Strange missing parcel situation

[deniser]

I sent a parcel by DPD to a terraced house. The customer rang in the afternoon of the delivery day to say she still had not received it. When I tracked it, it said that it had been delivered and signed for that morning in her name. She said she had been in all day and it had definitely not been delivered to her.

DPD's tracking showed that he had parked his van three doors down so we know he was in the right street and very close to the house. After checking with all the neighbours and searching for it, we contacted DPD to ask them to contact the driver. The driver proved very elusive but after a lot of messages that he didn't return and entry into and out of the depot where he hid and made no contact, they eventually said he had delivered to the wrong house but would try to retrieve the parcel. He was unable to say which number or describe the house.

On the third day, again after much chasing, the driver said that he had delivered to the correct house after all, that he had rung the bell to speak to the occupier but that they looked out of the window but didn't open the door. My customer says she was at out this time.

I have looked on Google streetview and it is a bog standard row of terraced houses and there is no mistaking the house numbers.

The parcel is valuable so I now don't know what to do! My gut instinct is to believe my customer who has stuck to her story and been helpful and responsive throughout. I feel if I don't refund the customer (the item is unique and can't be replaced) that will have wider repercussions on my business. There is no compensation for this item available from DPD.

DPD believe the driver and say my customer must be lying.

Any ideas?

 

[Newchodge]

Cancel your contract with DPD

 

[g]

Cancel your contract with DPD

Maybe wise... although similar things happen with other couriers.

The parcel is valuable so I now don't know what to do! My gut instinct is to believe my customer who has stuck to her story and been helpful and responsive throughout. I feel if I don't refund the customer (the item is unique and can't be replaced) that will have wider repercussions on my business. There is no compensation for this item available from DPD.
DPD believe the driver and say my customer must be lying.

You may consider it wise to deal under an agreement which appropriately covers such instances... and for which acceptable proof of delivery and receipt is obtained.

In the current scenario...

• The customer is the loser - their agreement is with you, and for which the recourse is a 'didn't arrive' claim and action against you.
• You're 'legally ok' in any such claim, because the courier is claiming proof of service performed.
• The decent thing is for you to satisfy your customer (explain, apologise, replace/refund, provide additional goodwill gesture), and bring an action (likely time-consuming, expensive, unlikely to succeed) against the courier.

 

[NewGardenStyle]

Not much you can do unfortunately. Refund the customer and take the hit.

 

[antropy]

DPD believe the driver and say my customer must be lying.

Insist that DPD investigate further, keep on at them until they give you more info. Is there a sample of the signature? If so does it look anything like the customer's signature? Fraud is a very serious offence so if the driver faked the signature he'd be in a lot of trouble.

But also, what item is it? Is it an item that a driver would want? Is it easily sold?

It's worth trying to think of what might have happened - come up with a theory and test it.

What are the options?

1. The customer is lying and has the package.
2. The driver is lying and has the package.
3. Someone else at the customer package collected the package and didn't tell your customer.
4. The driver delivered to the wrong door.
5. There's been some other misunderstanding ...

 

[Newchodge]

Analysing the situation gives 3 possible scenarios:

The delivery driver made a mistake
The delivery driver stole the item
The customer is lying.

Look at the behaviour of the delivery driver:

The driver proved very elusive but after a lot of messages that he didn't return and entry into and out of the depot where he hid and made no contact, they eventually said he had delivered to the wrong house but would try to retrieve the parcel. He was unable to say which number or describe the house.

This behaviour may be explained if he had made a mistake and was desperately trying to cover up. It may also be exlained by his having stolen the item and be desperately trying to cover up.

On the third day, again after much chasing, the driver said that he had delivered to the correct house after all, that he had rung the bell to speak to the occupier but that they looked out of the window but didn't open the door. My customer says she was at out this time.

He could be telling the truth, but if so, what was his purpose in ringing the bell?

Your customer's behaviour shows no suspicious traits at all.

Surely, there should have been a signature for delivery, has it been checked?

Has DPD given any explanation for their driver's suspicious behaviour?

I may be cynical, but if DPD acknowledges that the driver was at fault, they will have to compensate you. If they support their driver, they don't.

 

[finleydesign]

To be honest, its not your call on how this will pan out, the customer will claim a refund, you have no evidence to prove otherwise the consumer will always win, so the only thing you can do is learn from it

With all ecommerce you run the risk, not the customers, so fraud, chargebacks etc are sadly part of the business, however look at how you can reduce your risk, however long term there nothing you can do if someone wants to order something and say they didn't get it, they win, whether they did or did not receive it, becomes irrelevant

 

[g]

...the customer will claim a refund, you have no evidence to prove otherwise the consumer will always win...

Increasingly, customers have been effectively powerless... actions against the vendor have frequently failed when the vendor provides evidence-of-delivery from the courier - and balance-of-probability often favours the vendor/courier rather than the customer. And because of this, chargebacks frequently fail too.

 

[deniser]

To be honest, its not your call on how this will pan out, the customer will claim a refund, you have no evidence to prove otherwise the consumer will always win, so the only thing you can do is learn from it

That's not actually the case. If I submit proof of delivery and signature to the card company, they won't uphold the chargeback so I won't lose my money. But the customer can damage me massively in terms of reputation so I need to refund her.

 

[deniser]

Cancel your contract with DPD

I am thinking of it but on balance, probably won't find a better company.

 

[deniser]

Maybe wise... although similar things happen with other couriers.



You may consider it wise to deal under an agreement which appropriately covers such instances... and for which acceptable proof of delivery and receipt is obtained.

In the current scenario...

• The customer is the loser - their agreement is with you, and for which the recourse is a 'didn't arrive' claim and action against you.
• You're 'legally ok' in any such claim, because the courier is claiming proof of service performed.
• The decent thing is for you to satisfy your customer (explain, apologise, replace/refund, provide additional goodwill gesture), and bring an action (likely time-consuming, expensive, unlikely to succeed) against the courier.

Agree. The only foolproof method for couriers is actually to take a photo of the recipient. Signatures are totally irrelevant when you can't actually sign properly on those electronic pad things and couriers often sign themselves.

 

[Deleted member 59730]

Surely, there should have been a signature for delivery, has it been checked?

I had this happen a while back and posted here about it. Drivers signing the customer's name is apparently common.

Whenever we had a customer saying they had not received a parcel we always asked for proof of delivery and faxed the customer to identify the signature.

(My missing parcels were about 95% for deliveries to W H Smith shops!)

 

[Newchodge]

I have often signed for parcels. The instruction to sign with a finger makes it absolutely impossible to identify whether the recipient has signed. Isn't it time these electronic marks were deemed unaccepatable as proof of delivery?

 

[deniser]

Insist that DPD investigate further, keep on at them until they give you more info. Is there a sample of the signature? If so does it look anything like the customer's signature? Fraud is a very serious offence so if the driver faked the signature he'd be in a lot of trouble.

But also, what item is it? Is it an item that a driver would want? Is it easily sold?

It's worth trying to think of what might have happened - come up with a theory and test it.

What are the options?

1. The customer is lying and has the package.
2. The driver is lying and has the package.
3. Someone else at the customer package collected the package and didn't tell your customer.
4. The driver delivered to the wrong door.
5. There's been some other misunderstanding ...

The signature is actually the first two letters of the customer’s surname plus a squiggle. Come to think of it, do people sign just their surnames? I certainly start with with Christian name and then a squiggle. Further cause for suspicions the courier’s part.
My customer says it’s nothing like her signature but if she was intending to defraud she would change it.
The item is desirable if you have a child and certainly saleable.

Scenario 3 isn’t possible unless someone was standing right outside the customer’s front door and intercepted it. There is a tiny gap between house and pavement (not more than 2 metres) so not somewhere someone would stand to lurk like on a long path up to the front door. But then why wouldn’t the courier say he handed it to someone outside the house?

5. I can’t see how this is possible.

It’s either 1, 2, 4 or the driver left it in the porch and someone has stolen it. But then why not say he left it in the porch?

 

[deniser]

I have often signed for parcels. The instruction to sign with a finger makes it absolutely impossible to identify whether the recipient has signed. Isn't it time these electronic marks were deemed unaccepatable as proof of delivery?

Agreed.

 

[Paul Norman]

Unfortunately, whoever is lying here, you are the one carrying the risk. That is how it works.

You have to refund the customer.

DPD are probably the best courier company in UK, so the temptation to cancel the contract, although strong, is probably a shot your own foot. It maybe that they have a rogue driver in the area - I have had situations where a two parcels went missing in the same area. At this point the courier company took swift action, and for a short while I used an alternative to dispatch to that city.

Annoying, isn't it. But don't spend too long on it, because you have a business to run.

 

[deniser]

Analysing the situation gives 3 possible scenarios:

The delivery driver made a mistake
The delivery driver stole the item
The customer is lying.

Look at the behaviour of the delivery driver:


This behaviour may be explained if he had made a mistake and was desperately trying to cover up. It may also be exlained by his having stolen the item and be desperately trying to cover up.


He could be telling the truth, but if so, what was his purpose in ringing the bell?

Your customer's behaviour shows no suspicious traits at all.

Surely, there should have been a signature for delivery, has it been checked?

Has DPD given any explanation for their driver's suspicious behaviour?

I may be cynical, but if DPD acknowledges that the driver was at fault, they will have to compensate you. If they support their driver, they don't.

I agree only the driver’s behaviour is suspicious not the customer’s.
DPD’s new compensation levels are £12 per kilo. £12 doesn’t even begin to compensate me. You have to pay £7 per parcel for Insurance cover which is unrealistic for the parcels worth hundreds rather than thousands.
DPD don’t seem to grasp that there is anything wrong. As far as they are concerned, the driver is a little bit annoying for not responding to them but not particularly so as he is not allowed to answer the phone while driving. Apart from that, they just say the driver says he delivered the parcel and the customer signed for it and that’s that. They have at my insistence sent it to “investigations”whoever they are but the more days that elapse the less likely they are to be able to get to the bottom of it.
I also asked why would he ring the bell if he had delivered to the correct house. It makes no sense.
All I have been asking for is the house number he delivered to and it took him three days and two visits to the property to provide that. Hmmm.

 

[gibby]

DPD are usually pretty good but every now & then they mess up & I find it takes some nagging to sort it out. Usually, the problem is the wrong info being passed from the driver to the depot to phone staff.
I would ask for your rep to come and see you for a chat to try to sort out the matter urgently as the longer this goes on the hard er it gets to sort out.

 

[Deleted member 226268]

That's the problem these days when even the largest well known courier companies employ drivers who are
unscrupulous Low-Life thieving scum on minimum wage.

The courier drivers know that if they do not scan the parcel with their hand held laser scanner on collection, then the courier company has no idea whatsoever if the parcel has been picked up,
or not.

It is not registered on their system.
The courier company has no idea where that parcel is.

The driver is then completely free to list your parcel contents on Ebay.

If you are selling expensive items, then you need a couple of these >>>>>>

https://www.trackershop-uk.com/prod...orcer-covert-magnetic-tracker-6-week-battery/


Put the unit in a pre-paid return envelope inside the packaging, and ask the buyer to send it back to you when the parcel arrives.

You can track the location of your parcel in real time on your phone, find out exactly where the parcel went if reported not delivered,
inform the police where it is if it winds up and stays at some residential address.

The courier driver's home address most likely.

.

 

[JamieM]

On the third day, again after much chasing, the driver said that he had delivered to the correct house after all, that he had rung the bell to speak to the occupier but that they looked out of the window but didn't open the door. My customer says she was at out this time.

Is this referring to the actual delivery or was that him going back to investigate?

If the former then how could he deliver if she didn't open the door? In that case he could only have left the parcel outside without authorisation to do so, meaning he and DPD are at fault and you should take the complaint further.

 

[Vardan 89]

Agree. The only foolproof method for couriers is actually to take a photo of the recipient. Signatures are totally irrelevant when you can't actually sign properly on those electronic pad things and couriers often sign themselves.

I am not sure, but may be few companies might be using this in the UK. With the increasing ecommerce activities in India more and more courier companies are using pads having a a camera on the top ( sames as we have in mobile camera) and the courier man while asking to sign on the pad also ask the customer to look in to the camera for a live movie of him.or her signing.

May it would be worthwhile for anyone looking to start a new courier contract to check if they have such facilities

 

[Page]

The signature is actually the first two letters of the customer’s surname plus a squiggle. Come to think of it, do people sign just their surnames? I certainly start with with Christian name and then a squiggle. Further cause for suspicions the courier’s part.

And would that be what is on the label by any chance - I do not even have to guess - but could be wrong

You do not sign with your initials and definitely not with the initial of your middle name

And just in case

If on the parcel there is A NAME and it is signed A B NAME - then if the B is correct then it has to be the customer or someone that knows them

 

[Newchodge]

I always sign using both my initials. even when it is an illegible finger signature.

 

[deniser]

DPD are usually pretty good but every now & then they mess up & I find it takes some nagging to sort it out. Usually, the problem is the wrong info being passed from the driver to the depot to phone staff.
I would ask for your rep to come and see you for a chat to try to sort out the matter urgently as the longer this goes on the hard er it gets to sort out.

I agree the communication is poor.
I don't even know if I have a rep. I know I have an account manager based 130 miles away but she is not interested.

 

[wayzgoose]

None of them will be interested at the moment - they're all looking for chickens ;-)