Delivery Failures

[CurlyWurly]

I charge £3.00 for delivery and send by courier that costs £6.00, which is fine. But on a couple of occassions recently the customers have not been around to accept delivery on repeated occassions and have failed to contact the courier (or me) to arrange delivery and the courier has returned the parcel to us, for which they charge another £6.00 + £8.00 fee(!).

So now I have paid £20 in fees and the customer doesn't even have their parcel (both were cheeky enough to ask me to send it again!).

So is there anyway that I can add something to my terms & conditions to say that we may make a charge if the delivery is unreasonably refused, or no reasonable attempt is made to rearrange delivery if they are out? - without falling foul of the customers legal rights?

Maybe a 'restocking fee'?

[OriginalTouch]

We have had the same problem and I don't think it can be avoided as the customer doesn't know when the courier will turn up. (We also have had a problem if the courier can't find the house and just takes the parcel back to the depot.)

To help avoid problems, we always ask for clear and specific delivery instructions if they will be out (such as leave with the neighbour) and put this clearly on the delivery note.

If the goods are to be left without a signature (such as leave in back porch) the courier asks for a disclaimer to be signed. We make sure that the customer knows that no signature means no proof of delivery and responsibility is passed to them.

I believe that you can charge a restocking fee or even charge delivery again if you send the parcel out more than once. However, this would be difficult to implement if the customer never does receive his parcel (hence charged for nothing) - I could envisage problems here.

[CurlyWurly]

We have had the same problem and I don't think it can be avoided as the customer doesn't know when the courier will turn up.

My problem isn't with customers who aren't around as such, it's with the ones who get carded then make no attempt to rearrange delivery. What do they think is going to happen? That the parcel will just magically deliver itself if they ignore the card long enough? A lot of these orders are for £100 or so, and they have already paid for it, so you'd think they'd make some attempt to get it delivered....

We had one last week where I emailed them straight after the first carding to request that they contacted the courier to arrange redelivery, and got a read receipt back same day. Now we've just receive the email from the courier saying they've not heard back and will return it to us if the customer doesn't contact them today. So they've had a card, and an email, and a week later they have done bugger all about it. No doubt next week they'll come back to me and complain about why we haven't delivered it yet...

I believe that you can charge a restocking fee or even charge delivery again if you send the parcel out more than once. However, this would be difficult to implement if the customer never does receive his parcel

But isn't the point of the restocking fee that the goods have been returned?

(hence charged for nothing).

Well if you refund everything except the original delivery charge, technically you could claim that they have received that service of having the parcel delivered (even if they did not make full use of it). However, I'm pretty sure the distance selling regs don't let you keep the delivery charge, even though it has been 'used', if the customer returns the goods (though don't know if that also applies if the deliver fails).

[chris ashdown]

We did have that problem but just charged them to post it again, but we charge £4.95 postage plus vat and most of our courier fee is less than that so they agree to pay

I think you are making a mistake about not charging the full rate for delivery as in this situation you are unable to charge them more than the £3.00 stated charge

We moved most of our goods under a certain price to Royal Mail Packet post and quite honestly have few complaints and make more money as most packets are less than £2.00 each

[CurlyWurly]

We did have that problem but just charged them to post it again

Are you using a PSP for credit card transactions? if so how did you handle the extra charge?

but we charge £4.95 postage plus vat and most of our courier fee is less than that

wow, which courier do you use?

I think you are making a mistake about not charging the full rate for delivery as in this situation you are unable to charge them more than the £3.00 stated charge

It's £3.00 more than our competitors charge, I don't want to push our luck.

We moved most of our goods under a certain price to Royal Mail Packet post and quite honestly have few complaints and make more money as most packets are less than £2.00 each

Is that just normal post at the post office, or is 'packet post' some special service?

[chris ashdown]

Are you using a PSP for credit card transactions? if so how did you handle the extra charge?

wow, which courier do you use?

It's £3.00 more than our competitors charge, I don't want to push our luck.

Is that just normal post at the post office, or is 'packet post' some special service?

We used to use Pre Auth so we could take repeat payments but now its 3d payment you only get the one payment and have to ask for card details again from the customer or get them to send a cheque

Citylink our rate is linkletter 1kg £4.14

Packet post is direct to RM when you send £15000 per year

[OriginalTouch]

May be of help:

"Under these Regulations which came into force on 31st October 2000, where consumers (as opposed to businesses) buy goods from a web site (or by other means of “distance" sale, such as mail order, fax, digital TV or telephone), they are entitled to a cooling-off period that ends seven working days after receipt of the goods. During this period, the consumer can change his or her mind about the purchase and return the goods for a full refund.

The OFT’s view is that the normal postage and packing charges for the delivery, but not the return, of distance sales purchases must always be refunded in addition to the cost of the goods when orders are cancelled during the cooling-off period."

Other sites also say that there is no legality for a restocking fee - and note that this takes effect up to 7 days after receipt of goods.

Try searching on google!

[Sean Williams]

I charge £3.00 for delivery and send by courier that costs £6.00, which is fine.

So is there anyway that I can add something to my terms & conditions to say that we may make a charge if the delivery is unreasonably refused, or no reasonable attempt is made to rearrange delivery if they are out? - without falling foul of the customers legal rights?

Maybe a 'restocking fee'?

We make sure on average over a year we receive as much in carriage charges as we spend on couriers and post - I would have thought to spend twice as much as you receive is a quick way to lose a lot of money, but perhaps you have no choice in your market sector? Perhaps try the post?

As I understand it, provided it is included in your T&C's, you can charge for extra delivery.

The Distance Selling Regs are quite clear - you must refund the total invoice value (inc. carriage) if the goods are returned;
Another iniquitous rule in these Regs is the customer only has to take 'reasonable care' of the goods - they do not necessarily have to be in perfect as-new condition when they get back to you the supplier, for the customer to get a complete refund.

We always ask for a work address for delivery, but this isn't always possible of course.

I gather DHL now have a new service where delivery can take place from 17:30 to 21:00. We're going to trial it in the new year.

[jxm28788]

I gather DHL now have a new service where delivery can take place from 17:30 to 21:00. We're going to trial it in the new year.

yeah, good luck with that. We applied on their website and heard NOTHING back from them. So we called the number on the website, gave all our details to someone and they said they would pass the details on and get someone to call us back. THat was at least a month ago. Maybe it is just so successfull at the moment they are too busy, or maybe they just ignore you if you don't send a certain amount per year...?

Is there anyone here that uses it, and can give us an idea of the volume you send?

[Mike Hughes]

I've only sent one parcel using DHLs @home service. I used the 48 hour service and they delivered the next day. I booked via interparcel which might help those without enough volume to get bulk rates.

Mike

[CurlyWurly]

I would have thought to spend twice as much as you receive is a quick way to lose a lot of money,

Not really, we mostly send stuff by post, which usually costs less than the £3, and the items that we ship by courier are the larger items which have enough profit built in to subsidise the delivery charge.

As I understand it, provided it is included in your T&C's, you can charge for extra delivery.

Are you talking about the 2nd redelivery charge? (ie. item sent, item fails, item send a 2nd time)

[acompton]

I've only sent one parcel using DHLs @home service. I used the 48 hour service and they delivered the next day. I booked via interparcel which might help those without enough volume to get bulk rates.

Mike

I've been trialling this in the Christmas run-up. I've done about 30-40. Seems to work very well, many are delivered next day, but one took up to 5 days (remote farmhouse and required several trips to find it). I think the end delivery is done by independant delivery agents, and not DHL.

[Mark H]

We used to use Pre Auth so we could take repeat payments but now its 3d payment you only get the one payment and have to ask for card details again from the customer

Chris - isn't this another problem with 3D, that you can't take additional (repeat) payments, and that as a customer you're not supposed to give your password over the phone if the merchant needs to take an additional payment?

[chris ashdown]

Chris - isn't this another problem with 3D, that you can't take additional (repeat) payments, and that as a customer you're not supposed to give your password over the phone if the merchant needs to take an additional payment?

You are right, we get the card details over the phone then use protx vsp which bypasses 3d, but for that amount who cares

[TraceyHand]

You are right, we get the card details over the phone then use protx vsp which bypasses 3d, but for that amount who cares

is that specific to your type of account then? Not being able to process repeat payments?
I can still do a repeat, even on a 3d authenticated transaction, through Protx