Alreet,

So ParcelForce apparently dropped my nice new (to me – 2nd hand bike) bike on its mech, causing the hanger to pinch close (not a biggie) and the mech to warp out at a weird angle (biggie).

I’ve seen pictures of the bike assembled taken before shipping so am 99% sure the seller isn’t trying to jack me and this was done in transit – I couldn’t get an axle in the hanger dropout when it arrived it had pinched close that much.

Everything else seems fine luckily. Front mech shifts fine and frame looks straight etc (carbon so it’ll spring back anyway)

The mech shifts horribly and looks bent out at an angle so claims time it is.

Has anyone got an experience and tips they can share with claiming? I had extended coverage of £500 quid but realistically I only need 50 odd to get another SLX mech.

What are the chances they will try to shaft me and not pay out?

Cheers

Am currently making my 1st claim against Parcel Force.

So far has been very poor experience.

We shipped a hifi c/o an ebay sale.

Arrived damaged.

Got buyer to return item and provided refund plus postal costs as reasonable thing to do.

Now claiming from parcel force, who like you we paid for insurance with.

Parcel Force say the enquiry they make is with the receipient to ensure adequate packaging was used and that the item arrived damaged. Should said buyer not co-operate then no claim is processed.

Seems highly unfair, as having provided a full refund if our buyer isn’t public spirited and chooses to take time to co-operate then we cannot proceed with a claim. I have told Parcel Force I have the item, in its original packaging for inspection, but this is not how they work.

Has made me re-think who I would use in future. Bastards.
(am slightly bitter currently so perhaps my view could be balanced out by someone who has managed to extract money from Parcel Force…)!

I have. Be prepared. It isn’t a quick process. I stuck to my guns and returned each letter / form to the named person at the bottom of the letters they sent me. Took about 3 months from start to finish but I did get money back from them. Claimed for £75 and received £54. My item wasn’t dmaged it was totally lost. Thankfully not a bike but still. It didn’t actually take that long to complete each form.

Interesting.

Based on the above I think I will just order a new mech and then go through the motions – if I ever get money then I get the money…

i sent some concrete speakers a few years back and both of them arrived in two pieces! i made a claim and they relied on me just giving up with delaying tactics but i dug my heels and kept on at them. repeatedly they lied and it was quite unreal for a such a huge company but i did get a full refund in the end after 9 months. luckily the chap had repaired the speakers in the mean time as he didnt send them back and he was so impressed by them he said for me to keep the reclaimed money! dont give up as they expect you to.

On a side note – I paid on credit card – is it worth threatening to get my bank involved with withdrawing the credit?

I’m about to try and make a claim as I used a 48 hr service and it took 72. their records back that up so not sure how they can argue that one. might be fun.

Tried and failed, despite having paid a considerable sum to Parcelforce for insurance.

Haven’t used them again and would urge others not to. Shambolic company which couldn’t give a shit about its customers once it has their money.

Jesus well this is looking bleak haha.

I have a lot of photos and EXIF data confirming the bike was in working order before it was sent, and photos to prove it is now in non working order after ParcelForce collected.

It looks like I’m popping to the LBS to buy a mech tomorrow then, rather than waiting for the money first. Yay.

I have. Sent some stuff back to Merlin that never arrived. Luckily Merlin cooperated and filled in the paper work (if they hadn’t then no refund). Sent off all the reciepts* and after a while got a cheque.

*There was a slightly commical discussion regarding them misplacing the letter with reciepts but I kept copies and pursuaded them to take these.

I had an item that they returned to sender for no reason, but came and picked it up when I complained.

Took 5 days when I paid for £24hrs. They refunded the cost of delivery, minus VAT…

I had a nightmare with them. Posted a Keyboard which the buyer claimed was damaged,he was definitely pulling a fast one I think. He was expecting me to be covered by Parcelforce insurance whilst he would get his money back through ebay.

Same as JPcapel I had to rely on the buyer sending forms back to Parcelforce which he didn’t, kept claiming he hadn’t received them. This went on for about 2 months until he eventually raised a case with ebay and won. Strangely he didn’t send back the “broken” keyboard as requested by ebay so I never had to issue the refund. The whole time the funds were withheld by Paypal.

It was a total ballache, happily it turned out OK but I would never use Parcelfarce ever again.

Who out of interest is a good courier to use in future?

Avoid Yodel if you can, I’ve had terrible experience with them…

Tries and failed, shocking customer service

Well I’ve had my Claims Account approved and I’ve submitted some photos of the damaged hanger and mech, and one of the bike assembled prior to shipping to prove it happened during transit.

Let’s see what will happen next…

Not Parcelfarce, but regular RM.
Lost a parcel and accepted it had gone astray.
Because I had no proof of value (receipt) for the Retro unused item, no compensation for value.
Limited to £3.60 worth of RM stamps, so not even a cash refund.

I will be choosy next time I have any options, and RM will get as little of my money as possible.

PaulD

DPD have been brilliant when I’ve had them deliver Amazon orders.

My First choice was to go with DPD but they are B2B only – don’t offer consumer shipping from what I could figure. 🙁

This post is timely as I’ve a bike on Ebay finishing Sunday 8 pm. Last time I sold a bike TNT wrecked it causing £425 of damage. I was even thinking about trying Parcelfarce but reading the reports above I will not. Will check DPD now.

What does B2B mean please?

B2B is business to business.

DPD certainly deliver to domestic residences, just not sure they will collect from one.

PaulD

I sold an amp on ebay, after parcelforce shock it around so much that the coil came lose and destroyed bits of circuit it didn’t work as well as intended.

Claimed and after several letters / forms /pictures I got a cheque for £100.

Fairly straight forward

Aye I should of said B2C rather than B2B. They don’t offer C2C from what I can tell.

I’m just thankful it was only the 40 quid mech and 15 quid hanger. Could of been worse if it was 300 quid for a new set of Revs or the cranks/wheels/frame etc etc.

Still, not ideal. I’ve got the motions in place but yet to hear a response from ParcelForce.

Surely it’s the seller’s job to claim?

I’ve done a few personal claims and an assortment of company claims, process isn’t the simplest or the fastest but tbh there was never any bother with any of them.

Well to save effort I offered to organize the shipping, it also helped me get a better deal on the bike overall.

However, this is why I went with the insured coverage so that in the event something like this happened it could be sorted…

Yes, seller has to submit the claim but the recipient will need to provide evidence of damage and retain any packaging for inspection in my experience. I sold a frame once with a slightly damaged Crank Bros headset (which I now know have a habit of shattering). A small part of the headset cup had broken off and I provided detailed pics of the damage before selling the item. However, once it arrived with the buyer the complete cup had shattered despite being very well padded and packed. I refunded my buyer immediately for the cost of the headset which he was more than happy with but my claim from Parcelforce proved fruitless despite full co-operation from both myself and the buyer.

It’s always worth removing the rear mech and bracing the stays when shipping a frame to prevent damage.

Yeah, in normal circumstances that’s right, and I’m sorry to hear you didn’t get any compensation.

In this circumstance I arranged the shipping separate of the payment for the bike – so technically as far as ParcelForce is concerned I just shipped a package I wanted to move from one address to another – I haven’t bought anything, won an auction or the like. Just shipped a box which the contents ended up being damaged.

And you’re right, it is worth removing the rear mech – I will point this out to the seller for future reference. The stays were braced on the forks, however.

Tho obviously I wont mention that to ParcelForce.

Send them a letter quoting the consumer protection act 1987 which you need and will want to read on Wikipedia ASAP then find exactly what is relevant to the situation you now find yourself in.

I have too encountered some nice IMO PF driver inform me on arrival that CRC box had been opened (at the funkin dropout end aswell on carbon rigid forks lukiliy they were 15mm maxled) lol and he believed they were opened by a different courier on route from CRC. You know he usual BS!

Hence why every courier device can be shite depending on the drivers who break not only company policy, procedure not to mention my law! Muhahaha
Which is why I only trust the ups chap who is better than all the rest and guy from city link who both ride dirtbikes too so we end up having a cuppa in middle of road ;d

Vetting process for actual drivers for courier cos needs stringent policies terms to hopefully help prevent massive stealing routine which “some” do on a weekly basis from even Apple warehouses so I see to hear from a neighbours cowboy builder who repeatedly wanted to flog me ipad and iPhone recently intact!

PF that was which will come to no surprise.

Complete bars stewarding **** who are protected by a their employer’s / co procedure to deal swiftly with genuinely unhappy customer’s complaints.

Once claimed £1,500 off them, they tried everything to get out of it but their problem was my parcel was being delivered to a distinguished lawyer in Germany and he was happy to provide statements, photos etc, eventually they gave in and paid but it took months.

Don’t go near City Link, cowboys of the first order, recently lost something of ours worth a few grand and they did not give a toss, they just hid behind their poxy T&Cs.

Within reason shipping is an area not to cut corners on cost, Fed Ex and UPS have been safe and apart from that one problem with Parcelforce they have been good.

Parcelforce are beyond awful. Their 24 hour service usually takes 48,and if it is sent on 48hr, it will be delivered whenever they can be arsed. The thought of having to try to recover damages from them would fill me with dread. I use city Link now. Always on time, and the drivers round here are proper friendly.

Having said that, I am sure they will all do what they can to make the claims process as difficult as possible.

Both interesting stories.

I will happily go down the consumer protection act 1987 which I am familiar with.

I’m going to bite the bullet and replace the mech for the 38 quid it is on CRC but I am going to follow this all the way just out of pure principle.

Had an email from Parcelforce today telling me that the reason my 48hr parcel took 72hrs was because it was in an excluded postcode. They sent me a link to their terms and conditions showing that KW3 is excluded and that’s why my parcel to W3 took 3 days.

As I booked this service and paid for it online, am I covered by distance selling regulations?

Id argue that the delivery, being to a specific address, is a custom product and so outside DSR 🙂

We use TNT at work and have Only had one item damaged and none lost all in ten years
The damaged one was a bit of a faf to get money back for but nothing to mad

Interesting view Stoner and I see your point. However, can it be custom if I selected it from their standard product range?

Punters badly pack/protect their items shocker if you ever saw a parcel processing centre you would bubblewrap and protect your item and definatly remove a rear mech and brace the stays!Sender should be claiming.

Rich

I’ve claimed via PArcelMonkey 3 times, each time it’s take 3 weeks or so and i’ve got back the full insured value of items plus charges for postage.

They’ve been great actually

I’ve tried most couriers and on the whole it’s been good. Parcel force did take 48hrs to deliver a package on 24hr express the other day (was loaded onto the local depot van at 7am in the morning but delivered the next day) but it’s Xmas and they are busy so I’m not too bothered. I ordered it on Saturday afternoon so was expecting Tuesday anyway.

I was impressed with TNT the other day. Booked online with P2G just before lunch. Picked up about 2 hours later just after lunch and delivered to Essex before 11am the next day. Had some cheeses and other food in there so I wanted a next day courier.

Update:

ParcelForce claims have just sent me an email saying I have a cheque on its way for £37.99 which covers the cost of the new mech. Unsure if I should push for the hanger also.

Time taken for claim: 5 days or so.