TNT Damaged in Transit Claim

[stuscfc1883]

Hi Caggers,

 

We use TNT for delivering our goods on a daily basis in my company and normally they are ok, yes we've had some DiT issues but on the whole they've played ball so no major headaches . . . until now!

We sent out 5 parcels containing 14 products in total to our customer in a European country, 9 of which were damaged in transit. Our customer signed for them in the usual 'good condition' and more importantly then didn't contact me for almost 2 weeks before telling me they were DiT's.

I put a claim in with TNT based on the 21 day rule but they have now replied quoting;

 

"The Warsaw Convention which is applicable in law, states that a claim for damaged must be recorded within 14 days."

 

I've already served them with a LBA 2 days ago, but i've not come across this Warsaw Convention stuff . . . can anyone please shed some light on this, thanks . . .

 

Stuart

[BankFodder]

http://www.jus.uio.no/lm/air.carriage.warsaw.convention.1929/doc.html

 

It applies to the international carriage of goods and persons by air.

 

Also, if there is some other international postal convention in force in relation to your consignment, and the Warsaw Convention does not apply.

 

Furthermore, Article 9 says if you did not provide a consignment note to them, then any parts of the Convention relating to the inclusion of liability do not apply. Did you supply a consignment note? Have a look at the convention in order to see what exactly amounts to a consignment note.

[stuscfc1883]

We shipped the goods with a CN22 European Export Label and a Delivery Note, the consignment was booked online so labels were printed off and applied to the boxes. I guess the Delivery Note would be classed as a Consignment Note? but that would have been in a sealed clear envelope on the side of the first box . . .

[stuscfc1883]

i've read the link to the warsaw convention and can't find anywhere where it states 14 days to claim etc . . . i'll re-read it just in case lol

[stuscfc1883]

just to add to this . . . our customer told us 2 weeks after they received the goods, our T&C's state we should be notified in writing within 3 days, however, i'm unsure of the legal standing with distance selling laws etc and certainly about deliveries cross borders etc . . .

[BankFodder]

I'm afraid that the time limit for reporting damage is there. If you haven't seen it then you need to look more closely.

 

You're quite right, there may be a conflict between the convention and the distance selling rules, but I don't know how that conflict is resolved.

 

There are very detailed descriptions in the Convention about what the consignment note is – I suggest that you check this out. It says that three copies have to be handed over et cetera. If this hasn't happened then it seems to me that they are not protected.

 

It's up to you to do the homework on this and to read the relevant parts of the convention. I have to say that it isn't a very long document and also it is not very complicated to read.

[stuscfc1883]

Surely the Free Trade Market of the EU accepts that no commercial invoices are required, a Delivery Note was on the box, so are you saying that it was TNT's responsibility to create the 3x Consignment Notes? and if they didn't then the convention is not applied?