Taking Parcel Monkey to Court - Advice Please

[fryster]

Hi all. I posted an item by next day delivery to an ebay buyer using Parcel Monkey and delivered by Citylink. I paid extra for compensation up to £300, as the item sold for £262 including delivery. The ebay buyer claimed that they received an empty box within a few minutes of signing for the item. They opened a claim through ebay for an item significantly not as described, got a crime reference number using the Action Fraud website and won the case.

 

From day one of the buyer contacting me I was in contact with Citylink using the number on the Parcel Monkey website, and the person I was speaking to stated that they worked at Citylink dealing with Parcel Monkey issues/claims. They opened an investigation into the missing item at the Birmingham depot where the item was to be delivered from. After a while they came back to me stating that they had interviewed the driver and he had stated that the item was signed for, weighed a significant amount and the contents of the box had not been found at the depot. When I booked the delivery the parcel weighed 9kg. By the time it had got to my local depot Basingstoke according to them it weighed 5kg. So already there was a discrepancy of 4kg.

 

Anyway, all of this took time to conclude. Once this had concluded the person I was in contact with from Citylink referred me back to Parcel Monkey to open a claim. At this point Parcel Monkey replied stating the following:

 

'Clause 5 provides that all damaged claims must be reported to Parcel Monkey within 3 working days from the scheduled delivery date. Our records indicate that your shipment was delivered by Parcel Monkey on the 29th of May 2014 and that your first notification to Parcel Monkey was on the 12th of June 2014'

 

After a bit of me arguing my point about being led to believe that a claim was underway and that the investigation naturally took time I then contacted them again stating that I would be looking to take them to the small claims court. I used the following from the OFT to try and persuade them to reimburse me:

 

'I believe that these terms are unfair and I refer to section 2.4.2 of the Office of fair trading’s Unfair Contract Terms Guidance which states:

‘The OFT is likely to object to a term that frees the supplier from his responsibilities towards the consumer where the consumer does not make a complaint immediately or within an unduly short period of time. This applies particularly where:

 

(a) a time limit is so short that ordinary persons could easily miss it through mere inadvertence, or because of circumstances outside their control, and

 

(b)faults for which the supplier is responsible which could only become apparent after a time limit has expired.’

 

After sending them this they replied that in light of this they would review my claim and get back to me. After chasing them up they have still denied my claim, but this time not stated any reasons for doing so. I believe that the next step would be to take them to the small claims court based on the above OFT guidelines. However, I need to know if I'm completely wrong as I really don't know what I'm doing with all this!

 

Many thanks for any help, and sorry for the long winded and badly worded post!

[Conniff]

Your next step is to send them a letter before action giving them a date by which to compensate you and the amount. You tell them that should they fail you will make a claim in the small claims court.

Don't make the threat unless you are prepared to go through with it.

 

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

[fryster]

I'm more than prepared to go through with it, just need to know if I have a case using the above information?

[ashmk]

I would say Clause 5 is unfair.

 

Unless you are sending a package to yourself you can not possibly have any control over that information. It's nonsense.

[fryster]

Forgive me for my stupidity, but what amount should I be claiming for, the ebay purchase price including delivery, or for the cost to replace the item at retail value (which would be above the £300 compensation limit)?

[fryster]

Just checked through my phone bill to confirm when I spoke to Citylink using the number posted on Parcel Monkeys website. Upon googling the phone number it is registered to Parcel Monkey Holdings ltd. Surely this also adds to my argument that I was in contact with a parcel monkey representative?

[ashmk]

Claim for your loss, ie the ebay auction amount.

 

Also try complaining to them on Twitter. No company likes being publicly moaned at.

[ericsbrother]

you claim for your losses, so the cost of the postage and phone calls should be added to the amount you sold the item for less any refunds from ebay.