Hi All,

I purchased Parcel Force 24 hour service for a package to be collected from me on the 21st December for delivery on 24th.

It was a bottle of whiskey, inside a gift box, plus three bottles of wine, each separately bubble wrapped. They were then placed in an amazon shipping box with a layer of thick bubble wrap on top and bottom and some shipping paper filling any gaps to restrict movement and sealed with brown packaging tape.

On Monday 24th the items were not marked as out for deliver - despite being marked as having arrived at the depot at 2am on the Saturday.

I called on Monday afternoon to be told they didn't know why it wasn't out for delivery but would contact the depot to see if someone could go and collect it and would call me back. No one called back.

On Thursday 27th I then called again and got transferred to the depot and told by the depot that they could not find the package. They asked for a description and the contents and would call me back.

A couple of hours later with no call back I then called again and got told they were looking for it.

My parents, who the package was being shipped to, then went to the depot to see if they could collect it. They were handed a box that looks like a box that reems of paper comes in. the box had no bubble wrap and inside was three bottles of wine, still in the sealed gift bags, but no bottle of whisky.

When they sent me pictures of what they received I was surprised that it was a completely different box to what I shipped it in.

On the 28th I submitted a claim for missing items and had a lengthy conversation with their online chat. Was told they would investigate it and within three hours of the conversation the claim was rejected and marked as "insufficient packaging"

No mentioned of the fact it had been repackaged with an item missing and no mention of the multiple phone calls while they supposedly looked for my package only to suddenly find it when my folks showed up at their door? All seemed very suspicious to me and the claim I had not packaged it well enough is complete rubbish.

Anyone any idea where I stand on with this? they have already rejected my claim and there doesn't seem to be any way to appeal what appears, to me at least, that someone opened my package and nicked bottle of whiskey out of it and then hurriedly repacked the stuff they didn't want in whatever box they had lying around the office.

Thanks for any advice from anyone with some experience with Parcel Force!

Hi, this is just my opinion.

For ParcelForce to claim there was insufficient packaging, they should have some evidence to prove this. In my opinion, this is a get out by them whenever someone makes a claim.

There are other threads on here regarding parcel companies (Parcel2Go) being the main one but the similarities are the same.

No doubt somewhere on their website is a section of prohibited items which they say can't be delivered by them (did you mention what was in the package?) but this does not override your consumer rights. They agreed to accept your parcel and you paid for them to do so. They are in breach of contract.

I used to work in a parcels warehouse many,many years ago and they way I saw parcels being treated-including theft- was so bad, I resigned. Even though ParcelForce probably use automated systems to route parcels, they still have to be handled by a human.

Bankfodder is the best to advise on this but I would be inclined to send ParcelForce a Letter Before Action giving them 14 days to compensate you for their actions, you will sue them. Do not send the letter if you are not prepared to follow through with the threat.