Lost £130 and don’t know what to do

[lilpeepgothboy]

Saved up and decided to treat myself to some new clothes. Royal Mail delivered it and left the parcel on the steps leading up my front door.

I was at work and came home and it was gone. No neighbours took it in.

Complained to the retailer and they took a month to do an investigation all to come back and say Royal Mail said it’s delivered so tough luck (there’s a delivery photo of it on the steps).

I’ve complained to Royal Mail who said the retailer can raise a claim against them, but when I go back to the retailer they say Royal Mail won’t let them.

Its not fair that I should lose £130 but I’ve no idea what else to do.

It’s got even worse, Royal Mail have now changed their story and suddenly it’s not been delivered to a safe place but physically handed to me. I’m actually shocked.

The day it was delivered I was in the office as I have to be there every Monday and Wednesday.

That's very dissapointing of Royal Mail - are they really saying that

a- The photo is wrong - as it is a photo of steps and not the delivery of the open door.
b- The delivery status is wrong - as it says left on doorstep when it should be handed to person.

I believe the overall responsibility is with the original company who you bought from, who use Royal Mail as their courier. I would be asking for their complaints procedure.

Tell them that's not how it works.

Demand your money back.

100%.

Ask for replacement items.

I once left a terrible review of a company who stopped responding to me, as the poster upthread did and within days the money was refunded to my account. Try that too op.
Do any of your neighbours have CCTV? Could you check to see if you can see the thief if so? If a CCTV have picked the theft up, maybe they will be good enough to give you the footage to provide as proof that it's been stolen.
The company and royal mail sound like they're trying to wriggle out of responsibility with the safe place nonsense. Can you bring your order back up and screenshot it to prove that you haven't provided a safe place?
Open a dialogue with your bank regarding a chargeback too.

so theyre now lying-and the retailer is accepting that after changng their story?

I’d ask RM for proof that you were physically handed the parcel, as you have evidence (that they have provided) that this did not happen and that the parcel was left on your step.

I would then ask them for evidence that you have designated the step as a SafePlace.

When they can’t provide this, send a letter before action to the retailer saying that you have included the proof that RM did not deliver to a safe place, and that you would like the order re-sending or you will be filing a small claims court claim against them.

Retain any evidence you have that you weren’t at home (doorbell footage showing you leaving and returning, statement from a colleague, your phone location tracking history) and if they don’t comply then submit online via MCLO. There’s a small cost but there is absolutely no way you would lose the case.

Dear Mr Postman Boss,

As your employee has been sent out to deliver goods while not properly trained I assume you are taking full responsibility for his actions and will organise my refund and offer and apology forthwith. Your employee has admitted to 1) photographing the package in the wrong place 2) Pressing the wrong option on his handheld device and now best of all 3) Handing the parcel to a trespasser on my property so it is the least you can do.

I would also like for him to supply a full description of the person he handed the package to for the police, where this person was on my property and what they were doing. Were they just loitering in the garden? Did they follow the postman and claim to live there? Were they breaking in or had already broken in? All this is vital for the police to know. I will check with my neighbours for CCTV footage as this situation has suddenly become extremely serious. Thank goodness your employee was there to witness this crime.

Yours sincerely,

OP

This happened to me a couple of years ago and I had the same "advice". Ignore the advice - escalate the complaint with RM and do not accept that it's the retailers problem. Threaten to take them to the RM Ombudsman. Then escalate with the retailer too. You have to be resolute - don't back down. Harass them with every means at your disposal - email, social media etc. Same with the retailer. Don't forget TrustPilot too - a fair few retailers don't like bad reviews on there.

It took me several weeks arguing. Then in the same week RM decided to give me a "discretionary" payment to the tune of £150 (my item was £149.99). And Paypal refunded the purchase because the retailer refused to talk to anyone! So I ended up doubling my money and went to another retailer for a similar item (I won't ever go back to the one who tried ignoring me).

Where was the "safe place" they delivered my parcel to? The rubbish bin, on the public street, on collection day!!!!!

Something similar happened to me with cult beauty. I raised a chargeback with my bank and quoted the law above. I didn’t give the retailer permission to leave my order in a safe place or to give it anyone that isn’t me.

RM are so monumentally shit at the moment, due to their fuckup last week I have lost over £200, and got NOWHERE with a complaint. It was the postman's fault but not got anywhere with them. I am annoyed, luckily its not a huge amount of money for me to lose but I am mad, I will try not to use them again if possible.

OP reading your update, it does not surprise me ONE bit that they are now lying, in my complaint they tried to blame me but it was the postman's fault

I’ve not had a positive update. RM haven’t admitted fault and said there’s no point investigating further and will refund me the amount lost.

RM did something similar with me. I ordered an expensive gift for my nephew from John Lewis and the Royal Mail delivery guy put it on his doorstep in central London. We even had Ring footage of someone stealing it 60s after the van pulled out (so the delivery driver would def have seen the theft). The driver told RM and John Lewis it was personally delivered, had photographic proof, and John Lewis tried to blame me until I threatened to go to Martin Lewis with the Ring footage proving they were all lying.

In the end I got a refund from John Lewis and £30 from Royal Mail to cover ‘inconvenience’.

RM emailed me to say the parcel had been delivered about 10 mins after delivery, so it was still there. I gave them appropriate feedback on their “how did we do” question.

DS ordered something last Christmas and although the courier (not RM) gave a delivery time of 8pm on 24th Dec either they didn’t deliver it or it was stolen (again we were in and nobody rang the doorbell). DS got a refund from the company without any problems.

Is that definitely your doorstep, OP?

I work for an online retailer and unfortunately this is a very common occurrence. The claim process with Royal Mail through the company business account is incredibly simple, and we have logged several similar delivery disputes. All credited back to our business account through Royal Mail.
I would go back to the retailer, insisting they escalate the claim for failed delivery to RM, but I would also follow PP advise and leave a very poor review on trust pilot/Google/ Feefo and post on their Twitter page. It's amazing how fast a resolve is reached when faced with bad publicity x

First of all, stop going between RM and the retailer. You’ve done as much as you can there and really, you don’t need to. The contract between the retailer and RM is their business.

The law states that the onus is on the retailer to ensure safe delivery, unless you specify otherwise, which you say you haven’t, so that’s irrelevant.

You’ve tried everything else so in my opinion you’d be best going down the small claims route, which is really easy. Before you open a claim, you need to send them an official ‘letter before action’ to be compliant with the court process. Here is a template from Citizens Advice. Obviously use your own details and I’d add the excerpt from a PP where it shows the relevant legislation.

When I did this, I posted it from 2 different Post Offices so they can’t say they didn’t receive it. You could also send it via email too but definitely post it.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/small-claims/Problems-with-goods---letter-before-court-action/

Make sure you keep proof of all the emails etc that you’ve sent and received in case it gets as far as court (hopefully it won’t).

Don’t bother arguing with then again, just get the letter done and be prepared to make the claim if they don’t respond. Claiming is relatively easy.

Also, which retailer is it?

‘Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, you’re responsible for making sure my order is delivered to me at my address or to an agreed alternative safe place. I did not agree to my order being left in an alternative place, in this case my doorstep, and I have not received it.”

Your contract is with the retailer, not the delivery company so if the item is not delivered to you, the retailer is legally required to resolve the issue and reimburse you / send replacement items (assuming you didn't give them specific instructions to leave it wherever it was stolen from).

Don't be fobbed off by the company's investigations / being asked to deal with the delivery company yourself, it's not your job to do that.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/somethings-gone-wrong-with-a-purchase/if-something-you-ordered-hasnt-been-delivered/

If you paid by credit / debit card then you can also make a claim/chargeback via your bank.