Hermes Lost my Items and Mule have told me they are not involved

[MiserableLondon]

Miserable Rant here.

 

I bought some items Dutyfree at the airport a few weeks ago. Realised i'd made a mistake and was told to post them in at my cost and I'd get a full refund. Items were Perfume and Alcohol.

 

Followed a advertisement to a new app called Mule @getmuleapp and got what I thought was a reasonable price. I filled out the form got the insurance and even wrote the contents down on their site. Attached both their label and the Duty Free label contain address on the package. Interestingly their website "corrected" the address I supplied but thats there job so I went with it. Dropped off the items and waiting for my refund.

 

Few days go by and I get an update that it will be delivered by Hermes @Hermesparcels. A few hours go by and they cant deliver it so going back to depot. No further notifications.

 

I chase, it will be delivered tomorrow. Nothing

I chase again and I am told;

Quote

Unfortunately, the courier has confirmed that this parcel has been lost in transit. I sincerely apologise on behalf of the courier, I can understand how frustrating this must be for you.
Please could you provide us with the following to assess for a claim: 
1) Proof of value of the item (e.g a sales receipt showing the value and description of the item)
2) Evidence of delivery address that corresponds with the details on the label you created. 
3) Your bank details (account name, account number and sort code)

 

I provide all the details and received the following;

Quote Thank you for providing that information. I forwarded your case onto our Claims Department to assess and unfortunately they identified that the parcel had an insufficient address.  The address is incomplete - the road name "Windsor Road" is missing along with the number "1215". These are included in the correct full address stated on the World Duty Free Website (please see attached) however these details were not inputted when creating the label. This would have caused a delivery issue with Hermes as they would not have been able to scan and deliver this parcel as they did not have the full address.  Please refer to our T&Cs regarding this: 7.5 The Customer shall not be entitled to any compensation or refund of any additional fees incurred by the Customer where 7.5.3 the Customer has provided inaccurate or incomplete information contrary to Clause 3.5 The address you entered on the label is as follows: Customer Support Team  World Duty Free  Runnymede Warehouse  World Duty Free Ltd  Egham  TW20 0AE Additionally, please be advised that both perfume and alcohol feature on our Prohibited Items List (https://mule.app/prohibiteditems.html) as they come under Liquids, which are not covered by our insurance policy. We would recommend purchasing additional third party insurance (such as Secursus) for any items featured on our Prohibited List so that you are covered for any loss / damage. Unfortunately, this means that on this occasion we are unable to proceed with a claim with the courier for this.   No matter what I do they refuse to escalate further with Hermes and have given me a refund of the postage and insurance. I am out ~£170.00.   What can i do? I have made a formal complaint but the manager has said  Quote As stated before, there is nothing more we can do on our end as we are following the terms of the contract agreed to with you during your checkout. I am going to close this case now as we have made our position clear and there is nothing more we can do.

The address was on the package as well as their label. Their website "corrected" my address to the one that caused the issue. I put in that it was perfume and alcohol when filling out insurance. I am at a loss here.

 

[BankFodder]

Can you just clarify please.

You bought an item from a company – was it Mule?
Was this an online purchase?

Who provided the label?

I understand that the parcel had the address in two places – one was the label and the other address was the one which you applied yourself – is this correct?

The label which you applied yourself was the full address. The supplied label was a corrected address which was corrected by the retailer. Is this correct?

[MiserableLondon]

I bough the item from World Duty Free. It was an in store purchase.

 

I put the World Duty Free Label and the Hermes Label on the package. The retailer address was full and correct. The Hermes label address was corrected by Mule to an address missing street and number.

Edited February 8, 2022 by MiserableLondon

[BankFodder]

Okay thanks.

Please stand by for a reply later today.

Meanwhile start reading the Hermes stories on this sub- forum. Lots of them – in particular the ones that go on about the insurance requirement.

Also, see what we have to say about the prohibited items list

[BankFodder]

I had not heard of Mule before. I wonder whether we've had any complaints about them in the past.

Anyway, I understand that you supplied and address for delivery and the address was corrected by Mule and they are now disclaiming any liability on the basis that:

1. the address was incorrect
2. the parcel contained prohibitive items
3. and that it wasn't insured
    

Is that all correct?

The incorrect of dress of course is a very serious matter but if you have evidence that they altered the address then clearly there's no problem there because they are responsible.
Have you read the stories on this sub- forum and understood why an item being on a prohibited items list has no bearing at all on the fact that it was lost. It might have a bearing on damage but certainly not on the loss of the item.

Have you also read the stories on this sub- forum and understood why we say that the insurance requirement is unfair and therefore unenforceable?

You may be interested to read this recent thread here

if you read the stories, you will see that all of these cases go to mediation and then get settled there. It's a bit of a bluff game that the courier companies play to see how brave you are in then they back out at the last moment and payout.
The case that I referred to above is unusual because that actually went to trial and not only that, it went to trial on the critical question as to whether or not the insurance requirement is fair or whether it is unfair.
The result was that the judge decided that the insurance requirement is unfair and therefore unenforceable.

This is something that we've been arguing for years and as far as I know it is the first time that it's ever come up in a judgement.

I'm currently arranging to obtain a transcript of the judgement and also trying to get the thing written up in a newspaper story so that it becomes widely known.
If it hadn't been for the address issue I would have suggested that you proceed directly against Hermes but because the incorrect address is a significant factor and it was apparently corrected by mule, then I'm going to advise you to sue mule.

I would also suggest at this moment that if you don't have evidence of the address correction that you go through the process of booking another item – exactly the same to exactly the same address but this time record the steps as you go through. You can do video screenshots and if you can show how you import one particular address and then it is corrected to a different address, this will be enormously helpful to you. 

do think you can do this?

 

[MiserableLondon]

Yes thats exactly as it was. Ill record their app.