Missing monitor - they want to charge £300 again for courier losing it..

Booner! · 30 Mar 2009 at 13:04

On behalf of the dude sitting behind me at work...

Competitor sends him a £300 monitor which had a rattle upon opening, I said ring them up and send it back (didn't want him to turn it on and it go bang!). They agreed to swap it for him the next day, no problem.

Citylink turns up the next day with a replacement and leaves the broken monitor as he knows nothing about the broken one. Later that day another courier turns up, wearing cargo trousers and a polo shirt as I saw him along with many others in the office. He has all the details of the collection (Name, model etc) and a PDA, which he gets a signature and leaves with the faulty monitor.

Towards the end of the day, UPS turn up and say they are collecting the broken monitor...which my colleague tells them that another courier picked it up earlier and he said "that's fine" and leaves.

Competitor rings up colleague and says that they never received the monitor and will be charging him another £300 unless he can prove that he sent it.

I am trying to get CCTV of the pickup, which is proving quite tricky, does he have a leg to stand on? We all saw the courier collect the monitor!

Bennie-Mac · 30 Mar 2009 at 13:07

Witness statements if you cannot get CCTV?

Cookie-Monster · 30 Mar 2009 at 13:07

he didnt sign anything or get any paperwork?

Neodite · 30 Mar 2009 at 13:07

Tricky one that, has he phoned UPS yet to see what they say about having it on record?

EDIT* Could be a nice little scam tho when you think about it, guy delivers new monitor, says hes not supose to be collecting the old one, tells his mate to go in looking the part and get it. Real guy goes to depot and gets a "where is the parcel your supose to collect" opps forgot. They send anouther guy to get it, no monitor.

Booner! · 30 Mar 2009 at 13:09

Cookie-Monster said:
he didnt sign anything or get any paperwork?

I don't think so, a stupid mistake he won't make again by the sounds of it..

We are checking CCTV at the moment. 3 people saw the bloke who was convincing enough to get into our building as a courier. I mean the original monitor was faulty and didn't have a UK power adapter, so he has no reason to keep the thing.

Booner! · 30 Mar 2009 at 13:15

Neodite said:
Tricky one that, has he phoned UPS yet to see what they say about having it on record?

EDIT* Could be a nice little scam tho when you think about it, guy delivers new monitor, says hes not supose to be collecting the old one, tells his mate to go in looking the part and get it. Real guy goes to depot and gets a "where is the parcel your supose to collect" opps forgot. They send anouther guy to get it, no monitor.

That's what we are thinking....could make quite a bit of money that way? :eek:

jas72 · 30 Mar 2009 at 13:16

Cookie-Monster said:
he didnt sign anything or get any paperwork?

even if he did have some fake paperwork what would that help.

arknor · 30 Mar 2009 at 13:17

Neodite said:
Tricky one that, has he phoned UPS yet to see what they say about having it on record?

EDIT* Could be a nice little scam tho when you think about it, guy delivers new monitor, says hes not supose to be collecting the old one, tells his mate to go in looking the part and get it. Real guy goes to depot and gets a "where is the parcel your supose to collect" opps forgot. They send anouther guy to get it, no monitor.

and where do they make money on this broken monitor?

Neodite · 30 Mar 2009 at 13:19

arknor said:
and where do they make money on this broken monitor?

How do they know its broken, could be exchanged for any reason, like wrong item sent etc. (And as the OP said, they never even plugged it in)

FrostedNipple · 30 Mar 2009 at 13:19

Sounds to me like a collegeeu in the office got his own pickup for the tv, he knew all the details, sounds as if someone in the office got a £300 tv for however much the shipping cost him.

Wicksta · 30 Mar 2009 at 13:29

arknor said:
and where do they make money on this broken monitor?

They could maybe buy another and return the faulty one?

FrostedNipple · 30 Mar 2009 at 13:38

it's not even nesceraly broken, they shook it and it made a noise so they just assumed it would explode when turned on, and decided for some wierd reason, that it wouldn't be fun to try out.

Booner! · 30 Mar 2009 at 13:42

I think it's fair to say that anyone that pays for a new monitor and simply picks it up out of the box and hears a rattle of screws inside it would return it as faulty.

( |-| |2 ][ $ · 30 Mar 2009 at 13:42

I've had a similar thing happen. Probably with the same competitor, I just told them I had returned the item and that was that. I kept getting automated emails but the actual staff just said to ignore them.

It's either an inside job or a fault with their returns systems.

Greenlizard0 · 30 Mar 2009 at 14:38

Wow, BBC Real Hustle where are you?

bledd · 30 Mar 2009 at 14:54

phone them up and say "mothers life", then they have to believe you

Helium_Junkie · 30 Mar 2009 at 15:09

Its more likely just an admin error, rather than a scam. Either way still needs proof. I probably wouldnt have thought to get paperwork off a courier collecting dodgy equipment, so thanks for the lesson

I hope it all works out.

philjohn · 30 Mar 2009 at 15:30

Helium_Junkie said:
Its more likely just an admin error, rather than a scam. Either way still needs proof. I probably wouldnt have thought to get paperwork off a courier collecting dodgy equipment, so thanks for the lesson I hope it all works out.

Problem is, many courier companies are going to "paperless" admin and you simply sign a PDA.

fez · 30 Mar 2009 at 15:53

That would be one of the worst scams ever I would have thought. So many ways to go wrong for them and once it has gone wrong once there is a fair chance of the police getting involved. Admin error most likely.

Sone · 30 Mar 2009 at 16:43

philjohn said:
Problem is, many courier companies are going to "paperless" admin and you simply sign a PDA.

normally when returning i get a paper for the courier to sign