Parcel2Go - Damaged Speakers **-reimbursed – very decent gesture by Parcel2Go**

[krone9 3]

Hey guys - I've read a fair few of the Hermes related posts but hoping you can guide me here.

 

I paid Parcel2Go to ship 2 speakers to me, via ParcelForce from an ebay seller (Value £170 + £33 shipping)

I stated on the form it was 2 speakers, and having been told that these were protected for loss only, I took out their insurance (£9 cost)

The seller packed them according to their packaging tips page - two layers of corrugated cardboard and some corrugated plastic cushioning (4 layers). 

 

They arrived badly damaged - the base smashed on one, cracked on the other. Dents on both. Looks like they had been dropped several times from a reasonable height.

 

Parcel2Go are now saying that they class these as Musical Instruments and that they must be packed in a hard case.  As such they will not pay anything towards the damage. After searching through several pages, and buried links, I've have found this in their terms but its buried pretty deep, and wasn't at all clear in any correspondence, or during the booking process.

 

Do I have a leg to stand on in terms of making a claim in small claims court? Really disappointed in the terrible handling of both the parcels and the complaints process.

 

Thanks for any advice - its very much appreciated.

 

 

Edited January 19 by krone9

[BankFodder 2,095]

Who actually carried the items? Was it Hermes?
I understand that you declared that they were loudspeakers and that before you enter the contract you were told that they would be protected for loss only and so you took out an insurance to cover that risk – is this correct?

I'm afraid that if that is correct then there is probably very little you can do.

Was it provided to in writing that these would be protected for loss only? 
 

[krone9 3]

They used ParcelForce.

 

Parcel2Go's standard terms are that speakers are protected against loss only, unless you take out their additional insurance (at least that's how I understood it) - which is why i paid for it.

[BankFodder 2,095]

Okay that's encouraging – but maybe you could post up the contractual term that you are referring to.

Also in your first post you said that you had discovered buried deep down in their terms and conditions somewhere something that seemed to suggest that speakers should be treated as musical instruments. Please can you post that up.

Also please provide the links for these

[krone9 3]

Thanks for looking at this.

 

 

When enter your details. You enter the parcel contents as "speaker" and it flags up a warning to say : "Speaker" are not protected for damages and are only protected for loss where Parcel Protection is taken. See our Items Protected for Loss Only list.

 

Reading this again, I misread it originally.  I think I'm wasting your time sadly. How frustrating - I should never have used this service. My own fault.

[BankFodder 2,095]

Yes. I'm very sorry.

if that is what the wording says then it certainly indicates that they are clearly excluding liability for damage and they are letting you know that you need insurance to cover you for loss.

we would challenge the need for insurance for loss but I'm afraid that in terms of the risk of damage, I think this is probably one of the few things that they have got right

 

Very frustrating

 

 

[krone9 3]

Thought I'd let you know. Despite not needing to, Parcel2Go have very kindly authorised a refund to cover the speakers. I am very impressed and surprised given the contract didn't require this. Thanks for all the advice - I thought it only fair to make sure they got some credit for doing the right thing. I will be using them again.

 

[BankFodder 2,095]

Thank you very much indeed for this update. It certainly is a very surprising result – but very welcome.

You're quite right, that P2G should get credit for this very customer-facing gesture.

 

[Manxman in exile 269]

I wonder sometimes if a reader gets an unfairly distorted view of couriers on consumer forums because it's always the "hard" cases that get on here and very rarely those where the courier does the right thing from the outset.

 

Well done Krone9 for reporting a satisfactory outcome after a discouraging start.

[BankFodder 2,095]

Yes I'm sure that's right. We mainly report bad news.

On the other hand, if you look at all these companies websites and they very often contain recommendations by satisfied customers – they always report the good news.

Also, their marketing and their mission statements et cetera are aspirational but they make it sound as if these are the standards which are always achieved. Too many of them, when they failed to achieve the standards, get very difficult and quite unwilling to step up to the mark.
If they were really ready to sort out their customers problems then everybody will be a lot happier. We all know that mistakes can be made – but it's how the companies deal with them which is important.

I'm sure Hermes, for instance, must have millions of satisfied customers but the relatively small percentage of customers who do have problems – are treated very badly

[Andyorch 10,541]

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