GreeneKing Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 I had an email from Interparcel today. I recently bought a cab from a chap in Norfolk. It's one I've been looking for and I waited until the price fell to a reasonable level. I hasten to add that it wasn't anyone on here, not that that is the issue. The Accugroove Tri112L is a cab I already own so the dimensions and weight are a known to me. The seller wasn't prepared to organise the courier & insurance or take liability for shipping so when we agreed the deal in principle I went to my usual company, Interparcel to check the price to ship. It was very reasonable at about £25 fully insured with UPS so I went ahead. For the size I added a few cm on each dimension to allow for packaging. The seller asked me for a further contribution towards packaging materials and I sent him a tenner. When the cab arrived safely from UPS, who I usually rate highly, I saw that the box was pretty huge. The seller had taken a standard removals box and padded it out with all sorts of stuff that he had to hand. This was considerably bigger that I had quoted for but the delivery guy said nothing. The email I received today basically said that I owe UPS £131.60 as my parcel was oversize! I've said that I'd be happy to pay an amount because it was significantly larger that expected (but still handleable imo) but over 5 times the price seems exorbitant! I'm awaiting a reply. I think that the UPS staff at point of collection should have raised the issue and refused to ship. That would have allowed for some negotiation or cutting down of package sizing. I'm wondering if anyone has been here before? Peter 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 Another reason why I’d never buy something from someone who asks the buyer to sort their own courier! Sounds ridiculous. Fingers crossed for you! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreeneKing Posted November 18, 2019 Author Share Posted November 18, 2019 Just now, ped said: Another reason why I’d never buy something from someone who asks the buyer to sort their own courier! Sounds ridiculous. Fingers crossed for you! Yes that I can understand Ped (Long time no see, hope that all is well with you). Sadly my desperation for a 2nd Accugroove got the better of me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 2 minutes ago, GreeneKing said: Yes that I can understand Ped (Long time no see, hope that all is well with you). Sadly my desperation for a 2nd Accugroove got the better of me... Very well thanks, hope you’re well too! At least the cab arrived safely. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassfinger Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 I'd tell them to get bent, with 3 possible responses... You entered into a contract to move parcel of ABC size. If they then collected a parcel of XYZ size without referring back to you then that's their problem for making an unsolicited co,election and delivery. Or... The parcel was the correct size, and their records are faulty. It's up to them to prove otherwise. Or... If you din't sign anything when it was delivered just deny all knowledge any any oversized parcel. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmywinks Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 (edited) Can find this on their T&C (https://uk.interparcel.com/terms😞 5.3 Payment is taken by our automated system at the end of your order once the service has been booked with our Carrier. PLEASE NOTE THAT IN ADDITION TO THE CHARGES WHICH ARE QUOTED AT THE TIME OF YOUR ORDER, SURCHARGES MAY ALSO BE PAYABLE BY YOU IF, FOR EXAMPLE, THE CONSIGNMENT IS NOT AS DESCRIBED WHEN COLLECTION IS ATTEMPTED OR IF THE CONSIGNMENT IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR COLLECTION AT THE SPECIFIED TIME. FURTHER DETAILS ARE SET OUT IN SECTION 6 BELOW 6.1 Certain surcharges may be payable by you in addition to the carriage fees which are set out as the cost for the standard delivery of your order. When a surcharge is payable, it may be charged directly to the payment method used to make the initial order (if you have consented to this). If we have not obtained your consent to charge surcharges directly to your original payment method, we will contact you directly to arrange payment. 6.2 Any Surcharges represent the additional administrative costs which will be suffered by Interparcel and charges which Interparcel may incur from the Carriers and are not penalties imposed by Interparcel. This information is made available to you prior to placing your order. Important bit here: 6.3.4 By entering the weight and dimensions of your Consignment/s you are pre paying for the postage. If the Consignment /s are heavier or larger then the additional weight/size will be charged at the applicable rate to the card that the order was placed on together with a surcharge of £15 + VAT. We refer to this charge as the 'Manual Fee'. Seems like UPS are charging you over £100 fine for oversize goods... Tempting to tell them to go fück themselves but get proper advice first. Edited November 18, 2019 by lemmywinks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cetera Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 Sadly, it sounds to me that your issue was communication with the sender and the dimensions you paid for/failed to inform them of.... :( 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 4 minutes ago, cetera said: Sadly, it sounds to me that your issue was communication with the sender and the dimensions you paid for/failed to inform them of.... He could not have known that the sender would follow Amazon's policy on packaging. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaggyMan Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 go through the Interparcel quote page, ask for a quote, get the price you should have paid, on the size of the parcel actually delivered and offer the difference..might work. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreeneKing Posted November 19, 2019 Author Share Posted November 19, 2019 Hello all. I received another email from Interparcel this morning basically just telling me to stump up. I have reiterated that I booked in good faith, not knowing that the seller would send a 54 x 44 x 42cm cab in a 68 x 62 x 62cm box. I did tell the seller on the phone that I had made an additional ( 56 x 50 x 46) couple of cm allowance for box size. I also made them aware that I've been a customer for at least 14 years and have spent a small fortune with them and UPS as my preferred team. I have asked what a parcel of the actual size shipped would have cost. They aren't contesting the weight that I added a Kg allowance to. My issue is the size of the surcharge and their inflexibility. The seller didn't want any responsibility for arranging a courier and refused to accept liability for shipping. Not ideal I know but the price was right. I can't see any comeback with the seller. I'm awaiting a reply from Interparcel. They offer a discount down to £116 if I pay within 5 days. I get paid tomorrow. If they don't sway their view I'll have to pay. That'll be £140 for shipping one cab...... If this post raises awareness amongst the community then it's useful methinks. Check the size if someone else packs. It means you can't book until the packing is done but you could save yourself a surcharge. Peter 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmywinks Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 6 minutes ago, GreeneKing said: Hello all. I received another email from Interparcel this morning basically just telling me to stump up. I have reiterated that I booked in good faith, not knowing that the seller would send a 54 x 44 x 42cm cab in a 68 x 62 x 62cm box. Seems if you book UPS through Interparcel for a 15kg box of that size the cost is £141.43 which is astronomical, we get pallets delivered on trolleys for under half that: https://uk.interparcel.com/quote/courier-quote2?quote_key=rkHNTCMPnave9LkATiFH If you had used Parcel Force the excess would have been under a tenner. Btw the £116 figure is the actual price you should be paying as that's the difference between the original fee and the above one, they've stuck an extra £15 charge on it, probably to give themselves some wiggle room to get you to pay up. Tricky situation really as you had given the dimensions of the parcel you booked to the seller and he disregarded it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreeneKing Posted November 19, 2019 Author Share Posted November 19, 2019 17 minutes ago, lemmywinks said: Seems if you book UPS through Interparcel for a 15kg box of that size the cost is £141.43 which is astronomical, we get pallets delivered on trolleys for under half that: https://uk.interparcel.com/quote/courier-quote2?quote_key=rkHNTCMPnave9LkATiFH If you had used Parcel Force the excess would have been under a tenner. Btw the £116 figure is the actual price you should be paying as that's the difference between the original fee and the above one, they've stuck an extra £15 charge on it, probably to give themselves some wiggle room to get you to pay up. Tricky situation really as you had given the dimensions of the parcel you booked to the seller and he disregarded it. Thank you for looking that up. Interesting.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicVibes Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 Sounds like you've been jipped there, mate. The seller should have at least told you the box dimensions and weight - lazy seller. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmywinks Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 Can you try and phone them? I've had to do that before and once you get past the 1st line of customer services and speak to someone who can make decisions they are/were very good. Surely they'll be able to see how ridiculous the £116 charge is for a parcel which was no more than 20cm out at it's largest dimension. I wonder if they are paying that £116 to UPS or if they get a different surcharge for oversize packages. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreeneKing Posted November 19, 2019 Author Share Posted November 19, 2019 7 minutes ago, ClassicVibes said: Sounds like you've been jipped there, mate. The seller should have at least told you the box dimensions and weight - lazy seller. More elderly and not entirely in the 21st century methinks.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreeneKing Posted November 19, 2019 Author Share Posted November 19, 2019 Just now, lemmywinks said: Can you try and phone them? I've had to do that before and once you get past the 1st line of customer services and speak to someone who can make decisions they are/were very good. Surely they'll be able to see how ridiculous the £116 charge is for a parcel which was no more than 20cm out at it's largest dimension. I wonder if they are paying that £116 to UPS or if they get a different surcharge for oversize packages. They tell me that the charge goes to UPS and that they won't deal with this any other way than email. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmywinks Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 (edited) Yeah looking back at the T&Cs they have a £15 "manual" fee for doing the admin so they're waving that to pay UPS. Seeing as they're emailing you to claim the money and haven't taken it automatically (6.1 in their T&Cs) it would be tempting to just stop replying as they will probably write it off, there's always the chance they could pursue it though which will be more of a ballache and expense than the £116. This will be a drop in the ocean to the amount of unclaimed extra insurance people take out on their parcels every day so it's probably a numbers game to them, hoping most people just pay up when they get the £116 offer. At this stage I'd be getting proper advice if you have any legaly minded friends. Edited November 19, 2019 by lemmywinks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jezzaboy Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 I shipped a bass the same way as yourself - Interparcel via UPS and a few days later got an e mail from UPS saying I hadn`t gave them the correct dimensions for the package. I always give it a few cents extra so I knew they were talking bollocks. They said they would wave any charge this time but if it happened again they would charge me. Needless to say, they won`t get any more work from me, which saddens them greatly I bet 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uk_lefty Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 18 hours ago, BaggyMan said: go through the Interparcel quote page, ask for a quote, get the price you should have paid, on the size of the parcel actually delivered and offer the difference..might work. I'd go for this if it means a much smaller settlement. Make the point you are happy to compensate their direct loss, eg the cost it should have been, but punitive fees making essentially a penalty is not compensation of their actual loss. Its quite a shady business practice in this case, its only just recently become legal for private parking companies to impose penalties in excess of what the parking ticket would have cost but they have to clearly display their terms and the penalties everywhere. Also question why indeed it was collected, sorted at least once, and shipped when so clearly the package size did not correspond to the label. But tempting as it is don't then suggest they need to consider whether their internal quality controls need reassessment... You've already made the point without that. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uk_lefty Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 16 hours ago, lemmywinks said: would be tempting to just stop replying as they will probably write it off, there's always the chance they could pursue it though which will be more of a ballache and expense than the £116. This will be a drop in the ocean to the amount of unclaimed extra insurance people take out on their parcels every day so it's probably a numbers game to them, hoping most people just pay up w I'd be careful with that tactic. It's very cheap and easy for a private individual to raise a claim, even easier for a company because they sell off the debt to collection agencies and then discussing the situation really does end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmywinks Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 11 minutes ago, uk_lefty said: I'd be careful with that tactic. It's very cheap and easy for a private individual to raise a claim, even easier for a company because they sell off the debt to collection agencies and then discussing the situation really does end. I wasn't advising to do it if you read the post. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burns-bass Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 18 hours ago, ClassicVibes said: Sounds like you've been jipped there, mate. The seller should have at least told you the box dimensions and weight - lazy seller. The problem here appears that the buyer booked a courier based on your guess of what the parcel size would be. You can’t blame the seller for including sufficient padding and protection! I imagine he or she could have provided this, but by then the courier was booked... Having shipped a cab before I used about 3 inches of padding all round it to ensure it was protected. This made it bigger and more expensive so send, but it got there and was totally fine, so me and the buyer were both happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uk_lefty Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 50 minutes ago, lemmywinks said: I wasn't advising to do it if you read the post. Aware of that and was backing you up! Particularly on parking tickets there's a lot of Internet advice that is plain wrong but people follow it anyway in hope because Jeff265 from Chipping Norton says he did it and got away with it. It is tempting to look for the easier way through these things, not that the OP or most would make such a mistake but many, many people do. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreeneKing Posted November 20, 2019 Author Share Posted November 20, 2019 Lemmywinks did check the cost of the larger parcel and it was £160!!!! The trouble is, basically, I needed to know how much it would cost to ship, insured, before deciding if the cab was worth buying at the price. As I said, I added cm's to the dimensions and weight to the heft and advised that to the seller over the phone. He did a good job. The cab arrived safely. Unfortunately he decided to use a generic removals box and the considerable difference in size raised alarm bells with the courier. They should have refused to ship imo. I'm hoping that Interparcel come to some sort of agreement. If not what choice do I have? I'll pay the £116 and forgo Xmas/work overtime My main reason for posting is not to apportion blame, refuse responsibility or rant but to prevent others from making the same costly mistake. Peter 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burns-bass Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 3 minutes ago, GreeneKing said: Lemmywinks did check the cost of the larger parcel and it was £160!!!! The trouble is, basically, I needed to know how much it would cost to ship, insured, before deciding if the cab was worth buying at the price. As I said, I added cm's to the dimensions and weight to the heft and advised that to the seller over the phone. He did a good job. The cab arrived safely. Unfortunately he decided to use a generic removals box and the considerable difference in size raised alarm bells with the courier. They should have refused to ship imo. I'm hoping that Interparcel come to some sort of agreement. If not what choice do I have? I'll pay the £116 and forgo Xmas/work overtime My main reason for posting is not to apportion blame, refuse responsibility or rant but to prevent others from making the same costly mistake. Peter Makes total sense. Sorry if my reply came across as condescending, I didn’t mean it too. I don’t know the specifics here. I’ve had a few disagreements with people who want me to shop items I wasn’t prepared to and that’s clouded my view. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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