20yo DD was home alone- 2 Proovia delivery came into house and stood over her until she transferred £60 into their own bank account- raging at response

She said 3rd floor so presumably once the daughter opened the door expecting to just be accepting a delivery she then found herself alone in a hallway with 2 men demanding money.. I think many women of any age would feel intimidated in that situation, nevermind a 20 year old.

As for "it doesn't matter that you're a psychologist possibly in meetings with vulnerable children you should always have your phone on you", no. Not every job means you can be available to just step out and take a none urgent call.

This. I'm not allowed my phone in my office area. It's kept in a locker outside. I can pick up messages at breaks, and if I know someone is going to call at 10am, I can arrange to be available for that, but if it's a vague, "we'll call a couple of hours before," I probably can't answer.

If I was seeing someone like a psychologist, I'd probably not be happy to have my session interrupted by a call about a delivery, either.

I honestly would tell her not to answer the door to anyone, and that is the advice I would give any woman home alone. I dont care how many of the clowns on this thread pretend this is an overreaction.

How are those of us who live alone meant to live if we can never have deliveries? I sometimes get things delivered because I can't carry them by myself, and, living alone, I don't have someone else to ask.
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I hope you get some useful follow-up, OP. If they didn't tell her that going to the third floor involved an extra payment before they moved it, then they weren't giving her the choice to say no because of the payment. They might have assumed she knew because of their Ts&Cs, but it would have not done them any harm (if behaving honestly) to give a reminder and double check she was okay with it.

If a delivery is planned between say 2-6, then it isn't ops fault if it comes at 10 and no one is there. As it was, someone was fortunately. Having realised the floors didn't match up, someone could have walked up the stairs and spoken politely to the daughter to explain it's extra for stairs and where did she want it leaving.

As for "it doesn't matter that you're a psychologist possibly in meetings with vulnerable children you should always have your phone on you", no. Not every job means you can be available to just step out and take a none urgent call.

Well exqctlym. One could have stayed with the table and one could have come up and knocked the door and said "delivery didn't mention it was up three flights, it's £20 a flight, what do you want us to do?". And even then it definitely should go through the books, not into their personal banks.

And they were already angry op hadn't answered her phone, despite the issue being THEIR time keeping.

But according to many on this thread, it can't possibly be the vile mens fault, they have every right to act aggressively to a lone woman to extory money from her.

@SleepingStandingUp I don’t understand why they didn’t leave it on the first floor either. Presumably someone opened the main tenement door for them and then they came upstairs looking for the third floor flat?
I suppose they needed a signature for the delivery, but if their instructions said deliver to the first floor…

Hmm...
I’m not entirely sure about this, OP. The story feels a little too convenient in places.

FWIW, my concern is less with the delivery team and more with the situation your daughter was placed in (by you). Most people are aware of how deliveries work, especially for large items that require two or more people to carry. A time slot is always given, and yes, they can arrive early, late, or bang on time.

Leaving the timing aside, I’m surprised you didn’t think to keep your phone on hand that day, even just in case. It’s the kind of precaution most of us take because you never know. Similarly, giving your daughter a heads-up about the delivery would have been a sensible and useful thing to do. Again, you never know (as we've seen).

Also, it seems you opted not to pay the extra fee for delivery up to your third-floor flat, which meant the item was supposed to be left at ground level. From the delivery team’s perspective, how could they be sure that your daughter wasn't the one who arranged the delivery, changed her mind about where she wanted it delivered, and now owed them £60 for the change in delivery agreement? Even if she said she wasn’t, they had no way of knowing for sure as she's legally an adult.

Of course delivery staff don’t typically insist on payment before completing the delivery. They’re expected to bring the item to the agreed room/floor first. So no, they wouldn't have insisted on the extra payment before delivering to your 3rd floor flat. That would have been unprofessional.

It’s possible they’ve encountered situations where customers tried to avoid charges, which might explain why they insisted on payment, which they're entitled to by the way. It's not really their fault that you didn't make proper plans for this delivery.

As I said, I feel for your daughter. It must have been frightening just having to handle something you failed to prepare her for. The way this unfolded suggests she was caught in the middle of a plan that wasn’t fully thought through. I can see how the “intimidated by two men” angle could be used to strengthen a refund claim but the company may be well within their rights here.

The sodding job was to deliver it to the first floor, not to demand an EXTRA £60 INTO THEIR PERSONAL BAMK ACCOUNTS for varying it up extra stairs.

You think their terms and conditions include aggressively demanding £60 into their personal accounts for carrying an item up stairs? They were paid to deliver it to the first floor. Absolutely nothing stopping them leaving it on the first floor. Instead they scared and bullied a vulnerable woman. I very much doubt they'd have done the same if DH had been the one home alone.

I must be missing something - they provided a service and expected to be paid in line with their Ts and Cs. Your unlucky daughter didn’t know about them and it made her anxious - but it wasn’t illegitimate or extorted. Pay her back, tell her she did the right thing, and move on.

I think you are being perfectly reasonable, and that the couriers behaved despicably. Hope your daughter is feeling ok. Some of the replies to your OP are nuts!

'You and Yours' consumer programme on Radio 4 might also be a good angle to try if you get no joy through other avenues.

Actually, I agree. It would not hurt at all to approach the police with the information she has and let the company know if the police are helpful.

And that doesn't matter.

They would have still asked for the money, regardless, but a dozen bodybuilders could have told them to fuck off - whereas they bullied and intimdated OPs daughter into giving them money. Because they could.

Lesson to take: deliveries can change time. Always tell people in the house/flat that a delivery is due and details just in case

I’d report it to the police. They used intimidation to forcefully extract cash from someone who didn’t owe them anything. It was your debt to pay and they should have gone about it the correct way

Who or what are Proovia? Who had you actually ordered from? What had you ordered? And how do you have their full
names - did they demand payment into their personal bank accounts?

Did that post make you feel clever?

This thread is so frustrating!!

Summary for the hard of comprehension…..

OP lives in a 3rd floor flat.

She was expecting delivery of a table at X time.

Delivery was agreed to the first floor only and OP intended to be home at delivery time X so that her and DH could carry the table to the 3rd floor, thus avoiding additional £60 delivery charge.

As OP intended to be home, there was no need to give any information about the delivery to her DD.

Delivery drivers turned up at Y time instead, so neither OP nor DH were home yet.

Delivery drivers took it upon themselves to carry the table to the 3rd floor where upon now already being inside with DD, who was alone, they aggressively demanded she pay them the £60 3rd floor delivery charge.

Retailer is being non-plussed in response to OPs complaint.

But at the point they carried it up they didn't even know if someone at home never mind someone who had money to pay them

So your 20 year old daughter, who is still 'a girl', was menaced out of money by these evil delivery men who were out to hurt her and not just finish the sodding job? Aye, right. You're the type of customer that trades people fucking dread. Get. A. Grip.

Report to her bank as fraud in case they can reclaim. I was able to get money back this way after goods weren't reviewed from an online seller.

Because they didn’t tell the daughter about the charge until after they had brought it up and were inside the house. If they had come at the scheduled window, OP would have been there to bring it up to the third floor.

And if it had been, they would not have stood over them being intimidating bullies.

How would they have know who was in the flat though? Could've been half a dozen bodybuilders

@Loganran Yes, tell them to leave any deliveries in the communal area downstairs. Not safe to let them into your flat.