First of all, apologies for the delay in responding. I went back to work in May completely forgot about this.

Secondly, they paid out.

As you can see in my post dated May 11th, I suggested whether it would be worth trying one more time with them. Well, I did. I mentioned in my claim that, once again, they should contact DHL who would confirm that the parcel was left on the doorstep in full view of anyone passing by. I finished it off by saying that I was happy to go to small claims court over this if I do not hear back from them.

About a week later I received an email stating the claim was successful and they asked for my bank details to transfer the money over to. 

I'm surprised they didn't drag their heels over this but perhaps me seeing the picture of the supposed delivery and them knowing that I was doing my own 'investigation' into DHL made them nip this in the bud sooner rather than later.

And a reminder to anyone else reading this: contactless delivery does not mean that couriers can leave the parcel on your doorstep and leave. It means the courier leaves your parcel on your doorstep, waits for you to open the door and confirm receipt of the parcel, (the courier takes a picture, this seems to depend on the courier) and then and only then is delivery of the item concluded.

Thanks for your post.

Yep, I have recorded the call where the DHL automatic service confirms that the parcel was left in a safe place.

But it's not like this is some secret information though,

if parcel2go simply rang DHL customer service and gave them the parcel's tracking number they would be told the same thing.

This is what makes it a little funny and infuriating,

all they have to do is ring DHL but they still insist on the recipient's signature.

I also have a copy of the photograph that the DHL driver took.

The photograph shows the parcel sitting on the recipient's doorstep,

I had a look at google maps and literally anyone walking past could have just picked it up and walked away with it which is what happened since the customer didn't receive it. If anything, the photograph also proves that the parcel was left in a safe place since the customer is not in the photograph too.

I'm more than happy to go to court over this, I've provided them with everything they need to make the payout and they're still wasting my time.

Would you suggest I go straight to the letter of action? Or should I try one more time with them?

EDIT: I think I'll speak to a supervisor/manager on live chat tomorrow and tell them once again why a signature is not required.

If they still insist on it then I'm going to go down the letter of action route.

While I'm happy to play this out in court I'd still prefer trying one more time since there's a small possibility I can get it sorted faster this way.

Another update.

I've provided all the info to parcel2go and the claim has been processing.

They asked for a copy of the recipient's signature since the parcel is showing as 'signed for' but I explained to them, again, that the parcel was left in a safe place as confirmed by DHL so this signature is not needed since the recipient was not at home to receive and hence sign for it, which is why it was left in a safe place.

But again they've asked for a copy of the recipient's signature.

The recipient is hesitant to send over a copy of his passport that shows his signature, even if the important details are crossed out. I'm getting really annoyed here since they seem to be ignoring what I'm telling them.

Should I just proceed with the letter before action?

Yes it did, it happened about two weeks ago now.

If you ring the DHL customer service line it does state that they are doing this. But, the crucial detail is that they say 'the driver will record your name and take a photo of the premises to confirm delivery'.

This means they still have to wait for the person to open the door and confirm the parcel's been taken and then take a photo. It doesn't mean the courier can just leave the parcel on the doorstep if the customer isn't at home. In this case they should attempt delivery at another date.

The whole point of contact-free delivery is to follow the 2m social distancing rule, i.e., to limit physical contact between you and the driver.

It's not there for the driver to leave the parcel on doorstep and walk away and count this as the parcel being delivered lol.

I appreciate the replies so far, I'm in the middle of getting the signature from DHL and putting documents together (such as purchase invoices to show proof of value) to send off to parcel2go.

Thanks for the quick reply.

To be honest I expected that they wouldn't cover me for the loss but that's fine since I only sold the goods for around £60 less.

In terms of making a successful claim for my £480, do you think I have a good case here?

I recorded the phone call when the automatic tracking service on their number says that it was left in a safe place, and I also have screenshots of their online tracking page saying it was signed for by 'con'.

No such person lives in the neighbourhood as confirmed by my customer. 

But I guess this is a moot point since they've admitted they just left the parcel on the doorstep. 

I'll be keeping this thread updated all the way,.

Hi there,

I've been searching on Google for the past 2-3 days to see where I stand on this problem I've got, thought I'd post here too for your insights.

I sold some dog toys to a buyer for £480, it was fully insured via Parcel2Go.

The tracking on Parcel2go and DHL both said it had been delivered and signed for, so I thought 'okay great' and went about my day.

But a day or two later the buy responded saying he hadn't received his parcel, so I started investigating. After going through DHL's tracking information through the phone, it told me the parcel had been left in a safe place marked 'safe place'. I thought this was the first red flag seeing as online it said it had been signed for.

Next, I spoke to a DHL rep who said they'd look into this for me. They were being too slow so I gathered the number (from saynoto0870) of the DHL depot in Rotherham and they said that because of corona virus that all deliveries would now involve the driver leaving the parcel on the doorstep, ringing/knocking the door, taking a step back and waiting for the person to open up and accept the parcel and then get a signature. They also said they now take photos of the delivery address!

He described to me what he saw in the photo. The driver arrived at the right house and dropped off the parcels at the front door.

And that's it. That's the safe place he decided to leave it in. Right in full view of anyone walking past. I was shocked. And so was the DHL rep. DHL have just left the parcel at the front door and obviously something has happened to the parcels, most likely someone's walked past, gone onto the property and just taken the parcels.

I told the DHL rep "I didn't authorise the parcel to be left in a safe place, it's a signature delivery which is standard with DHL. If the customer wasn't at home then a redelivery should have been attempted". The rep agreed and he said my next steps should be to take this up with parcel2go.

So anyway, I've managed to get to the claims stage with parcel2go and they're asking for proof of the value of the item, which is fine because I have an invoice from the buyer I bought the goods from and also the invoice I provided to my customer. The only unfortunate thing is that I had to sell the items at a loss because of corona, I needed to get rid of my inventory before things got worse. If I paid more for the items and then sold them off at a loss to my buyer, would parcel2go accept this?

Also, do I have a strong case here?