Online Retail Delivery Issues & Scams - Question For Sellers

[MrSparks]

It seems lately that a rising number of customers are trying to scam us out of money or free kit.

We're getting a rising number of people claiming they've not received their package (DPD & ParcelForce) plus some other scams and liberties being taken, which is causing me a lot of stress.

Today for instance I receive an email stating parcel not received, a card was left and picture attached saying it was "Left in backyard". The DPD tracking shows GPS on their drive but the picture is a real close up with nothing in the background so nothing to prove where it was left at all. There is some fence visible but it doesn't look like the same fence in Street View. They do have rear access but it's through a gate, I highly doubt DPD driver went through it. The barcode number on the calling card doesn't actually relate to our parcel, it appears to relate to a different parcel - I thought it might be a different parcel of theirs but the post code doesn't match the customers post code so it's again not easy to prove customer is faking it.

Customer is adamant they don't have it, and despite stating that we would need to raise a claim and that they'd need to sign a legal letter stating they don't have it (they normally find it at that point) he still claims he doesn't have it and he's tried neighbours. Which makes me believe that they may well be genuine.

So on one hand the customers potentially sent pictures of a different calling card (or it's a DPD error!), but on the other hand the delivery picture is completely unclear where it is, there's no signature and the calling card doesn't even seem to relate to his post code, so I'm struggling to argue it. We're supposed to have safe place turned off too, so they shouldn't have left it unattended anyway.

The customer could have it and be scamming us, however equally the delivery driver could quite easily take a picture on the driveway, put it back in his van and steal it. Bearing in mind in the past month our entire local franchise was sacked for parcel theft, it's not unfeasible. Or it could have been left by his front door and stolen.

We're seeing this with both DPD and now ParcelForce. An almost identical case last week with ParcelForce, customer adamant he didn't have it, could potentially have been stolen off his drive, or driver could have stolen it. Again similar issues with tracking - no signature, conveniently ambiguous picture.

We invariably end up sending the item again, and never win any claims. Our products are relatively expensive so this does have quite an impact.

I can't prove they don't have it as in most cases there is something not right with the tracking or delivery which leaves doubt.

If it was left unattended (safe place is now off so it shouldn't be) and it's stolen, it's very hard to make it the customers problem. They can easily leave negative reviews and do chargebacks, everything is in their favour.

Do you just chalk it as part of doing business and replace it if there is any doubt about the delivery being successful, whilst monitoring to make sure it's a real small percentage of overall deliveries?

Some other scams / liberties we've had this week alone;

- Customer buys wrong thing, we say they can return it and then we'll send checkout link for difference + delivery cost to resend. They realise if they return it for full refund then buy it again they get free delivery as it's over the £99 free delivery threshold. We lose 2 lots of payment processing + Klarna fees and have to cover the postage. Liberty

- Customer buys THREE different items valued between £400 & £700 (they only need one), tests each of them out and returns two for refund both opened (covered under our guarantee but they're still taking libertiies) then a couple months later claims the third one (£700) is faulty, gets back to us, can't find fault then he becomes abusive and wants refund. Upsets my staff, turns out he's moving abroad and pretty much just wanted to return outside of returns period. We refunded to un-customer him. Liberty

- Customer asks to return item, we say send back at his cost as per our terms, he then says its actually faulty, we do troubleshooting and then provide pre-paid returns label. We receive a pack of McVities digestives!! He had altered the label to a different address nearby, we actually did take the parcel to them thinking it was theirs then NEARLY sent a new item out before our finance manager intervened and thought something was fishy. She managed to retrieve the parcel from other place (but no digestives haha), label number was ours but label was photoshopped to a different address so that the parcel went missing and we had no choice but to send a replacement! Clever!! Really wish I'd told him we re-sent the item but instead sent him some hob nobs. Scam

- Shopify high risk of fraud, £700 order. We refund an amount between £0.01 & £0.99 and ask customer to tell us it. A fairly good, but probably not 100% accurate way to prove access to their account. Customer replies saying he doesn't have access to online banking but can provide proof of address (easily photoshopped). Fraud

- Collecting DPD driver has "forgot" to scan at least 2 items on two separate occasions in the past couple weeks when collecting from our warehouse, neither item made it to the local depot! Both items had to be resent, DPD claim ask for a picture from our CCTV of the parcel, on the van, with the tracking number on display lol. We actually managed to provide a picture of it on the van in a distinctive box, but couldn't see the tracking number...... Theft

I just feel like a lot more people are trying it on and they think every business is Amazon and isn't going to be hurt by taking some liberties.

But the above alone costs time, money, headspace and stress.

Curious as to how other sellers handle similar issues, are we too nice? We're ten years into online retail so not new to scams and liberties but it seems to be a bit relentless lately.

We're growing quite quickly and 99% of our orders are problem free, I just need to create a clear cut process that allows my customer service guys to deal with this instead of me, with clear guidelines and telling them not to stress over it provided they follow the guidelines - whilst keeping me out of it as much as possible.

Sorry for the long post, needed to vent. Curious to hear how bigger and similar companies deal with this and also feel free to share any scams and liberties your customers have tried to take...

[DavePanda]

MrSparks said:

- Customer asks to return item, we say send back at his cost as per our terms, he then says its actually faulty, we do troubleshooting and then provide pre-paid returns label. We receive a pack of McVities digestives!! He had altered the label to a different address nearby, we actually did take the parcel to them thinking it was theirs then NEARLY sent a new item out before our finance manager intervened and thought something was fishy. She managed to retrieve the parcel from other place (but no digestives haha), label number was ours but label was photoshopped to a different address so that the parcel went missing and we had no choice but to send a replacement! Clever!! Really wish I'd told him we re-sent the item but instead sent him some hob nobs. Scam

This a lot more common than you think

I used to deliver returns to RL Polo, a lot of their returns were like this, actual item not sent but exchanged for random items. It is a well known scam and is shared universally on less than legit FB pages etc.

Another one was to get a return label, alter it in photoshop to a different address next to or near the actual address and send an empty package or something random. Customer proves to retailer it's been delivered so they refund, retailer than raises claim against us as our system shows the correct delivery address not the address it was delivered to.

Another is insurance fraud, customer ships item insured for xxx but actually sends a fake or worthless item then claims it was stolen or exchanged in transit. We have one in the process of being investigated at the moment from our depot, he deals in trainers and has made 7 claims for stolen shoes in the past few months.

[Shrimper]

Its interesting to read your experiences - I run a small business that is mainly online despatching 100-150 sales across 50-70 parcels a week. At the moment I'm very much a one band and used to find the returns bit stressful. I've now come to terms with it being 'part of the game' and almost always despatch a replacement out as quickly as I can to keep the customer happy - I've found that a couple of negative reviews in quick succession (through no fault of my own) can have a huge impact on sales. I've accepted that in some instances I will lose out, but I always try to make a claim against the courier for damage and theft. Despite being laborious, I win the case 75% of the time and the money eventually finds it way back to me about 6 weeks after the inital order.

I use Evri as they are cost effective which helps keep me competitive, and despite their reputation I have less than 1% damaged in transit. I have had a couple of scams/thefts, including several where the customer has sent me the cctv footage. I have probably been naive to others so your post has been an eye opener!

Unfortunately I see a lot of random delivery drivers deliver to my home address, with little care for the package of the surroundings - I've had items lobbed over the side gate, very valuable items left on the doorstep and even a mattress wedged between one of my cars and a wall.

I agree with the point that a lot of customers assume we are all the amazons of this world with next day delivery and free returns, which is frustrating, but I find a polite and personal message seems to help them understand

[MrSparks]

Shrimper said:

I've now come to terms with it being 'part of the game'

Same for returns, we actually turned it into a "guarantee" and extended the returns period way beyond competitors, we found that most people only really return within the first couple of weeks anyway so the extended period didn't make a great deal of difference to whether someone would actually return it or not but does sound good as part of our offer and reassuring to customers - this applies to our own websites where most of our sales are, we stick to the standard 30 days on eBay and whatever Amazon feel like doing.

We accept that somethings will be open box and some things will be returned, my warehouse guy processes all straight forward returns so I don't have to deal with them one by one (stressful!) we then track returns as a percentage of sale to keep an eye on it.

Sounds ultimately like we need to do the same with delivery issues. Accept that we're going to lose some parcels and lose some claims, make a process so the team can deal with the most common issues/queries then somehow track the amount of issues we have to make sure it doesn't become excessive.

Shrimper said:

Unfortunately I see a lot of random delivery drivers deliver to my home address, with little care for the package of the surroundings - I've had items lobbed over the side gate, very valuable items left on the doorstep and even a mattress wedged between one of my cars and a wall.

Same here, seen loads of stupidness from delivery drivers which makes it difficult when customers state stuff as it's often completely plausible judging by what some of the drivers get up to!