Malicious £300 eBay postal return

[marmitetoastie]

I sold an item on eBay. I paid £60 to courier it to them (I only charged them £20 in the listing).

they wanted a refund, it went to a dispute, & they were refunded.

they packed the item (a bike), i instructed the courier to pick it up.

I noticed the box was much heavier, when it arrived. I’ve just got a bill from the courier for excess weight. It’s 59 kilos MORE than on the outward journey. I’ve been charged over £300 for the return postage. EBay refuse to do anything about it, bc they can’t claim the money back.

You absolutely need to weigh the box (complete with bike) and take pics, to establish whether it's the courier or sender at fault.

After that, if the box has been weighted deliberately, IANAL but I wonder if there's anything in the Malicious Communications Act which will help:

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/27/section/1
1 Offence of sending letters etc. with intent to cause distress or anxiety.
(1)Any person who sends to another person—
(a)a [F1letter, electronic communication or article of any description] which conveys—
(i)a message which is indecent or grossly offensive;
(ii)a threat; or
(iii)information which is false and known or believed to be false by the sender; or
(b)any [F2article or electronic communication] which is, in whole or part, of an indecent or grossly offensive nature,
is guilty of an offence if his purpose, or one of his purposes, in sending it is that it should, so far as falling within paragraph (a) or (b) above, cause distress or anxiety to the recipient or to any other person to whom he intends that it or its contents or nature should be communicated.

Op do you have any sort of legal insurance with your house insurance, bank account, car insurance, union membership or similar? It's one of those things that people often forget they have...

If you do, then this would be an excellent thing to ring them up about - you've already paid for the service, so might as well make use of it!

Good advice here ⬆️⬆️⬆️

I'd also be very concerned that your bike has been damaged in some way too.

www.buywithconfidence.gov.uk/profile/parcel-hero-com-ltd/9177/

59kg is a whole extra person. It's impossible to advise until you look at /weigh the box and find out if it was a mistake or malicious. Why do you think it would be malicious?

You really need proper legal advice, if there really are additional weighty items in the box.

I wonder if something would stick under the Fraud Act 2006? You had arranged the courier for the purpose of sending bike + original packaging; and the sender used to deceit to obtain the service of sending you other items along with the bike, knowing payment might be made by you.

www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/fraud-act-2006

Obtaining services dishonestly (Section 11)
The defendant:

obtains for himself or another;
services;
dishonestly;
knowing the services are made available on the basis that payment has been, is being or will be made for or in respect of them or that they might be; and

avoids or intends to avoid payment in full or in part.
This offence replaces obtaining services by deception in Section 1 of the Theft Act 1978 which is repealed by the Act.

The defendant must have the necessary intention at the time that the service is obtained (section 11 (2) (c)).

In many cases, the defendant will also have committed an offence under Section 2 of the Act by making a false representation that payment will be made or made in full. Prosecutors must decide which offence better reflects the criminality involved. The maximum sentence for the Section 11 offence is five years' imprisonment.

so you are going to see what is in there??

www.complaintsdepartment.co.uk/parcelhero/#

Even more similar complaints

And a whole FB page based on similar experiences www.facebook.com/ParcelHeroZero/

I'm guessing she thinks it is malicious because they wanted to return the bike and she refused. They had to raise a dispute with ebay to get her to accept the return and refund them. So she thinks theyve packed the box with something so it would cost her a lot more in courier fees, as a way to get back at her for not sorting the return in a timely manner.

Make sure to put a block on your card

The minute I saw Parcelhero on your invoice thought "uh-oh..." They're the absolute WORST. Stop your card straight away or contact your bank and get them to BLOCK Parcelhero right away - don't say "Oh I'll wait til tomorrow when I have time" - honestly you have to do it straight away.

A bike that weighs 59kg 👀

Still desperate to know…

Realistically there is no point in asking for advice unless and until you can give all the relevant information, which in this case must include what is making the box so heavy.

How does it weigh that much extra? That’s more than I weigh! I hope you get it sort op!
What a headache, what was the reason for the return? Technically the buyer is responsible for paying the reuse postage not you!

The return postage*

Looks to me like they’ve charged you for the volumetric weight rather than the actual weight, it’s pretty standard practice for couriers to charge this way, especially if the box is outside of their standard dimensions.

They e dated the invoice Jun 10th?

This makes much more sense than they have weighed the box down out of spite.

I’m going to go through it tomorrow & see how they’ve managed this
Why wait? get it emptied asap

This is shocking

Shipment date 10th june, invoice date 27th june I think from first blurry pic.

You have got to empty the box - there is absolutely no other way to know whether the return was maliciously weighted or if the couriers have incorrectly weighed it.

There is no point anyone speculating.

And eBay can't help until you know what has gone wrong either.

Open the box!

Cannot wait to see what else is in the box