Settled. Declared value, cost of postage + MCOL fee. Shame they make you come this far before settling. Thanks for your help BankFodder, know anything about EU261? I have an unanswered post on the travel forum relating to Lufthansa...

Does anyone have any advice/suggestions on this one?

Thank you, great advice! What about my inaccuracy? Namely under declaring the value?

Yes, that's right.

Here is their rejection, so it seems I incorrectly states the value as £18, my receipts show otherwise, so I can prove the correct value. Furthermore, they claim their terms limit their liability to £20 (point 22.3 below), this is correct, I just checked, but it is in contradiction to their advertising, e.g. here, which states £25 minimum cover (and is the reason I claimed £25). Their rejection: Why they disagree with the claim 1. If any part of the Particulars of Claim are not expressly admitted or denied below, such parts are denied by the Defendant entirely. 2. The Defendant is and was at all material times a company limited by shares in the business of providing delivery services for business to business, business to consumer and consumer to consumer. The Defendant operates “myhermes.co.uk” which is a website that can be used to order delivery services from the business of the Defendant operated under the ‘myHermes’ brand. 3. On or around 10 December 2018, the Claimant entered into an agreement with the Defendant for the use of its myHermes delivery services. 4. The agreement was governed by the Defendant’s standard terms and conditions (the “Contract”). 5. The Claimant confirmed before completing the Contract that he had read and accepted the Defendant’s terms and conditions. 6. The Claimant stated that the parcel contained a ‘Roof drain’ (the “Parcel”). 7. The Claimant stated that the Parcel was valued at £18.00. 8. In consideration of the Defendant providing the delivery services, the Claimant paid the sum of £3.59 (including VAT). 9. On or around 10 December 2018, in anticipation of delivery to XXXXXXXXXXX, Claimant dropped the Parcel off at one of the Defendant’s ParcelShops. 10. The last tracking point for the Parcel was on 18 December 2018 at one of the Defendants depots. There are no further tracking points after this date and therefore the Defendant accepts that the Parcel is lost. The Claim Value 11. The Claimant stated on the ‘Order Form’ for the Parcel that the value was £18.00 12. The Claimant paid £3.59 for the delivery charges of the Parcel. 13. Yet, the Claimant seeks to recover £55.68. 14. The Claimant is put to strict proof as to the value of the claim. 16. The Defendant denies that it is liable to pay the Claimant the damages claimed for breach of contract and/or negligence. 17. This Defence is a response to the Particulars of Claim which are set out in the ‘Particulars of Claim’ on page 2 of the claim form. Claim Form – Particulars of Claim 18. The first to fourth sentences of the Particulars of Claim are admitted. 19. The fifth to sixth sentences of the Particualrs of Claim are neither admitted nor deniend and the Claimant is put to strict proof. Making a Claim for compensation 20. The terms of the Contract which were accepted by the Claimant, and in force at the relevant time, set out the Defendant’s liability in respect of making a claim. The relevant provisions of the Contract state: 20.1 Clause 9.1 You must notify us in writing of any claim for Loss or Damage or Late Delivery within 28 days of the date of the relevant Order. If you fail to do so, we will not be liable to you for it, except where you are able to prove that it was not possible for you to notify us of your claim in writing within this time limit.” 20.2 Clause 9.2 When we receive your claim for Compensation, we will require you to back up your claim by providing us with any relevant information about the relevant Parcel and or Goods including without limitation: 9.2.1 proof of the Parcel's dispatch; 9.2.2 estimates for the repair of the Goods; 9.2.3 proof of the value of the Goods; 9.2.4 the cost price of the Goods and related proof including receipts; and 9.2.5 details of the weight, size, volume and nature of the Goods. 20.3 Clause 9.3 In the case of alleged Damage, you must ensure that the Parcel, its packaging and the Goods are held for inspection at the Delivery Point. 20.4 Clause 9.4 We may make any investigations that we think are necessary to check out any claim. 20.5 Clause 9.5 Any claim for Compensation must be made on a properly completed Claim Form. You must send this Claim Form to us so that we receive it within 14 days of the date that we provided it to you.” 21. As a result, the Defendant denies that any compensation is payable in relation to the Parcel as the Claimant failed to notify the Defendant of any claim for Loss or Damage or Late Delivery within 28 days of the date of the relevant Order. 22. If, which it is denied, the Defendant is found to be liable to pay compensation for the damage/loss of the Parcel, the Defendant denies that it is liable to pay the Claimant the damages claimed as the relevant provisions of the Contract limit the Defendant’s liability in actions for breach of contract and/or negligence. The relevant provisions state:- 22.1 Clause 7.2 “For any other Goods or Parcels we will only be liable to you for Loss or Damage or Late Delivery to the extent that it is caused by our negligence, in which case we will pay compensation to you subject to the limits set out in condition 8 below (“Compensation”).” 22.2 Clause 7.3 “The Compensation shall be the full extent of our liability to you for Loss or Damage or Late Delivery” 22.3 Clause 8 “8.1 Unless you have taken out our Full Cover, the following limits apply to our liability to you under a Contract: 8.2 Our liability for each instance of Loss or Damage or anything else other than Late Delivery is limited to whichever is lesser of: 8.2.1 £20; or 8.2.2 the cost of repairing the damaged Goods, or the value of the lost or damaged Goods (as we shall reasonably determine up to a maximum of the price you paid or were paid for the Goods). 8.3 Our liability for Late Delivery is limited to refunding the Charges. 8.4 When you submit an Order, you may take out our Full Cover. If you do so the limit of our liability to you for Loss or Damage will be varied to whichever is the lesser of: 8.4.1 the level of your Full Cover per Parcel; or 8.4.2 the cost of repairing the damaged Goods, or the value of the lost or damaged Goods, (as we shall reasonably determine up to a maximum of the price you paid or were paid for the Goods).” 23. Full Cover is defined at Clause 1.1.12: “Full Cover” means optional enhanced compensation that you may, for a fee, take out when you submit an Order. For details click here. [Links to https://www.myhermes.co.uk/our-services/our-prices.html]” 24. Accordingly, the Contract terms limit the Defendant’s liability for loss or damage to a parcel (in contract and/or negligence) to a particular value (as determined by clause 8), for the loss or damage to goods. That compensation value is the lesser of £20 or the value of the damaged/lost goods. 25. The Claimant opted to increase the level of compensation for the Parcel and therefore, pursuant to the terms of the Contract the Claimant is entitled to maximum compensation in the sum of £21.59. Claim for compensation 26. The Claimant claims £55.68 27. As explained above, it is denied that the Defendant owes the Claimant £55.68

So today, one day before the deadline, they have rejected the claim and offered mediation. I am confident their terms is: a) Flawed "You must notify us in writing of any claim for Loss or Damage or Late Delivery within 28 days of the date of the relevant Order." when a Hermes label is valid for 60 days from the date of purchase, if I send the parcel on the 29th day after purchase, the implication is I will no longer be covered for loss of the parcel b) In contradiction to the consumer rights acts, for which the loss of the package is a breach of contract and comes with a 6 year period in which I can raise a claim, not 28 days c) As I only fully paid my order (which was deemed overweight and so a second payment was required 10 days after the initial order) exactly 28 days before I notified them of the loss, I would deem the second payment date to be the "relevant order" date and therefore the 28 day term having been satisfied. d) The requirement to notify them of a loss serves only to restrict a claimant from their right to compensation, given that all their parcels are digitally tracked by Hermes themselves and therefore they are aware of any potential loss and should be investigating automatically. They should not need to be notified of something their system already knows Should I take mediation? I in any case will not settle for anything less than my initial claim amount, i.e. full compensation plus full costs. Or, should I progress to the next stage of the claim?

I had some issues with Lufthansa. In short, I had a 55 minute connection from Heathrow to Toronto via Frankfurt. Due to delays on the ground in Heathrow we landed in Frankfurt 10 minutes late and arrived at the gate 21 minutes late. I accept they allege the delay was due to ATC, and because of this the SOEP refused the complaint as they deemed this constituted extraordinary circumstances. However, especially with an airport like Heathrow where all landing/take-off slots are full, I don't think delays caused by ATC are extraordinary. A flight departure time at Heathrow is at the whim of ATC and there is always a queue controlled by ATC and not dictated by the exact take off time of a plane. Furthermore, I don't believe a delay of 10-21 minutes (depending how it is measured) is extraordinary, in fact Lufthansa only have 70.1% on-time performance. I believe the issue is their tight scheduling and they are using this as an excuse to avoid paying out. On this basis I am considering using the European Small Claims procedure. Below is the outline of my complaint. Does anyone have any suggestions? My only reservation is the reason the SOEP refused the complaint is that the captain noted down the reason for the delay as IATA code 89, which means ATC restriction at departure point. So to a degree it is whether the judge/adjudicator just accepts this or not.

Apart from maybe going after DVLA instead/as well, does anyone have any insight on any of the points I raised? Especially this one: - I can't afford to fix the van right now and as it is cosmetic, I can still use it without fixing the panel. Can I get a quote from Renault and claim on MCOL for the value of the repair?

The site has a drop down for different postal services, implying the exclusions are based on the service you use, yet when you select different services the exclusions appear to remain the same, and certainly in the case of Parcelforce do not tally with the cover included by Parcelforce. My P2G account still shows the declaration I made.

I'm surprised they haven't backed down already. Clearly if I am prepared to risk a £25 fee for a £25 claim, I will be prepared to also risk the hearing fee, but maybe they are not seeing it like that. Or maybe they genuinely believe they can defend their 28 day term to report losses.

Lesson learnt here. They have responded but not to me. I just got an email from MCOL saying the defendant has been granted a 14 day extension.

Claim form attached. Claim Hermes.pdf

I listed what the car parts were. And I think that's what this section requires. It is to ensure you aren't sending things that might contain oil or petrol or other prohibited things. The specific car parts I sent I believe fall under "small car parts" and are not covered according to P2G.

https://www.parcel2go.com/prohibited-items

I am not a seller. This was a store return, using a label I purchased directly from MyHermes. It took me so long to notify them as the store never informed me they didn't receive the return. I will upload the claim form I just don't have access to a computer right now. I didn't mention section 72.