I booked delivery of a package to France through Parcel Monkey, but it proved undeliverable. The firm offered to return it to me from its warehouse in Southampton to my home in Kent – at a greater cost than the original overseas shipment. I accepted and paid £59.02 – and a week later received a package that was nothing to do with my original shipment.
When I complained I was asked to provide proof that the package I had received was not my original shipment; then I was told I had no insurance cover; and finally I was questioned as to whether or not I had actually shipped the original parcel!
I wrote to the company’s chief executive officer, Nav Ramiah, to escalate my complaint, but was ignored. Finally, someone on the firm’s web support site promised me a refund and asked for my bank details, which I provided. Two weeks on, I’ve had no refund and it has ignored my communications completely.
MG, Folkestone, Kent
We recently dealt with another reader’s complaint about Parcel Monkey. We pointed out then that the company is an agency – meaning its business model involves sub-contracting to local courier companies (which customers are invited to choose), over which it has no direct control.
This inevitably causes problems when things go wrong. The company makes clear in its terms and conditions that it is down to the customer to insure any goods, which is your sole responsibility.
A spokesman for Parcel Monkey did put their hand up and told us: “Having looked into this with some of our support team I can confirm this situation has not been handled as well as I would have liked due to a number of reasons. Most stem from a rebuild of our returns process, both from an IT and physical point of view, which in future should help matters but in this case have not.”
It has refunded you the £59.02 and is also arranging a further payment of £50 as a gesture of goodwill.
We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number
