My TV was smashed by Parcel Force - and now it refuses to pay compensation
We recently sold a two-year old 50 inch Sony television to a friend for £150 and paid £41 for a courier service with Parcel Force for it to be transported from Coventry to Northumberland.
It was packed in the original box and we placed the order online, detailing what was in the box. We naively thought at some point in the process, either online or when the courier picked it up, we would be told if there was no compensation available from Parcel Force for televisions if it was damaged in transit.
Therefore when the television arrived with a huge puncture hole in the box and the screen smashed we then thought it would be a simple process of receiving an apology and then a refund – how wrong we were.
In order to log a complaint it’s a very fiddly online process and once we had done this, we were then asked to submit multiple documents as evidence. This included photos, proof of having paid for the courier service, proof of when we had bought the TV and even screen shots of the conversation we had with my friend who was buying it.
'We sent our TV via courier to Northumberland but when it arrived the screen was smashed'
But after all of the above we were told that televisions were not covered by Parcel Force when it comes to compensation. Parcel Force knew this from the outset but still made us spend two weeks going back and forth submitting evidence and also failed to respond to my request of a refund for the £41 fee.
Now we are £191 poorer and our friend is left with the task of disposing of the broken television, which will probably come with a cost. It is an absolutely dreadful and farcical service which is more ‘Parcel Farce’ than ‘Parcel Force’, Kate Jackson and Marc Wallace, via email.
Rebecca Rutt, of This is Money, replies: Reselling items via the internet is now common place and with the growth of sites such as eBay and Gumtree it’s not unusual to sell something such as a television to someone in another part of the country.
Therefore when you agreed to sell your old television to your friend, and arranged for it to be shipped with Parcel Force, owned by Royal Mail, you expected it to arrive in the same condition in which you sent it.
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As you repackaged it in the same box and packaging it had originally arrived in, you believed there was little risk that something would go wrong, especially as you had noted on the courier details the contents of the box.
Unfortunately when it arrived with your friend it was damaged and is now unusable, and Parcel Force has so far refused to pay you compensation because it says televisions aren’t included within its compensation scheme.
You have told us that this information is on the website but it’s incredibly hard to find and not clear to those using the service. Parcel Force also asked you to submit several documents as evidence, even though as televisions aren’t eligible for compensation it wouldn’t have ever been able to compensate you for the loss.
We got in contact with it to try and find out what had happened.
A spokesperson told us televisions are excluded from compensation because of the fragility of the screens and that if they are sent they need to be extremely carefully packaged in order to protect the screen from damage, which it says did not happen in your case.
When we asked why you were told to submit so much evidence, a spokesperson said: ‘The information initially provided in the online claim did not state the precise nature of the damage.
‘In some circumstances, we can give some compensation if the damage occurs to parts other than the fragile screen such as in the case of a replaceable plastic stand. As such we sent the recipient a damage questionnaire and asked for the item’s value to enable us to assess the claim fully.’
You had also asked for the courier fee to be returned and had not heard back from Parcel Force.
The spokesperson said: ‘The customer appealed our initial decision but did not wait for the outcome of our seven to ten day appeal process before contacting This is Money.
‘Having read her appeal submission, it is likely that we would have refunded the postage as a minimum. In this case however, we have contacted the customer to offer her a one-off payment as a gesture of goodwill.’
'We sent the TV in its original packaging but when it arrived there was a bit hole in the box'
A goodwill gesture of £100 has been offered to you after our intervention, which will cover the £41 courier fee you paid out, however you have pointed out to us there are still some flaws with the Parcel Force service.
There is a list of items which are excluded from its compensation scheme on the website, and along with televisions these also include fragile items such as glass, antiques, lights and collectibles as well as items such as flat pack furniture.
However, as you rightly say, this list isn’t shown when you order the service and if it had been clearly displayed you probably wouldn't have used the service in the first place.
Secondly, although TVs are excluded, confusingly Parcel Force said in some instances they will pay out compensation – such as if the plastic stand is broken – but as this wasn’t communicated to you, you’ve been left feeling like you’ve jumped through a lot of hoops for no reason.
You also say the claim that you had not packaged the television correctly is untrue as you used the packaging it came in including the protective cardboard and the polystyrene bag.
However, as televisions are excluded from compensation even if it had been packaged in the exact same packing as it came in, this wouldn’t have made a difference unfortunately.
As for the refund of the £41 fee, Parcel Force says it’s likely it would have refunded this to you, if you had waited longer for its appeal process decision to come back.
Parcel Force is currently unregulated by the ombudsman and therefore if you have a complaint with them which isn't resolved you're not able to go to them. What you can do in these instances is approach Trading Standards who will be able to help.
