Hi All,

I will keep this short,

we had a delivery from amazon,

the driver damaged our car,

we complained and filled out an online claims form from a company called ARC claims based in New Jersey,

they agreed to pay for the damage but are actively stalling payment (Various reasons).

I have Googled this company and many people are still waiting for payment,

i am considering taking amazon uk to a small claims court,

any advice would be great.

Many Thanks.

You say that you had a delivery from Amazon – but who did you actually purchase from? Meaning who organised the delivery?

we purchased through amazon..

So if you purchased from Amazon and Amazon organised the delivery, I really don't understand why you have bothered to start making a claim against a company in New Jersey.

From a quick look at ARC website they are a claims management company who manage claims against self-insured trucking companies. So I'd guess the delivery company was the UK subsidiary of one of the large, US owned companies, UPS or someone like that, and ARC are acting for the delivery company.

Did you get the details of the delivery vehicle that caused the damage? If so a small claims court action against them (the UK delivery company) might be a better bet.

But I'm wondering if it's premature to start any legal action right this minute given that you say they have agreed to pay you. Can you give more details about ARC "actively stalling payment (Various bull**** reasons)."? How long since they agreed to pay you?

I'm probably going to disagree here.

There is no reason why you should have to tolerate unreasonable delays from some third-party courier company or their claims management company.

This is a bit like purchasing a laptop computer from Currys and then when it goes wrong being told to go directly to Dell or to Asus to get it fixed.

This is Amazon managing to distance themselves from the hassle of having to field complaints themselves and it also relieves them from the responsibility of having to take it up with the courier to ensure better quality.

If you purchase from Amazon UK then your complaint is clearly against Amazon UK. You are being fobbed off and you have already told us that you have found many other people who are similarly being fobbed off and are being kept waiting by this claims management company.

The way to deal with it for a very rapid solution is to send a letter of claim to Amazon. After 14 days issue the papers. If there are problems with the Amazon courier then it is for Amazon to sort it out.

By the way, beginning a claim against Amazon will not cancel or delay any possible payment by the claims management company. If anything, someone from Amazon might get onto the courier company or the claims management company and demand to know what on earth is going on. You may find suddenly that the claims management company will pay out – although you should maintain your claim until you also receive your costs from Amazon.

Hi,

they agreed to pay almost straight after we claimed which was 6 weeks ago,

they claimed that they had transferred funds to my account which they had not,

they then said that my IBAN number was wrong

the latest was that they would wire the money in a day or two which was a week ago,

i have contacted the amazon uk management team who are going to contact ARC claims to find out why there has been a delay

i am going to wait a few days and see, if i get no joy the i will try a letter of claim.

Thank you both very much for the advice.

I didn't explain fully why I think bringing a small claims court against Amazon would achieve nothing. Simply it is that I can't see how Amazon would have any legal liability for the damage to OP's car. As far as I can see the Consumer Rights Act rules (in this context) only apply to the goods themselves. If the goods themselves are not delivered or are damaged by the delivery company then Amazon are liable under CRA. But that isn't what happened, the correct goods were delivered undamaged and OP has no complaint about the goods themselves.

The issue here is that the delivery driver negligently damaged OP's car. I do not believe consumer rights law says anything about these circumstances or makes the seller liable for the damage. (I'm no expert on CRA, happy to be corrected if I've missed it.) The delivery company is an independent contractor and under general principles of agency law Amazon would not normally be responsible for the tortious acts (ie the negligent driving) of an independent contractor.

Pursuing it with Amazon as a customer service complaint is an excellent idea though. Whatever the law of agency says Amazon will want to protect their reputation and are by far best placed to put pressure on the delivery company (via ARC) to pay up.

It doesn't have to be the consumer rights act. The consumer rights act hasn't supplanted or replaced or amended the Common Law in any way. It simply conferred additional rights.

We need to get away from this fixation with the CRA. There is nothing magic about it. It is simply an extra set of rules which can be rather helpful in the right circumstances.

The contract with Amazon is a double contract. The principal contract is to purchase the goods and the collateral contract is to deliver them. Amazon are responsible for the delivery and also for anything that goes wrong. The most obvious way in which the delivery could go wrong is that the goods would either not arrive or would arrive damaged – but clearly there are other ways in which they could be delivery problems such as damaging the purchasers house or gate – or in this instance the motorcar.

I have absolutely no doubt that in this case on the basis of what we have been told there is a cause of action against Amazon and the chances of success are much better than 95%.

I didn't explain fully why I think bringing a small claims court against Amazon would achieve nothing. Simply it is that I can't see how Amazon would have any legal liability for the damage to OP's car.

 

The issue here is that the delivery driver negligently damaged OP's car.

 

The delivery company is an independent contractor and under general principles of agency law Amazon would not normally be responsible for the tortious acts (ie the negligent driving) of an independent contractor.

 

Pursuing it with Amazon as a customer service complaint is an excellent idea though. Whatever the law of agency says Amazon will want to protect their reputation and are by far best placed to put pressure on the delivery company (via ARC) to pay up.

Amazon tends to use it's own delivery drivers, or drivers who work through Amazon Flex, and other companies rarely (DPD/RM). I can definitely see how Amazon would be liable for the actions of those who they employ directly/indirectly.

thread title updated

HI All,

After contacting Amazon management team UK the claims company promptly paid!

Thank you everyone.

Well done. Thanks for the update.