Hermes/Packlink Stolen Video Consoles - Contents removed and empty boxes delivered

[goonders]

Hi CAG Team,

 

I luckily came across this forum and by reading the previous cases, I believe you may be able to help me recover some/all of the money that I have lost.

 

In January, I sold 2 video game consoles on eBay. They were sent to two different addresses and were both stolen whilst in the Hermes network.

I posted them on the same day using shipping with Packlink / Hermes in the following ways:

 

First item:

• (New) Microsoft Xbox Series X console sold on eBay for £549 and posted it to the buyer using Packlink/Hermes (tracking# ....)
• The parcel was dropped at Hermes Collection Point on Tuesday 4^th January 2022 at 07:50am and it was delivered to the buyer on Wednesday 5^th January 2022 in the afternoon.
• Between these times and places it was tampered with and the item I posted was stolen. The box had been retaped.
• The buyer refused delivery as the box was empty. The delivery driver was informed and he took back the package.
• I have reported this theft to the Police, crime ref number: 20220106-1033.
• On Wednesday 5^th January 2022, I opened a claim with Packlink providing all the requested details (this included a Packlink Affidavit); and after completing an investigation, their claims department informed me on Tuesday 25^th January 2022 that I will receive a “Goods Compensation” of £25.00 + “Postage cost refund” of £9.97
• I have refunded the buyer the full amount of £549 as instructed by eBay.

 

Item 02:

 

• (New) Sony Playstation 5 Disc Edition sold on eBay for £545 with original packaging and posted it to the buyer using Packlink/Hermes (tracking# H.....)

·        The parcel was dropped at Hermes Collection Point on Tuesday 4^th January 2022 at 07:50am and it was delivered to the buyer on Thursday 6^th January 2022 in the afternoon.

·        Between these times and places it was tampered with and the item I posted was stolen. The box had been retaped.

·        The buyer suspected the box was empty and had filmed himself opening the box. The buyer completed a DOR (letter of denial of receipt) as requested by Packlink/Hermes.

·        Between these times and places it was tampered with and the item I posted was stolen.

• I have reported this theft to the Police, crime ref number: 20220106-1033.
• On Thursday 6^th January 2022, I opened a claim with Packlink providing all the requested details and after completing an investigation, their claims department informed me on Wednesday 16^th February 2022 that I will receive a “Goods Compensation” of £25.00 + “Postage cost refund” of £9.97
• I have refunded the buyer the full amount of £545 as instructed by eBay

 

I have a couple of questions:

1. Is it too late to put in a claim for the two stolen items?

2. Should I claim for just the cost of the retail price of the items (price that I bought them for) or the eventual price they sold for on eBay?

As I said I have refunded both of the eBay buyers and consequently have lost out on the full sale price for both items.

 

Please let me know your thoughts and advise the best way to proceed with both claims.
I look forward to hearing from you.

 

[BankFodder]

No it's not too late for a claim in for the items.

You should claim for the declared value – which as you sold it through eBay would be the price that was paid by the eBay purchaser.

You haven't told us if the items were insured?

Please spend a day or so reading up the Hermes stories on this sub- forum. You will find that there are lots of stories pretty well identical to yours.
Find out particularly what Hermes will try to do in order to shift the blame onto Packlink.
Find out why you will have to sue Hermes and not Packlink.
If you didn't insure then find out what the arguments are in respect of that.

Once you have understood the principles – read probably about 10 to 20 stories, then come back here and we will take you through the first step of the journey.

 

Have you got photographs of the box before you send it? Have you got photographs of the box we tapes?

Did you record the weights of the box when you sent them and the weights of the box after the contents were stolen?

[goonders]

Thanks @BankFodder for your swift response and for confirming that I should claim for the declared value (eBay price paid by the eBay buyer)

 

I have read several stories of similar issues regarding Hermes on this forum and I will continue to read up.

 

As for your supplementary questions, please see below:

 

Unfortunately I did not take out enhanced compensation for both items but I understand "Hermes set a delivery fee, and it is entirely reasonable to expect that Hermes (or their agents) will take sufficient care to ensure the security of the item within their delivery network on the basis of that fee, rather than expecting the customer to pay an additional fee to insure against the negligence of Hermes or their agents; the onus is upon Hermes to protect against their own (or their agents) negligence, not the customer's."

 

I have photographs of both boxes with postage labels attached on them before they were dispatched.
One item was refused delivery by the buyer and handed back to the courier driver as they suspected the package to be empty. I have one picture of the empty box taken by the buyer.

The second item was delivered but the buyer couldn't return it back to the courier driver in time before he drove off.

The buyer has sent a video of him opening the empty box. It shows the box has been retaped after the console had been removed from it.

I weighed the items before disptach (both weighed around 7kg) to obtain the value for the postage but I do not have photographs of that.

As for the weights of the contents after they were stolen, the weight would be negligible as it would have been an empty cardboard box.

[BankFodder]

Ok. It sounds as if you are good to Go .

 

 

Keep on doing reading and come back here when you understand all the principles and we will take you through the next step

 

 

[goonders]

Hi CAG Team,  I believe my next step is to send Hermes Legal Team a formal Complaint Letter via post?

Please can you have a look at the attached letter and see if I have covered everything?

I have a tendency to repeat and over over elaborate myself, so would be grateful if you could summarise it for me.
Thank you in advance.

Hermes Formal Letter of Complaint.docx

[BankFodder]

You love writing don't you.
Is somebody paying you by the word?

 

Quote

Dear XXX

Tracking number XXX

As you know on XXX date you undertook to deliver to consoles worth £XXX each to a UK address.
The items were never delivered and they were stolen whilst in your care.

You have paid me £XXX apparently in compensation. Please notice that this was done without my agreement and I am simply accepting the payment on account of the entire sum due to me.

I understand that your position may be that I contracted with Packlink and I should proceed against them but I won't be doing that. I'm relying on my third-party rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act.

You may also try to say that I didn't take out insurance – but as we all know, your requirement that I ensure you in respect of items stolen by your own employees is completely unfair and unenforceable.

Please let me have full reimbursement of £XXX within the next 10 days.

Yours sincerely

 

[goonders]

Thanks @BankFodder for your quick reply.  I have posted the formal letter of complaint.

I will let you know if/when they reply.

I wish I was getting paid by the word...I'd be a millionnaire !!

[BankFodder]

Draft a letter of claim and post it here. Keep it scant

[goonders]

I'm not sure if it was coincidental but on the day the Hermes Legal Department received my formal letter of complaint, I received an email from Emma Bhatti, Hermes Executive Office (see below):

"Good Afternoon,

 Thank you for contacting our CEO, Martijn De Lange. My name is Emma and Martijn has personally asked me to investigate this matter on his behalf. 

I am very sorry you haven’t received your parcel.

 Please can you contact Packlink on the below links."
Her email only referenced one parcel reference number, there was no mention of the other stolen parcel, hence I am assuming that it was coincidental.
I have emailed her back to say that it was two stolen parcels and asked her to refer to my formal letter of complaint, which I attached in my reply.

 

I will prepare my  letter of claim  today.

[BankFodder]

Excellent. You are certainly not there to follow their instructions .

They are no longer in control and you are the customer

 

Please could you post her email address here.

[goonders]

9 minutes ago, BankFodder said:

Excellent. You are certainly not there to follow their instructions .

They are no longer in control and you are the customer

 

Please could you post her email address here.

Emma Bhatti
Hermes Executive Office
Hermes 1 Capitol Close Morley Leeds LS27 0WH

 

[BankFodder]

Thank you. However that's not an email address.

We need an email address

[goonders]

Apologies. I'm down with Covid...not thinking straight.

It was just the generic Hermes support email ...Hermes Support <myhermessupport@hermes-europe.co.uk>

Also the email subject was "CEO COMPLIANT " (typo?)

[TocTheYounger]

22 minutes ago, goonders said:

Apologies. I'm down with Covid...not thinking straight.

It was just the generic Hermes support email ...Hermes Support <myhermessupport@hermes-europe.co.uk>

Also the email subject was "CEO COMPLIANT " (typo?)

Hi mate, going to send a letter similar to yours, can you confirm full postal address including recipient you sent it to? Cheers

[goonders]

Hi, I posted to the following (recorded delivery):

Hermes Legal Team
Hermes Capitol House
1 Capitol Close
Morley
Leeds
LS27 0WH

[TocTheYounger]

Cheers, also got an email from some dude named Tariq who has been personally asked by the CEO to look into this matter for me  unfortunaley Hermes wants nothing to do with me and suggest I go beg Packlink lol

 

Guess Im sending the claim letter and then filing with small claims court

[goonders]

I haven't received a reply from Hermes Legal to my formal complaint letter, it has been 10 days.  I am ready to send my Letter of Claim (attached).  Please could you look at it and let me know if it is okay to send.  Thanks in advance. 
As a side note I saw online that Hermes have changed their name to Evri, do you know why they have done this?  Will this affect the way I progress my claim?Hermes CAG Formal Letter of Claim.docx

[BankFodder]

Yes that's fine. It's a bit wordy but it's fine.

In terms of the name change, I think that you contracted with an organisation called Hermes and you may as well sue them in that name. It will be funny if they try to raise that as a technical obstacle

[FruitSalad1010]

insure not ensure

[goonders]

@FruitSalad1010 well spotted. thank you. 

[goonders]

A fortnight has passes and still no reply to my formal Letter of Claim.

I am ready to proceed with my county court claim.  Please can you check if everything looks okay to submit.

Thanks in advance.

Particulars Of Claim.docx

[BankFodder]

Yes that looks fine.

[goonders]

Hi CAG Team,
So after EVRi requested another two week extension to my claim, they finally submitted their response at the last minute (15:59!!) - please see attached, probably had it automated to send it then.

I haven't redacted any names/emails from EVRi as I believe @BankFodder has previously said that was necessary.  If you want me to redact them please delete the document and let me know, I will do the necessary.

The defence sole argument seems to be that I had entered into a contract with Packlink and that my claim should be with them.

I don't think they have mentioned anywhere about me taking out the extra insurance, which I hadn't taken at the time of booking my parcels?

Not sure about the other legal jargon, I think it mostly repeats about Packlink.

Please can you have a look and offer any advise?  I think I have a strong case to pursue my claim.

Claim-Response-Copy.pdf

[BankFodder]

This is absolutely normal.

You will receive a directions questionnaire soon and you can opt for mediation if you want because EVRi will have done that as well.

Keep on reading the stories on the sub- forum. You will find that this scenario has been repeated many times.

Let us know when you get the directions questionnaire and eventually let us know when you get a date for mediation or for trial

[goonders]

In their defence they mention, "The Claimant should desist with this claim and contact Packlink", but in Section 3 under 'Mediation' it says... "Willing to try mediation", the answer is 'Yes'.

I applied on the new MCOL website, it says ,"The defendant has already agreed to mediation. We’ll contact you, within 28 days after your response, to arrange a free appointment."
So I think I can just go ahead, or do I need to wait for  the directions questionnaire?