Courier charged us but didn't deliver item. Now they want further funds to return

MrStuffins

Hi,

At Xmas time I ordered a rowing machine from Amazon. When it arrived, the box was burst open and half of the items were missing.

I contacted Amazon and they told me to send it back and they would give me a refund and cover the return costs. The item had to be returned to the UK.

We contacted a company who could do this, at a hefty cost as it was a VERY heavy box, and we paid them up front (via Paypal) and they collected the box.

After the box landed in the UK, they contacted us saying that the info on the label (Which Amazon provided and included full address etc.) was insufficient and that they needed other info like an "ASN" and other things.

We contacted Amazon, who said that none of that was needed. That they just had to rock up to the agreed address and Amazon would accept delivery. (I've returned things to Amazon before, i'd never heard of needing anything other than just the address).

This went back and forth for weeks. The courier saying they needed the info, Amazon saying it was not needed.

In the end, the courier claims to have arrived at the Amazon depot and was refused delivery. Note that the tracking status never changed on their website.

We have now asked that they send us back our item and issue a refund. They tell us that they will not issue a refund, and in fact if we want our item back we have to pay more charges to have it sent back to us.

My opinion is this: we've hired them to provide a service and they've been unable to provide it. They should give us back our item and issue a refund.

I have opened a claim with Paypal, but even if it comes through, i'll only get the money I paid them back and not the money from Amazon for returning the item.

Any advice?

Cabaal

When returning an item to amazon you obviously need the correct return address, but you should also include the Amazon order I'd or RMA, this insures that amazon can process the returned item.

But even if you left out either bits of info it wouldn't stop amazon accepting a parcel in its return center.

It sounds like the carrier has separate policies and they likely needed the ASIN (Amazon product code) so they could look up the weight, size, value of the product.... Was the UK side being handled by Hermes or arrow xl?

dudara

ASN = Advance Shipping Notice

I don’t have the foggiest notion why a courier dealing with a consumer (not a business) would want that. They should have been able to deliver

MrStuffins

Cabaal wrote: »

It sounds like the carrier has separate policies and they likely needed the ASIN (Amazon product code) so they could look up the weight, size, value of the product.... Was the UK side being handled by Hermes or arrow xl?

Neither of those companies.

We asked Amazon many many times and were only ever told "They don't need this. They just need to bring it to the correct address". They insisted.

MrStuffins

dudara wrote: »

ASN = Advance Shipping Notice

I don’t have the foggiest notion why a courier dealing with a consumer (not a business) would want that. They should have been able to deliver

Me neither. And this was a question we kept asking them, but they never relented.

We actually asked them this question, but never got an answer

MrStuffins

OmegaGene wrote: »

This sounds like a mess, of the item was burst open on delivery I would have refused to sign for it, but that’s no help to you now.
Wouldn’t it be amazon that arrange to collect the item from you cook soldering the size and weight of it, I don’t think you should be out of pocket but anyway the amazon paperwork should have been included with the return along with a cover letter explaining what happened and I would have included any emails between yourself and the company just so amazon returns department know what’s going on, the volume of items they get daily is unreal and if it’s not straight forward they will refuse.
Worst case scenario here is you can start a chargeback but that could fail because the courier has the item and amazon have proof of delivery to you

I've opened a dispute with Paypal to get my "return delivery" charges refunded as the courier never actually returned anything.

My fear here though is that they will refuse to return my item to me.

Anyone any idea what I can do in this situation?

MrStuffins

OmegaGene wrote: »

But they attempted to deliver and it was refused because the documents were not in order on the return, so the problem here is do you pay for the return back to you or will the courier company bill you for storage or disposal

This is what they claim, but i'm not sure I believe them.

20/20

May I ask did you have the item delivered to your door and signed for by someone in the home.?
Or was the item not meant for Irish delivery and you got it through Parcel Motel or such company.?
I have always found amazon very good and helpful for returns, My only problems start when items are not shipped direct to me.

MrStuffins

20/20 wrote: »

May I ask did you have the item delivered to your door and signed for by someone in the home.?
Or was the item not meant for Irish delivery and you got it through Parcel Motel or such company.?
I have always found amazon very good and helpful for returns, My only problems start when items are not shipped direct to me.

We got it shipped to Parcel Motel. They signed for it.

When I explained to Amazon, they were great and said they could give us a refund. The problem was sending it back.

So we found a courier who said thy could send it back for us. And this was when all the problems started. They still have the item, they haven't successfully delivered it, and now they want to keep our money and charge us extra to send it back to us.

20/20

I feel your pain, I had the exact same problem last year. But sorry I have no advice to help.
Last year I ended up losing money on the item with shipping, but after about five weeks I was just glad to have settlement.

20/20

OmegaGene wrote: »

Couldn’t you have sent it back with parcel motel ?

Probably to big to take back.
It makes no sense that parcel motel can take it down but cant take it back.

runawaybishop

MrStuffins wrote: »

We got it shipped to Parcel Motel. They signed for it.

When I explained to Amazon, they were great and said they could give us a refund. The problem was sending it back.

So we found a courier who said thy could send it back for us. And this was when all the problems started. They still have the item, they haven't successfully delivered it, and now they want to keep our money and charge us extra to send it back to us.

You can drop Amazon deliveries to an Irish post office, or failing that to NI.

Look for proof the delivery was attempted.

MrStuffins

runawaybishop wrote: »

You can drop Amazon deliveries to an Irish post office, or failing that to NI.

Look for proof the delivery was attempted.

Yeah, we've been doing that but they're refusing. We find this strange

runawaybishop

Are the courier company Irish? Written letter giving them 10 days to provide proof of attempted delivery or a full refund with product. If no joy then small claims court.