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.

 

[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.

[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

[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 !!

[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.

[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

 

[goonders]

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

It was just the generic Hermes support email ...Hermes Support <[email protected]>

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

[goonders]

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

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

[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

[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

[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

[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?

[goonders]

My mediation date has been changed from 01/06/22 to 08/06/22.

[goonders]

Thank you @BankFodder for all your advice so far.

 

I will read some more on the third part rights.

 

Also, thanks for the additional information where the judge has confirmed that the insurance requirement is unfair, that will be most useful if they bring it up during the mediation.

[goonders]

Apologies for the late update, I've been a busy since my mediation yesterday; also I wanted to document how the mediation went.
So the mediation call was scheduled (rather early I thought) for between 08:00-10:00.
The mediator called me around 08:10 and after the preliminaries of introducing herself, and asking to confirm who I was and if I’d read the mediation email that I had been sent.  Anyway, she briefly explained the mediation procedure, and asked what I was expecting from the mediation.  I said that I was expecting to be compensated for the full amount set out in Claim, as the money was peanuts to EVRi but was a lot of money for me, she pointed out that whole point of mediation is that I had to be willing to be flexible and was able to compromise.

Thankfully the mediator had read through my claim notes and was familiar with the case, but I went through my notes and filled in some bits that weren’t included in my Claim.  That is, the items were arranged via eBay’s broker Packlink, and that the EVRi was chosen as the courier to book the parcels.  I also pointed out that the EVRi driver did not get the Proof of Delivery signatures for either item, when in fact I had paid extra for that.  I think it was only a £1 or so each.
I also explained how the parcels were delivered empty of their contents (rather than showing delivered as it did for one delivery, where the EVRi driver had sped off without even getting a PoD signature).
Surprisingly the mediator asked me if I had taken out extra insurance at the time of booking my parcel! I'm not sure why she brought that up herself, as the extra insurance wasn’t mentioned in the deference’s response.
Anyway I explained about it being completely unfair and unenforceable, and also made her aware that there two recent judgements that I knew of where the judge had confirmed that the insurance requirement is unfair, and that, if necessary I will produce those judgements (thanks to @BankFodder for this useful bit of information).

After this she advised she would now go away and discuss this with EVRi.  She then asked me if I could hold on or if she should call me back.  I asked her to call me back.
A few minutes later she came back advising that EVRi were willing to settle this today and pay me back £275 for each item (minus £50 compensation which had already paid by Packlink); so they would be settling for £500. I can’t recall if they called this was a ‘goodwill gesture’ or not.

The mediator also said that EVRi were not aware of the two judgments.
She asked if I would accept, I insisted that I was still looking for the full amount, but the mediator again said I needed to be flexible and to compromise.

It was at this stage that the mediator mentioned that EVRi said it was Packlink that I should be looking to get recompense from, as my contract was with them and not EVRi.

EVRi were clearly ignoring my Complaint Letter, Letter of Claim and even my Court Claim where this had been repeatedly stated, that under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 I enjoy full contractual rights and I have the statutory right to sue EVRi.

I also said that if EVRi want to defend on that basis then they need to show me a copy of their contract with Packlink.
Mediator repeated that I needed to be flexible, and if it goes to court the decision could go against me. I felt a bit pressured so I said I’d share the court costs.

Mediator went away she came back a few minutes later with a settlement figure £994.  Also, she said that Evri were not agreeing to sharing the court costs, as I guess if they did that then they would be admitting liability.

EVRi said were aware of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 and had seen cases were the judge had sided with the defendant.  I was sure this wasn’t true, otherwise I’m sure the CAG team would have verified and documented it.

I see this as settlement as a success, as I recovered the costs of original items and also what I had paid for the court costs. I know I’ve lost out on the profits I made on the sales on eBay, but that was okay, it was never my intention to get compensation over and above my claim from Evri, I hadn’t even claimed any interest, or costs for time.

For the amount of time this has gone on (over 5 months), I was just happy to draw a line to the whole sad episode and to put it behind me.
In hindsight If I had stuck it out I definitely could have got a bit more or maybe the whole lot (apologies @BankFodder) for conceding, but I have several health issues and also suffer from high blood pressure so I agreed to this settlement after feeling flustered.
 

As for the whole mediation process - It was very straight forward, extremely easy, although I did feel a bit under pressure by the mediator who asked me to be flexible a number of times. The whole telephone calls from mediator to myself, to EVRi and back took all of 25-30 minutes.
 

Thank you to everyone on this site, especially @BankFodder for their help & advise.  I hope my experience will helped someone. I would advise anyone thinking of taking action against EVRi not to hesitate, and to stick to their guns at the mediation stage.  I would also recommend that they use the new MCOL site as that is very user friendly and easy to use.

 

I will definitely make my donation to this valuable site when the settlement comes through on or before 23^rd June.  I will definitely not forget, and have set myself a reminder to check regularly.

 

[goonders]

 

You're welcome @BankFodder.

 

It was £1124, which included £80 court costs.  I settled for £994, so I gave up on £130.

As I have mentioned that my health is not good at the best of times so had to settle fairly quickly, and having recovered the costs of the original items seemed like a good result.

 

 

[goonders]

I have today finally received my settlement payment from EVRi (Evri), as promised I have made my donation.

 

I have told all my friends about this valuable site.

 

Thank you once again for all your help.