Accepting damaged goods delivered by the PO

Had a frame delivered this afternoon via parcelfarce .
Driver comes to my door with the box and looking for a signature.
I say hold on i have to check its ok,i go to the drawer and get a big knife to cut it open[i was a butcher for 15 years so theres a few Big Sharpies in my house]
The driver refused to allow me to open it without first signing it and tried to prevent me from cutting the tape[despite the fact im holding a slaughtermans 14" steak knife, honed to a razor.Brave man ,i thought]
He said they are under orders to contact the Police if i# [#the customer who will be signing for it]tried to open the parcel to check its contents
So it seems you have to accept your parcel even if its damaged
Is this a new policy or has it always been that way?


The frame was fine[Thanks Pickle]

What I normally do is write "not checked" on the delivery slip.

Your frame is the property of the post office until you sign for it. So it's there responablity.
So i understand the postman. Brave too

i always sign for all parcels as unchecked in caps or if the box is anything but perfect i sign it as recivied damaged that covers all angles then

cannondale king":1aq3idzz said:

i always sign for all parcels as unchecked in caps or if the box is anything but perfect i sign it as recivied damaged that covers all angles then

Click to expand...

ditto

If the box is damaged (as it usually is with Porcelfarce) you are well within your rights to refuse to accept the goods unless you are allowed to check the contents. Bear in mind that there is no contract between you and the courier until you have signed for the parcel, until that point the only contract is between the sender and the courier, you would still have to sign before checking though.

Some drivers are extremely dodgy. Last year I went outside to find a damaged parcel on my doorstep. Since it should have been signed for I called the depot and explained the situation. They told me they had a signature, I got them to scan and email the delivery note and suprise, surpise the signature was just a squiggle. So I told them that I was not accepting the goods and that they could come and collect the unopened box. At first they told me I had accepted delivery and they had a signature to prove it. Obviously this would never stand up in a court of law and I told them so. They then told me that I should open the box and if the goods were damaged I would have to fill in a claim form, again this is crap as it would only apply if I'd signed for the parcel. It wasn't until I threatened them with a phone call to the police with a complaint of fraud and forgery that they finally agreed to send a driver round to collect the parcel. When the driver turned up he gave me a form to sign to say I was refusing to accept the goods. Which the original driver could easilly have done.

I emailled a complaint to the company stating that the only reasonable explanation was that, on seeing the box was damaged, the driver had squiggled a signature on the delivery note and cleared off. The response I got was the the driver was an agency employee and he was no longer with the company. I took this to mean that he was shit at his job and they'd dumped him. Even if it was a crock of shit it made me feel better.