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

[fanothetan]

Delivery came significantly earlier than agreed, and these men were angry that I had not answered the phone. I work in CAMHS and never take my phone into clinics- . beside the point anyway, I had no reason to think I needed to.
DD knew nothing about the delivery so totally blindsided by how they were behaving. From their demeanour she assumed I had messed up. They brought the item upstairs (I’m third floor) came into the hall and demanded £60 because they had been paid to deliver to the first floor. True, but would not have been an issue if the delivery has arrived at the agreed time. They stood over her while she transferred it on her phone. Understandably she felt scared and did not argue with them, which was the right thing to do.
The response feels like a parody. I phoned and repeatedly ‘corrected’ with variations on ‘your adult daughter’ ‘yes, but she is an adult’. The initial reply to an email was a bald ‘the transaction was cancelled by you’. This was untrue and anyway are either of these responses the point?
After providing evidence and much to-ing and fro-ing there’s no dispute this happened and they say the driver no longe works for them. Having said they would refund the money, they are now saying they won’t, and asking why it’s taken so long to request a refund. Now it’s only £60 and hones, I honestly could not care less, but it speaks volumes and makes me extremely skeptical that any action was taken by them to address this.
The question is can I do anything? I have one of their full names from the bank transfer and their phone number from the repeated phone calls. Taking it to the police seems trivial if it’s about £60 but it’s not, it’s about grown men intimidating a 20 year old girl in her own home. It’s about an employer who clearly give no fucks at all about this and is happy to prevaricate and hand out platitudes rather than respond appropriately.

AIBU to not just suck it up and accept this is how things are? Or should I post the entire email thread which would be hilarious were it not so totally enraging? If there is a constructive way to get this addressed I might be spared an ulcer.

A table. I think it would be massively risky to revise to pay the money given the circumstances but each to their own.

Sorry that might not have been clear. I live on the third floor of a tenement block.

Your daughter is 20, not a child. Sounds like poor customer service and a poor experience however sounds blown out of proportion to me.

They brought it up, then demanded the money. They probably knew fine she would have felt obliged to pay at that point.

@fanothetan I wish you’d clarified that earlier, OP.

I’ve lived in several upper level flats and deliveries are typically left in a communal area on the first floor for tenants to collect- isn’t that the case in your building?

So she did let them upstairs?

They must have guessed that, because it seems rather surprising to carry it up and then ask.

It only makes sense if they were certain they could guilt-trip her into paying.

No, no, your daughter is supposed to be armed to the teeth when answering the door and immediately react by kickboxing bullying men who demand money from her unexpectedly down the stairs.

This is precisely what happened, and she did precisely the right thing as she was alone with two unknown men.

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.

Let's hope they are never taught by life that it is NOT an overreaction, for their sake.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Did that post make you feel clever?

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?

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.