Can't get Shiply deposit back.

[Tobal]

I was recommended a website called 'Shiply' commercial link removed who operate as an auction style site for transportation of goods. The user submits information regarding information on size, weight, source & destination of the goods and then companies and individuals can bid how much they are willing to do it for.

 

I put a job request on, and accepted a bid from a company who seemed reputable (10 positive feedbacks in this month out of 10). I was required to pay a £7.55 deposit out of the £50 job. That deposit was paid directly to Shiply through Paypal, who in turn pass the deposit on to the transporter minus commision.

 

Everything seemed fine, but then i got an email from the delivery guy saying he can no longer do the job, sorry etc. No problem i think, i email shiply about a refund on the deposit - no answer, again no answer, phoned 3 times -no answer -automated voice saying send an email.

 

Now im stuck what to do.. i looked at raising a Paypal dispute, but my only options are to select:

 

Item dispute: I did not receive an item I purchased or the item I received is significantly not as described.

 

Unauthorised transaction: I did not authorise a recent transaction.

 

So i'm looking for any advice as to how i should proceed. I realise it's only £7, but i didn't break the agreement and would like it back.

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

[shiply.com]

Hi Tobal,

 

I'm sorry if you have not been receiving a response from us. We do reply to all emails within one business day, so I do think perhaps there is an issue with deliverability of emails here, or perhaps you are emailing in reply to one of our automated emails sent from [email protected] (these are not monitored by a human).

 

From what you have said here, it looks like you would certainly be entitled to a refund.

 

So, we can action this for you ASAP, please can you try to email: [email protected] and place "consumeractiongroup" in the subject field. That way I personally can keep an eye out for it.

 

Many Thanks.

 

Robert

Cheap Courier Services - UK Couriers Companies

[Tobal]

Thankyou for your reply. I will email again at the address you have specified in case my emails have not been getting through (i emailed two different addresses before).

 

Can I just make a point that there is no real information (that i could find) on the shiply site that helps the user in circumstance where the drive has cancelled.

 

I appreciate that this might open the flood gates for drives trying to avoid paying you commision etc, but as a first time user of shiply -i found it a bit frustrating.

 

I appreciate the reply though and will be re-submitting my request on shiply to get my items delivered as soon as i get the refund.

 

Regards

[Tobal]

Just to update for everyone's information,

 

Robert/Shiply have refunded me the deposit in full.

 

Thanks!

[loopinlouie]

Good:D

[rickyquicky]

Well this is a bit of a coincidence.

 

I have emailed shiply 3 times with regards to the EXACT SAME PROBLEM, and have had NO response whatsoever.

 

I have been waiting 2 weeks for a reply...and guess what, there are numerous people complaining about the same thing.

 

So Shiply, you are kind enough to respond on a consumer forum, would you also have the courtesy to reply to my email?

[Ian d]

Hi i am new here,

I have just been messed about on a delivery of a car, i have emails off other people who have the same problems and have been lied to and i have had this sent to me.

This is to confirm that your cancellation request for shipment Car has been submitted.

 

Based upon your cancellation reason you will not be entitled to a refund of your deposit.

I will get a refund and will not leave it untill i do. Ian.

[rickyquicky]

You were lucky to even get any sort of reply mate!

 

You should be able to get a refund as it was a deposit for a service you didnt recieve?

[shiply.com]

Well this is a bit of a coincidence.

 

I have emailed shiply 3 times with regards to the EXACT SAME PROBLEM, and have had NO response whatsoever.

 

I have been waiting 2 weeks for a reply...and guess what, there are numerous people complaining about the same thing.

 

So Shiply, you are kind enough to respond on a consumer forum, would you also have the courtesy to reply to my email?

 

Hi Ricky,

 

Sorry for the delay in response to you. We do always try to reply to emails within 1 business day so we are afraid we might haven't received your email.

 

Could you try sending us an email again at [email protected] please? We will try to assist you with the issue promptly.

 

Many thanks.

 

David

[shiply.com]

Hi i am new here,

I have just been messed about on a delivery of a car, i have emails off other people who have the same problems and have been lied to and i have had this sent to me.

This is to confirm that your cancellation request for shipment Car has been submitted.

 

Based upon your cancellation reason you will not be entitled to a refund of your deposit.

I will get a refund and will not leave it untill i do. Ian.

 

Hi Ian,

 

Sorry to hear about that, we can confirm that even though our system might say "you will not be entitled to a refund", if the transport provider accepts your cancellation request, you will still get it back.

 

If your issue has not yet been resolved, please drop us an email at [email protected] with your Shiply username and we will try our best to assist you promptly.

 

Many thanks.

 

David

[alandted]

Glad it's not just me that is having horrendous problems with Shiply!!

 

I AM HAVING A NIGHTMARE WITH SHIPLY

 

Firstly I accepted a delivery from a courier, 7/9/10, the courier did not collect or deliver, or indeed contact me!! It took three requests (and 2 weeks) to get my deposit back.

 

Shiply then relisted the item, I accepted another bid, 28/9/10, from a courier with good feedback. Once again, no collection, delivery, or any contact - in fact the courier's website and phone number do not exist - unfortunately you cannot check these details until you have parted with your £7.05 deposit and £5.99 'fee', oh yes, and 70p for paying by paypal....total £13.74

 

I have requested a refund from the second courier three times, Shiply did actually send me an official link to request it, but unfortunately, it was for the original courier that did not deliver, therefore they will not refund me again!!

 

I never get a response within 2 days - for a service that you can use 24/7 I think is diabolical. There is no telephone number to contact.

 

They will not provide me with an address to make an official complaint. They do not answer the questions that I put to them, only the generic 'we are sorry you have experienced a problem' crap....

 

My experience with Shiply has been dreadful, would love to hear from people who did actually get a refund without jumping through hoops!!

 

Also, would Trading Standards deal with this???

[shiply.com]

Hi alandted,

 

Firstly, apologies if you did not receive a response to your email. We do reply to all emails within one business day, so something does seem to have gone wrong here.

 

Please drop us an email to: support[AT]shiply.com with subject CAG - alandted and we will waiting for it.

 

Regards,

Robert

[davidjacobs]

Glad it's not just me that is having horrendous problems with Shiply!!

 

I AM HAVING A NIGHTMARE WITH SHIPLY

 

 

Shiply-what a total joke of a company!!!

 

I had no end of trouble with delivery companies on this website-all with positive feedback. I got fed lie after lie. In the end I had to rent a transporter and do the job myself, costing me a lot more in the long run.

 

Shiply also refused to give me my money back. Thankfully though I had paid the deposit with Paypal. I raised a dispute and Shiply had no choice but to give me my money back.

 

Bottom line-I would never use this sort of dodgy website again. You cannot get any information on the courier company before you hand over your cash, you have no real way of contacting anyone and you are expected to hand money over to someone on the premise of positive feedback which is clearly not worth anything.

 

I would say avoid this site like the plague, pay a bit more and go with a reputable courier company.

[perplexity]

You cannot get any information on the courier company before you hand over your cash, you have no real way of contacting anyone and you are expected to hand money over to someone on the premise of positive feedback which is clearly not worth anything.

 

 

Prosecute!

 

Since the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 it's a strict liability criminal offence to fail to fulfil an information requirement which applies in relation to a commercial communication as a result of a Community obligation e.g. the duty of an information society service provider to display at least

 

(a) the name of the service provider;

(b) the geographic address at which the service provider is established;

© the details of the service provider, including his electronic mail address, which allow him to be contacted rapidly and communicated with in a direct and effective manner;

etcetera.

 

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2013/regulation/6/made

 

It is the the duty of Trading Standards to enforce but they wont if you don't insist that they do.

 

8)

[ashmk]

I used Shiply once and have to agree they are an absolute waste of time and money.

 

Now I use Parcel2go for all my packages, they collect from my house and will take upto about 25kg for under a tenner, and as long as you use DHL you get a 5 star service. Parcel2go also offer a cheaper 'Home delivery network' service but they are also useless.

 

Avoid Shiply, they are nothing but a headache!

[alandted]

Hi Alex,

 

Apologies for the delay here.

 

From looking at your account, I see 3 accepted bids.

 

304938 - accepted 7/9 & refunded 28/9 via PayPal

314760 - accepted 28/9 & refunded 18/10 via PayPal

340116 - transaction completed and positive feedback left on 20/10

 

Certainly the length of time between acceptance and refund was too long and for that we apologise. We are already working on more robust systems to make this process more streamlined in future without the need to wait on a refund.

 

In terms of your specific case which you have asked me to investigate - refunds have been issued, obligations met and so I consider the matter closed.

 

Kind Regards,

Robert Matthams

 

This is the correspondence that I have received fron Shiply - they refuse to answer questions regarding the lack of service offered, the refusal to deal with couriers that are not getting in contact and why cowboy couriers are still on their site.

When I posted comments on their Facebook page, they have deleted them, alomg with other negative comments.

They advised that no emails had been received, even though I have automated receipts for each one....

 

Very poor show really.

[alandted]

Great stuff, just what I wanted to hear!!

 

Woohoo, will get in touch later. Thanks

[alandted]

Thanks, will use them in the future

[transportco]

Response to 'tobal' ....*That deposit was paid directly to Shiply through Paypal, who in turn pass the deposit on to the transporter minus commision.* As a professional transportation company who take great pride in our 100% customer feedback not only on Shiply but other sites similar to this I feel I must clarify this sentence. When companies bid on transport requests the price bid is the total price, HOWEVER, ANY deposit paid is paid to Shiply NON of that deposit is given to the transport companies, whatever, is insinuated by Shiply. Transport companies are advised by Shiply that deposits are placed in a holding account and drawn on for success fees. At no time are transport companies able to access this so called account. It is just as fustrating for us to contact Shiply as it is for our clients. Please dont judge us all the same as there are good and bad in any industry.

[alandted]

Thanks for that clarification. I am sure that you are genuine, I did finally get a fantastic courier through Shiply.

 

The point that I am trying to make is that, Shiply knowlingly have cowboy couriers on their site, but, as a consumer, we are not able to find this out until we have parted with our so called'deposit for the courier'

 

Keep up the good work!

[williamizzy]

Glad to see it wasnt just me who was totally shocked and felt a little conned when i saw and suddenly had to pay a £5.99 success fee that was never mention!!!! I've just been advised to use courierfrog as it costs absolutely nothing to post a job and accept! I just pay what i agree with my chosen courier! What more do you need!

 

God i hate hidden fee's!!

[courier1]

Im a courier and I do some work off the shiply web site......what they dont tell you is the deposit you pay which you may think the courier gets doesnt go to him but shiply keep that as there fee.....I've stated this before on the site and they have blocked me from writting messages on the pages before for that reason.......At the end of the Day i've had jobs cancelled on me for reasons like the item they bought was the wrong description, didnt win ebay item, no longer require delivery and then the people moan at me asking for the deposit back........

 

I think shiply need to sort this out....I also use another site called anyvan which is near enough the same but with a better layout but that aswell has the same problems.

 

Im trying to run a business and when somone does this to me I cant ask for money off them even though they accepted my bid.

[uky kozak]

Funny I have just left messages for shiply and the courier basically telling them I am taking both of them to the small claims court for compensation as I now have to arrange for a van myself and collect the item on saturday. Un beknown to them I actually run my own business and will be claiming for loss of trade etc as well.

 

Newsflash: It must of worked as 5 minutes later I had a call from him. Apart from threats from him if we were face to face and being called stupid cos I own my own company and I do things under contract conditions etc I actually got no where. So now I have a recording, wish I could post it. Apparantly I am flexible on collection and delivery so my messages to him stating can you collect Friday/Saturday of last week means absolutely nothing and can someone pleeeeaaase tell me what a backload is as apparantly thats what shiply is...Yes I'm lost on this comment. So will I get my £7 deposit back? Dont know. Will I follow through with the claim via the courts? Yes I think I will...

 

I have kept a log of all that has happened including dates and times of messages left so I will create a new thread and post all the details etc once I get through to Shiply tomorrow.

Edited March 1, 2011 by uky kozak
Update to the saga

[Ramos12]

The same thing happened to me sent them few letters no response at all charged me £14.69 deposit and Transport provider is suspended. Anyone please help how to get it back, paid using google checkout.

This company is a joke!

[bosuchy]

Dear All,

 

I Just started a new thread, but noticed that i am not the only one having troubles with Shiply. see below:

 

Be very, very, cautious when dealing with Shiply couriers, based in London. After paying a deposit of 3000 euro for a car to be shiped from Ireland to Amsterdam i received a message from Shiply that the truck that was carrying the car had been involved in a traffic accident, and that the deposit would be payed back to me at once.... This was more than 3 weeks ago, and still no refund of 3000 euro in my account. The mobile telephone number which was previously answered by Shiply at all times is not answered to anymore, only a voicemail. Shiply doesn't let me know anything through email or telepfone despite my numerous messages to them. Threre is simply no correspondence at all since they reported the car could not be delivered. It is a shamefull way of doing busyness. I am now considering legal action agains this company.

 

I found one more complaint on this website regarding Shiply, also with the excuse that goods were damaged and could not be delivered. So i have my doubts whether Shiply is telling the truth or not, and of course I can't prove they are lying. I tried to be friendly to Shiply but now have reached the limit. Did anyone have this kind of experience with Shiply before or am i just unlucky? What kind of action is recommended to take against Shiply?

 

Regards,

Bo