Thank You Parcelforce, for ridding the world of a PRS.

Adey

As fretfinder says above. You always need to complain 3 times. If you still get nowhere, that's when you do small claims, if it really really is important...

Barrivee

I used to frequent a courier depot (Not Parcelforce) as they used to rent storage space. The general method of loading vans was line all the parcels up behind a van, in drop order I assume, and throw them in working down the line. Also saw a couple of guys taking penalty kicks with the lines of parcels across the depot. Happy days 

impmann

Adey said:

As fretfinder says above. You always need to complain 3 times. If you still get nowhere, that's when you do small claims, if it really really is important...

You can’t do small claims if it is not covered, though... well, you can it’s just you won’t win.

tone1

I think the fact I was sold cover for something that can’t be covered is pretty wrong somewhere 

crunchman

impmann said:

Adey said:

As fretfinder says above. You always need to complain 3 times. If you still get nowhere, that's when you do small claims, if it really really is important...

You can’t do small claims if it is not covered, though... well, you can it’s just you won’t win.

They mis-sold him the insurance though. He thought he was covered as they sold him the insurance after asking what was in the package.  Mis-selling insurance tends to be looked upon dimly by the authorities.  How many billions were the banks forced to pay out for PPI?

It's definitely worth going that route.

Fretwired

This is seriously bad - I feel for you @Gassage

What insurance was bought? ParcelForce will insurance anything, including guitars, up to £200 - it's built in to the Express service. Guitars are excluded from enhanced insurance up to a maximum of £2,500.

ParcelForce also have an excellent catch-all - they'll claim the damage was caused by poor packaging. I won't use them after I had a guitar damaged in transit. Luckily it wasn't of PRS value and was repairable.

Good luck.

Fifty9

It’s quite simple, they sold the insurance as suitable for the purpose of making sure if anything happened to the guitar that the OP wouldn’t lose out financially. And so he bought it and proceeded to use them with peace of mind. Misselling of the insurance is the issue and as long as that can be proven, it’s a no brainier and I’m sure Parcelforce will cover the repair.

tone1

@Fretwired  I have totally reversed the initial trade so @Gassage is back to as he was before the trade (apart from massively assisting my in my claim) 

If Parcelforce fail to cough up I’ll be left with a PRS DGT with a snapped neck. Hopefully it will be salvageable in the skilled hands of @IvisonGuitars I’ll update everyone on its rise from the ashes

Fretwired

tone1 said:

@Fretwired  I have totally reversed the initial trade so @Gassage is back to as he was before the trade (apart from massively assisting my in my claim) 

If Parcelforce fail to cough up I’ll be left with a PRS DGT with a snapped neck. Hopefully it will be salvageable in the skilled hands of @IvisonGuitars I’ll update everyone on its rise from the ashes

Hoping it works out for you ... good of you to refund @Gassage - respect mate!

tone1

Thanks @Fretwired ;

This is a good place to hopefully do deals in full confidence. I’d like to think I would of had the same courtesy shown to me if I’d received a guitar broken...

Greatape

stonevibe said:

The guitar made it all the way across the bloody Atlantic in one piece and as usual the British fucked it up, transporting it a short distance. 

'World-beating' at something... finally..

Kent747

So Parcelforce has my new guitar - landed with them yesterday morning and was prepared for delivery. They didn’t deliver - and I assume it’ll come tomorrow now. 

That said - according to their website - they put the parcels on the damn trucks and drive around with them even if they aren’t delivering. 

So hopefully my G&L arrives in the correct number of pieces. 

Barnezy

tone1 said:

I think the fact I was sold cover for something that can’t be covered is pretty wrong somewhere 

This is why I question the point in ever buying insurance. In the 30+ guitar related deliveries, I've never had a problem. I was shipping an amp recently and the insurance was £70, the delivery £25. Yet if they damaged the item they would have only covered £250, about 20% the value, so net £180 after the cost of insurance. Is it even worth it  given the odds of damage are so low? 

The only reason I would buy it, is if it gets lost. But surely the courier is responsible regardless of insurance, for not losing your parcel. If you're contracting them to deliver, surely not losing the parcel and delivering it, is part of the that contract?  

boogieman

crunchman said:

impmann said:

Adey said:

As fretfinder says above. You always need to complain 3 times. If you still get nowhere, that's when you do small claims, if it really really is important...

You can’t do small claims if it is not covered, though... well, you can it’s just you won’t win.

They mis-sold him the insurance though. He thought he was covered as they sold him the insurance after asking what was in the package.  Mis-selling insurance tends to be looked upon dimly by the authorities.  How many billions were the banks forced to pay out for PPI?

It's definitely worth going that route.

Thing is they’ve been mis-selling the enhanced compensation for years. I can remember pointing this out on here, the MR forum and even back to the old Intermusic forum. Nothing’s changed, so the PO people are either oblivious to the issue or don’t give a shit. I know which one my money is on. 

I suspect Parcelforce are fully aware of the issue too but just fob off claimants or wait until things get escalated enough to actually deal with it. Somebody like Martin Lewis needs to get on their case (sorry!) about this and get it stopped.

MikeS

A seller has just notified me that he's just shipped my recently purchased guitar, by Parcelforce 48.

Not even next day, forty bloody eight.

May as well start drafting my "it's arrived ******" email now.

fretfinder

tone1 said:

Thanks @Fretwired ;

This is a good place to hopefully do deals in full confidence. I’d like to think I would of had the same courtesy shown to me if I’d received a guitar broken...

Just wondering what the outcome was here, has the DGT been fixed now? And any luck with your claim to Parcelforce?

tone1

@fretfinder ;
Gas has had paper work from Parcelforce and he’s very kindly returned it to them. I’m still waiting to hear. I think I’ll try and talk to someone next week. We are holding off repairing it incase they want to inspect it

sunshinewelly

Best of luck. They may agree to assist as a good will gesture but legally I am not sure you would have a case. The fact they were negligent is not in doubt. However they may argue that you failed to pack the item correctly. Burden of proof is on you in this case to show you packed the guitar properly. Even if they are negligent then you they can exclude liability by reliance on their terms and conditions that they will not pay out for damage to a guitar. That of itself is pretty standard. They actually offered the service which you accepted but at the same time you accepted their terms that if your guitar is damaged that they would not be responsible

I don't know why people think judges automatically favour the consumer. That's not my experience. 

Also the insurance you took out is not insurance in the strict sense of what an insurance policy usually is. You are taking out enhanced compensation rather than an insurance policy. There are strict terms and conditions applying to insurance products. This is not an insurance product and hence the argument you are being missold insurance is incorrect 

Adey

Insurance and Ts&Cs or not, they have to provide a service that a reasonable person would expect them to provide.

If you can demonstrate that the parcel was packed in a manner that a reasonable person deemed to be adequate then you have a reasonable case.

Threaten them with small claims court and actually be prepared to file the papers (its easy).

As mentioned previously, the whole parcel insurance market is a bit of a scam. They won't really want any precident set on this sort of case as it could mean that there is a lot of money to pay back to lots of people.

Get a firm quote for the repairs, and settle for no less....

mbe

I am shipping a guitar tomorrow by Parcelforce via Parcel2Go. I bought the service online which expressly excluded guitars from extra protection in the case of damage.

However, they offered me 'extra protection' in case of loss. So I paid £7 extra for cover against loss on a guitar valued at £160. That's right, they dangle a tantalising opportunity for me to pay them more £££ on the off chance the package disappears into thin air. I am paying extra money because they are unaccountable.

I think the parcel industry needs to be held to account by some government watchdog for the unacceptable standard of service endemic today. After all, just about every other supplier of goods and services can be held to acount  by trading standards departments for failure to deliver peace of mind.