.  Hopefully the other person will simply return the package and all will get refunded, but I can't take that risk.

Thanks for any advice - Buzz

 We all make administrative errors occasionally, but you seem to have dismissed a cheap and reasonable attempt at resolving it because...?

I don't want to put words into the OP's mouth, but the OP might reply:

'I have have dismissed this attempt at resolving it because the goods don't belong to me. I don't feel I have any rights to tell the occupant of W14 3EZ to send somebody else's property to a third party they know nothing about. Doubtless they will think it is one of those well-known scams where they receive unsolicited goods, pass them on to a stranger then get a demand from the rightful owner to pay for them.
Section 29 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 is very clear that those goods belong to the seller until they come into my physical possession.'

Okell

Buzzzcut said:

Hi Team,

A subtle one here, I've obv made up the addresses below. 

- I live at 10 Rainy Road, London, N22 4RT
- There is another identical streetname but with a diferent postcode 10 Rainy Road, London, W14 3EZ.
- I ordered an item online but somehow mistyped the postcode, taking the W from this other address and the rest from mine - W22 4RT.
- This postcode doesn't exist, the company probably looked up the 10 Rainy Road and added the wrong "correct" postcode - W14 3EZ. 
- Royal Mail sent me a "successful delivery" note with a photo to the wrong address - I can see from the photo they've used the wrong "correct" postcode....

Have you any proof that the postcode you supplied to the seller was the invalid "W22 4RT" rather than the valid "W14 3EZ"?  eg have you an order confirmation or any other reply from the seller showing the postcode you gave them?

The reason I ask is that if you supplied a non-existent or "impossible" postcode then I'm inclined to think that the seller should have got back to you to confirm what it should have been.  However, if you did give them the wrong - but valid postcode - then I think you have a problem.  I'd normally be one of the first to agree that the seller is responsible for the goods until delivered into the physical possession of the consumer, but I can't see how this works if the consumer supplies the wrong delivery address in the first place.

How did you supply the postcode?  If it was selected from a drop-down box I don't see how you could have selected a non-existent code.  If you simply typed it or wrote it down, I don't see how you could have got part of it wrong and part of it right...

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

RefluentBeans said:

The ‘right’ thing to do would be to contact you first to confirm the address. But if the retailer just printed what you gave them, and then Royal Mail inferred where the package was meant to go then I don’t think the retailer has done anything wrong. If the retailer assumed the correct address is the one with the postcode beginning with W instead of N, then I think there’s a stronger argument. 

Worth noting the courier is acting as an agent for the trader to fulfil their obligations so whilst you could argue printing what was given means the retailer themselves hasn't done anything wrong it does beg the question of whether Royal Mail has done anything wrong which would ultimately be the retailer's responsibility. 

On the one hand Royal Mail are pretty good by attempting to get a parcel to the correct address, on the other if a parcel isn't correctly addressed should it be returned to sender rather than guessing which address the parcel should go to? 

When I was running a business incorrect addresses info was a real pain and in the end every order was checked against the Royal Mail database to ensure it was correct. Most places use a postcode look up during Checkout but in my case sales were through eBay who didn't offer that facility so I was stuck wasting time checking everything. 

If a customer has entered a postcode that doesn't exist or doesn't match the rest of the address I'd hope a retailer would have something to combat this issue. If a customer enters a valid address that is just not where they live obviously the retailer isn't to know. 

I guess this comes down to the old passing of risk discussion but with the OP giving an invalid address the retailer not picking up this could perhaps give the OP a better position.  

Grumpy_chap

Alderbank said:

We don't know what the trader's contract is with the Post Office but if you or I take a parcel to the local Post Office the counter clerk checks the post code before accepting the parcel, to prevent items being sent to a non-existent post code. I agree with you that for the parcel to be accepted, the trader must have decided to 'correct' the post code and faced with a choice of two, picked the wrong one.

Buzzzcut said:

- This postcode doesn't exist, the company probably looked up the 10 Rainy Road and added the wrong "correct" postcode - W14 3EZ. 

I don't necessarily think that the postal service would work in that way for a business dispatching multiple parcels (which may be collected from the trading premises rather than dropped off at the Post Office counter).  It is quite plausible that there was no verification of a valid post code and no requirement for the trader to "correct" the post code.

(The situation when an individual takes one parcel to the local Post Office and the postcode is verified is quite probably different to how commercial post is managed - the individual is quite likely deemed as owed a greater duty of care than a commercial sender.)

I do not know for certain, but my understanding of the Royal Mail system is that everything is automated and data machine read. 
What I suspect is that the parcel arrives at the local sorting office to the retailer and is then directed to the appropriate local sorting office for "final mile".  This is probably done on just the starting part of the post code "N" or "W" in this case.
Once the parcel arrives at the "W" post code sorting office, the machines there will try to sort to the remainder of the post code and assign for delivery.  Because it is suspected that the full post code does not exist as written, the machines will spit this parcel out for manual intervention.  This is quite possibly the first manual intervention that there is in the delivery.
The manual individual looking may well know that there is a "10 Rainy Road" just around the corner, so that is where the parcel goes.
It is possible that the manual intervention requires a check on the post code but if that post code returns as invalid, the individual needs to make a best assessment to deliver to the correct destination based upon the other information available.  That still ends up as the "10 Rainy Road" in the "W" post code area.
I don't think it would be reasonable for the individual to be required to seek an appropriate post code match based upon any digit in the written post code being incorrect and assessing what the alternative options could be that give a valid post code and match the street address.
I don't think it would be reasonable for the individual to need to seek a further resolution if there is a "10 Rainy Road" in the post code area "W".

I am also surprised by the posters suggesting that the liability here could / should lie with the retailer and / or the courier when there is a clear and accepted error that has been made by the consumer.

The most pragmatic solution would be for the OP to attend the address where the parcel has been delivered, or otherwise make contact with the individual at that address and seek to recover the parcel that way.  The OP has stated they are not prepared to write to the address where the parcel has been delivered to.  The alternative to the OP seeking to collect the parcel from the place where it has been delivered would be for the OP to forfeit the value paid £50.