Why is it so difficult to get things put right in the on-line world?

ajc269

Why is it so difficult to get things put right these days since it it is almost impossible to speak to a real person!

Two weeks ago, I ordered some new telephones from EE, paid using Paypal. Everything went though OK - except there was an error in the delivery postcode -it simply had *G8 instead of *G18 which is a location 30 miles away. The actual house and street address are correct. Delivery agents accept the postcode as gospel and will only deliver to the postcode, irrespective of the other information. The problem is that I did not put in this incorrect postcode, it came from some look-up file somewhere in the system. I have no access to the delivery address in the internal file that Paypal is using to produce the delivery label, it is not amendable via the account information I can access via the Paypal website. All the payment addresses are correct which is why the order went through OK.

The telephones have been bouncing around around various Post Office distribution centres for the past two weeks. I have put in a complaint to the PO and they say it is nothing to do with them, it is the responsibility of the supplier so contact EE. PO say they will eventually be returned to the supplier if they can't deliver. I  have contacted EE and they say they have fullfilled their obligations and sent it to the address 'I' specified.

I have tried contacting Paypal several times without success - the speak to a person option simply rings off and e-mail complaints produce  no reply. I'm at a loss to know what to do next!

tacpot12

Have you tried the same ordering process again to see if the incorrect postcode is visible anywhere? If you could get a screenshot showing that the correct address produces the incorrect postcode in the system, I think you would get further with EE.  

DullGreyGuy

ajc269 said:

Why is it so difficult to get things put right these days since it it is almost impossible to speak to a real person!

Two weeks ago, I ordered some new telephones from EE, paid using Paypal. Everything went though OK - except there was an error in the delivery postcode -it simply had *G8 instead of *G18 which is a location 30 miles away. The actual house and street address are correct. Delivery agents accept the postcode as gospel and will only deliver to the postcode, irrespective of the other information. The problem is that I did not put in this incorrect postcode, it came from some look-up file somewhere in the system. I have no access to the delivery address in the internal file that Paypal is using to produce the delivery label, it is not amendable via the account information I can access via the Paypal website. All the payment addresses are correct which is why the order went through OK.

The telephones have been bouncing around around various Post Office distribution centres for the past two weeks. I have put in a complaint to the PO and they say it is nothing to do with them, it is the responsibility of the supplier so contact EE. PO say they will eventually be returned to the supplier if they can't deliver. I  have contacted EE and they say they have fullfilled their obligations and sent it to the address 'I' specified.

I have tried contacting Paypal several times without success - the speak to a person option simply rings off and e-mail complaints produce  no reply. I'm at a loss to know what to do next!

So you have set the address in your PayPal account incorrectly or you gave EE the wrong address? 

There have been a number of cases on here where people have lived at "5 Church Street", they've gone to type in their address starting with the street name and selected a pre-completed option when it pops up without checking it wasnt one of the 1,407 other Church Streets in the country. Personally, I'm with the delivery companies and when using an address lookup I'd always type my postcode rather than street. 

Its less that they take it as gospel but that their automated distribution centres use the postcode to assign the parcel to the person with the appropriate route and they arent going to go 30 miles off route to deliver something to someone who made an error with their postcode. Most likely it's marked as "cannot find address" and so may be resent another day in case the next driver of that route is more competent. 

Hopefully, the courier will ultimately give up on trying to deliver it, rather than delivering it to the closest match on their route, and so will go back to EE to restart the process. In the interim need to correct your address wherever you've got it wrong. 

pinkshoes

When you pay with PayPal, you can "store" addresses that you'd like to send things to.

Log into PayPal, click on the "settings" cog, then you should be able to see addresses that you have listed. You need to check that your address is correct. 

Did it not show you just before you paid the address it would be sent to? Or was the address selection a separate system where you had to select one yourself from EE order page?

Either way, you have no contract with the PO, so complaining to them won't get you anywhere as it's not their fault - they're just following instructions. Eventually it will be returned to EE, you can then get a refund, and then can start the whole order again with the correct address.

eskbanker

ajc269 said:

The telephones have been bouncing around around various Post Office distribution centres for the past two weeks. I have put in a complaint to the PO and they say it is nothing to do with them...

No point in dealing with Post Office, as they're right that it's nothing to do with them -- chances are that if the merchant uses Royal Mail, they would also correctly point out that your contract is with the sender.

robatwork

You're right in that it is difficult to get through to a real person. Even more difficult to get through to a helpful real person who doesn't feel like they're 5000 miles away.

But the reason they're not terribly helpful is that phones are probably the most "not delivered correctly" item as they are so attractive to thieves both within and outwith the postal/order fulfilment system.

So EE's first reaction will be sceptical. You need to keep on to EE, with evidence and letters (written and posted). Your contract is with EE and until the order is delivered, the contract is not fulfilled, despite what EE may tell you. 

Bradden

robatwork said:

You're right in that it is difficult to get through to a real person. Even more difficult to get through to a helpful real person who doesn't feel like they're 5000 miles away.

But the reason they're not terribly helpful is that phones are probably the most "not delivered correctly" item as they are so attractive to thieves both within and outwith the postal/order fulfilment system.

So EE's first reaction will be sceptical. You need to keep on to EE, with evidence and letters (written and posted). Your contract is with EE and until the order is delivered, the contract is not fulfilled, despite what EE may tell you. 

It also seems that people ordering multiple phones tend to go missing form the posts I've seen on here. 

ajc269

My Paypal account lists the address but does not provide  any facilty to change it - that's the problem otherwise I could have corrected it easily. The only way I can see of doing it is to delete the entire Paypal account and re-set it up again but that is a lot of work with other associated links.

The error is definately in the Paypal lookup file - I have tried adding it to another account and when I select the drop-down, it is the correct Postcode but the postcode entered into the file is incorrect m- don't ask me how this happens! That's why I need to speak to somone.

When I use Paypal, I always enter the postcode manually but some websites overwrite this with the postcode they extract from the Paypal file!

ajc269

Finally  a response from Paypal with a way to correct the postcode - they will do it manually. Still no help in gettting the phones though!

tacpot12

One option is the Data Protection Act. You have a right to have erroneous information (such as your address corrected). You might try that route, and they try the Information Commissioner if this does not result in the address being changed. 

If you can see the incorrect address is stored, and not entered as part of the ordering process, the error goes back to when the PayPal account was set-up. Only setting up a new account would confirm that there is a problem with the address lookup, but I can see no value to setting up a new account with an incorrect address. It would be better to persevere to get the address corrected. 

km1500

not a criticism or anything but it's always surprises me why people pay with Paypal when they get much better protection paying with a credit card for example