Yet Another Parcel2Go Nightmare

gjsutcliffe · 24 January 2017 at 4:47PM

I'll start by saying - NEVER EVER BOTHER USING THESE GUYS.

I sent a set of golf clubs from London to Cardiff (my own personal set) so I could play over Christmas. They were picked up on the 20th of December from my offices and haven't been seen since. The last track of this was leaving their London depot on the 20th.

These things happen and Christmas is a busy time, so I put a claim in on the 6th of January to get them to look for it or to declare it was lost so I can claim this back from the company (I have most of the receipts for the clubs expect for the irons which are 1 years old).

We get to the 24th of January and it's still "under investigation" and I'm just getting fed the same old garbage from all of their team that it's been "raised with ParcelForce", it's been "escalated with ParcelForce", it's "under further investigation" etc etc. In the meantime, I've managed to speak with ParcelForce who have conducted 2 searches of the London and Newport (it's next destination) and they haven't found it (bare in mind this is a BIG SET OF GOLF CLUBS IN A BIG BLACK BAG).

It's pretty obvious there are two things going on here:

1) Parcel2Go know that it's lost and are just longing the process out as the claim is £1,250+
2) Their customer service department is so appalling that it's taken them 18 days to do a search and they still can't find it or even bothered to try.

When do I proceed with this to a small claims court?

It's been over 30 days since they've lost my golf clubs and over 18 days since I've made the claim.

Thanks for you help :j

mrcol1000 · 24 January 2017 at 6:01PM

Most important, did you declare the correct value and pay for extra compensation so they were covered for the full amount?

gjsutcliffe · 24 January 2017 at 6:29PM

First: The correct value is irrelevent as it doesn't effect the price of the delivery it was left as default.

Secondly: I did not insure them further as the clubs were in a "travel bag" which is designed to be taken on airplanes, so there is no risk of damage. Why should I have to insure myself incase a company doesn't do it's job correctly? And then have the cheek to try and charge me £61 ON TOP to cover myself incase they didn't do their job properly.

The fact of the matter is, the clubs weren't even attempted to be delivered. In fact, to my knowledge from their system, they didn't even leave London. They simply can not hide behind their T&C's and wash their hands of any responsibility as they have broken our contract of services provided. They have quite clearly failed to deliver a service and in the meantime they have lost it, which means they have to fork out for it all, if in fact it's lost. You're more than welcome to say "well you're stupid you should of insured yourself" like you have on other posts regarding this issue but I have already sought legal advice and I have a case.

What my question was was when would be the best time to send a letter to their legal department?

mrcol1000 · 24 January 2017 at 7:00PM

If you have already sought legal advice then you should go ahead and sue them. As you will be very lucky if they settle your claim for £1000+ if you never paid to insure them for this amount.

Wanderingpomm · 24 January 2017 at 7:30PM

gjsutcliffe wrote: »

First: The correct value is irrelevent as it doesn't effect the price of the delivery it was left as default.

Secondly: I did not insure them further as the clubs were in a "travel bag" which is designed to be taken on airplanes, so there is no risk of damage. Why should I have to insure myself incase a company doesn't do it's job correctly? And then have the cheek to try and charge me £61 ON TOP to cover myself incase they didn't do their job properly.

The fact of the matter is, the clubs weren't even attempted to be delivered. In fact, to my knowledge from their system, they didn't even leave London. They simply can not hide behind their T&C's and wash their hands of any responsibility as they have broken our contract of services provided. They have quite clearly failed to deliver a service and in the meantime they have lost it, which means they have to fork out for it all, if in fact it's lost. You're more than welcome to say "well you're stupid you should of insured yourself" like you have on other posts regarding this issue but I have already sought legal advice and I have a case.

What my question was was when would be the best time to send a letter to their legal department?

It does matter if you declared the correct value as that forms part of the contract and is how much you are covered for if things go wrong which happens often with delivery companies. Looking at their website standard seems to be £20. Above that it is at your own risk and you agreed to that when you entered into the contract. The othe problem with is parcel2go are the agent and not the delivery company so you are dealing with a third party who have less power to find lost items within a third party supply chain

lucy03 · 25 January 2017 at 2:49AM

gjsutcliffe wrote: »

The fact of the matter is, the clubs weren't even attempted to be delivered. In fact, to my knowledge from their system, they didn't even leave London. They simply can not hide behind their T&C's and wash their hands of any responsibility as they have broken our contract of services provided. They have quite clearly failed to deliver a service and in the meantime they have lost it, which means they have to fork out for it all, if in fact it's lost. You're more than welcome to say "well you're stupid you should of insured yourself" like you have on other posts regarding this issue but I have already sought legal advice and I have a case.

What my question was was when would be the best time to send a letter to their legal department?

The carrier has a duty of care to make reasonable efforts to deliver parcels. If it transpired they had chucked 500 parcels into the local river then there's clear negligence and the carrier could find itself liable for considerably in excess of their maximum compensation claim in the terms and conditions.

But losses and breakages do occur with parcel delivery companies, and in such cases they should pay out the value, or less in the case of over-valued items, which the sender has identified the items to be worth. I'd suggest that they should return the cost of the postage as well, since the delivery failed.

I'm surprised your legal advice is indicating that a claim can be made for significantly in excess of the declared insurance value, but on that basis I'd send Parcel2Go a letter before action and give them 28 days to reply. I'd suggest that a court would consider that time-frame reasonable, unless Parcel2Go ask for more time.

bxboards · 25 January 2017 at 10:00AM

I don't see what the poster has to loose by issuing a Final Letter Before Action, then a court claim.

I think it would be an interesting test case - I have often thought it odd and I can't think of many other services, where you pay a fee for a service, and you are offered the chance to pay an additional fee (often many times the service cost) if the service you paid for fails to deliver.

Especially in the case of loss where its fairly cut and dried. Bottom line is, if the item enters a depot, then never comes out, or is never scanned again and can't be located it has almost certainly been stolen I would have thought? Damage is a different matter, as damage can be due to carelessness packing. But in loss cases, the idea of paying an extra insurance fee to cover yourself if the courier loses or steals it, I think has a good chance of court success, as when you look at in in that context it's hard to defend the insurance add-on.

PS: I use Parcel2Go without problems for their DPD or UPS service, but never pay the extra insurance, as it makes it totally uneconomical vs Royal Mail Special Delivery prices with cover up to 500 built in.

martindow · 25 January 2017 at 11:51AM

bxboards wrote: »

I think it would be an interesting test case - I have often thought it odd and I can't think of many other services, where you pay a fee for a service, and you are offered the chance to pay an additional fee (often many times the service cost) if the service you paid for fails to deliver.

I think P2G will say that they offer carriage of an item with £20 insurance cover and then offer extra insurance cover if you choose to pay for it. If you don't pay extra you won't be covered. Unless the parcel company can be shown to have been negligent I can't see much likelihood of success (unless P2G ignore the claim and you win by default).

In the same way if I tried to claim from Royal Mail for a bundle of £20 notes I sent first class they would turn down the claim on the basis that I should have paid more to send by Special Delivery which has insurance for cash.

bxboards · 25 January 2017 at 11:59AM

martindow wrote: »

Unless the parcel company can be shown to have been negligent I can't see much likelihood of success (unless P2G ignore the claim and you win by default).

I would argue that as a parcel company's raison d'etre is to deliver parcels, if something just vanishes in a depot never to be seen again, prima facie there may be evidence of negligence.

I think it would be a very interesting test case. I suspect they might not want to defend it, and would quietly settle. Certainly for the cost of a stamp and the 25 quid Moneyclaim fee, I can see no really incentive not to try.

gjsutcliffe · 25 January 2017 at 1:48PM

That's my main point about this.

I can understand if a package gets damaged in transit, these things happen. But my package was in a heavy duty travel bag, designed to be picked up, thrown around and put on to airplanes etc, so I chose not to pay £61 EXTRA for insurance (5x more than what the actual delivery cost, so that just shows how this company makes its money)

My point is, and the same with my advice that I've been given, is that they have fundamentally broken their agreement with me as they haven't even attempted to deliver the service I've paid for (pick up my package and take it to a destination) and have ultimately lost or had my package stolen while under their control.

I shouldn't have to insure myself incase a company doesn't do the job which I've paid for them to do. If I did pay for the extra insurance, would they let me have the £61 back if they did do their job? I highly doubt it as there mark up on insurance is probably where they make most of their money.

mrcol1000 · 25 January 2017 at 2:08PM

The thing is that if you read all those terms and conditions that you click the box to say you agree to and don't read, it will say that they will only compensate you for a loss parcel upto what you insure it for. That is all couriers and courier brokers, not just Parcel2Go. So you have agreed to them carrying your parcel based on these terms.

Does your car insurance company refund you at the end of the year if you do not make a claim? Insurance is a waste of money until you need to claim.

Yet Another Parcel2Go Nightmare

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free