A parcel I sent was lost by Hermes, costing me £200, I didn't insure it. Do I have any recourse?

[carlos-a]

I sent an eBay parcel out via Hermes using Parcel2GO, which unfortunately I was stupid enough not to insure. After being collected by the courier, it didn't even make its way to the depot, and has been missing ever since.

 

I've just had to refund the person who purchased the item in question for £200, and suspect there will be even further cost because of the sale fees imposed by eBay.

 

I haven't contacted P2G or Hermes yet any further than finding out that the item has gone missing, and I'm wondering if there is any point in me doing so, in order to claim any costs? Are P2G or Hermes liable to compensate me for £200, or did I lose that possibility at the point which I opted out of any kind of insurance?

[BankFodder]

If you do the refund through eBay, then they should refund you their commission as well.

Read around all of the Hermes threads on this forum. You will find that our view is that you shouldn't be required to ensure Hermes against their own negligence. On this basis, think that you should be able to claim from Hermes and be reimbursed.

You could claim either from Parcel2go or from Hermes. Take your choice. If you had been dealing through packlink then you will have had to claim against Hermes because packlink are in Spain – out of the jurisdiction.

The experience so far is that when you sue for this kind of money that they eventually backed down and pay you out – but they will push you to issue the court papers and then they generally choose mediation.

Please read around the posts on the forum and you will understand how it generally works.

Of course there is always a risk that you could lose in which case you would lose your claim fee and also hearing fee – which I suppose could put you out of pocket to the tune of something like an extra £80 or so.

It's certainly ridiculous that companies require you to insure them against their own negligence and their own contractual breaches. If they force their customers to pay for their wrongdoings then there is absolutely no motivation to improve because they know that they can always provide a sloppy service and somebody else will pay for it.