parcel force con!!!

[steve52]

please be warned ,i sent a fold up bicycle via parcelforce in the bike bake it came in, it arrived with the fround chainring bent beond use, can i cliam? NO they said insufficient pakageing? well my first piont is they excepted it for carrage? the second is that it is not an easy thing to bend so unreasonable force has been applyed while it was in there care? but they claim its my duty to reerch there policy befor i use them! what a cop out if u send a bike guys beware!!!!

 

[rich p]

What's a bike bake? A bag or a box?

 

[steve52]

opps

sorry about the spelling erros im mr angry at the moment, haveing just had them explain to me that its my fault they damaged my cycle!!!!!!!!

 

[rich p]

I agree it's maddening. A lot of these people employ monkeys and don't realise the ongoing damage to their business that occurs due to a lack of care.

 

[ASC1951]

You could take it further, Steve. The two points you make are good ones - they did knowingly accept it as it was, and it would have taken a lot of force to bend the chain ring. Having a page of get-out clauses doesn't get them out of their duty of reasonable care.

Take it up in writing as a formal complaint, but it will probably cost you a new chainring in postage and twice that in general aggravation.

 

[redjedi]

Make an official claim in writing and you may have more luck.

Did you send it last week and get delivery this week?

Having dealt with lot's of courier companies I will always try to avoid sending things on Fridays so they don't go knocking around a warehouse all weekend.

I will also try to avoid using Parcelforce and Citylink. UPS is my favoured courier at the moment, excellent service.

I'm afraid that's not much use to you now though.

 

[gavintc]

A bike bag is not adequate packaging. Parcels get moved around on conveyor belts, drop into packaging bins, get loaded on truck and get put under a whole lot of other parcels. If you did not pack it properly - personal problem. If you did not insure it for transit - personal problem.

 

[jeltz]

Some 15 years ago I used to drink with a guy that worked for parcel force and he "joked" that they were all baffled as to where the island - frag isle was. His attitude was it made no difference if something was marked as fragile, handle with care etc he just lobbed it all in the back of the van and if the packaging wasn't sufficient to protect it that wasn't his problem.

One would hope that things have changed in the last decade and a half but I doubt it.

 

[swee'pea99]

I used to work in a professional cameras shop and one of my jobs was to take the mail order stuff to the local post office. This was mostly top end gear, some of it real precision engineering - lenses for large plate cameras and the like. We packed everything with at least 4" of padding on every side, because the counter staff would check in these boxes with FRAGILE - WITH CARE PLEASE stickers on every side, stamp them, and chuck them over their shoulder.

 

[Gromit]

You should have wrapped it in bubble wrap and a box. You can't trust these guys especially when the biggest kick they get out of their job is destroying peoples stuff.

 

[Globalti]

It's envy.

 

[porteous]

Parcel force

I think there may be a difference between "Not enough packaging" and "negligence". Ask a solicitor (A first consultation often costs nothing), or the CAB, and if they say you have a case take it up through the small claims court (Costs £100 which you get back if you win).

If you had it in a normal bike transit box, with normal interior packaging (The sort that Halfords move bikes around in), then that should be adequate if reasonable care is taken, (I think the law is that they should take reasonable care). If you can then demonstrate that it took real idiocy or malice to damage the bike, i.e. they did not act with reasonable care, then you may well get restitution and costs.

Certainly worth taking the time to find out (Which costs nothing!)

 

[Crankarm]

I think there may be a difference between "Not enough packaging" and "negligence". Ask a solicitor (A first consultation often costs nothing), or the CAB, and if they say you have a case take it up through the small claims court (Costs £100 which you get back if you win).

If you had it in a normal bike transit box, with normal interior packaging (The sort that Halfords move bikes around in), then that should be adequate if reasonable care is taken, (I think the law is that they should take reasonable care). If you can then demonstrate that it took real idiocy or malice to damage the bike, i.e. they did not act with reasonable care, then you may well get restitution and costs.

Certainly worth taking the time to find out (Which costs nothing!)

The OP might approach a solicitor for outline advice only on what to do as owing to the comparatively low value of your claim (less than £5k) and that a solicitor's costs cannot be recovered in the Small Claims Court it would be very unlikely that one would take the case on as it would just not be economic for you.

It's a tricky one. As said above you need to escalate this as an official complaint and claim against Parcel Force. PF have a contractual obligation to you (subject to the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977) which you have entered into with them when you decided to use them to transport your bike, as well as a common law duty of care. It would be reasonable to claim for all costs associated with putting you back in the position prior to the damage being inflicted or had it not happened. The fact that they say insufficient packaging was used doesn't get them off the hook. In fact it re-inforces the view that they took insufficient care of it. If you packaged it as say other manufacturers or suppliers package their bicycles for transit then they haven't a leg to stand on as presumably these bikes aren't all damaged in transit. I would get an estimate for repairs and list of your reasonable expenses in doing so and send this to Parcel Force then take it from there. Be prepared to issue proceedings in the Small Claims for re-imbursement of repair costs and reasonable expenses if they still insist on playing hard ball.

They aren't called Parcel Force for nothing .