These things happen all the time. We’re all humans after all and humans make mistakes. Unfortunately, a seemingly tiny mistake can sometimes turn into a big problem, not only for the sender but you as well. In preventing such a scenario, time is of the essence. As soon as you notice there’s something wrong, you need to act!
Fortunately, most senders put more information inside the parcel – to ensure that it will eventually get to its rightful owner. So if it gets misplaced, the person receiving the parcel will know who to contact to return it.
Even though returning the package should not be of inconvenience to the receiver, for whatever reason, sometimes, people refuse to cooperate with the courier company and fail to return the misplaced parcel. Most of the time, this is why the process of finding misplaced packages takes so long.
Our advice is not to be one of those persons. Instead, be a Good Samaritan and notify the courier service about the mistake. Otherwise, you can cause all kinds of issues to the sender and rightful package receiver, but also to yourself. Who knows, you might even get sued for that!
Why It’s Not Okay to Keep Someone Else’s Package?
It’s not advisable to withhold any misdeliveries ahead of attempting to return it. As the carriers are notified, either by the person who sent the package or the rightful recipient, that the delivery never arrived where it should have, they will track the delivering process and locate the parcel. Eventually, they can come to your house and enquire about the package – this should not surprise you. So our advice is that you do not attempt to retain any misdeliveries.
Should you receive something that was not ordered by you, the right thing to do is get in touch with the sender and then ask the courier to take the parcel back. Usually, deliveries that you receive but didn’t order are labeled by the courier as “unsolicited goods”. However, this might not be the case with misdeliveries.
It’s because the description on the parcel generally states clearly about who sent the package. This means that you have information about the sender, as well as about the person who is waiting for the package.
If you are unable to find the rightful recipient on your own, what you should do is get in touch with the ones that delivered the package – you will find information about the courier company on the tag of the parcel. Just calling their assistant service and informing them about the mistake should be enough. It’s up to the courier service to take care of the rest.
Making Sure Your Parcels Don’t Get Misdelivered
Double-checking that you’ve entered the right details about the recipient (e.g. their name, their phone number, the delivery address, etc.) goes without saying, but there are a few other ways to ensure your parcel is delivered to the right person and vice versa.
It is a good idea to watch the tracking system permanently, as even though incorrect data can help – it might signal if something wrong happened. Therefore, you’ll be informed if you should contact the carrier for enquiries. As per usual, at delivery, the tracking system displays the name of whom signed for the package. This way, in the case of it being delivered somewhere else, you will know.
Sometimes, for whatever motive, parcels can be checked by the carrier as “delivered” before they actually get delivered. The courier might bring it later, regardless of the tracking system showing otherwise. However, should the parcel be impossible to find even after a few days and it is declared lost by the company that was supposed to deliver it, you hold the right to file a claim o get your money back for your lost package.
Can you get a refund if your package was wrongly delivered? In the case of your parcel being unable to be tracked in a couple of days and the carrier declaring it lost – you have the right of filing a claim to get your money back. For this, proof of the cost of the parcel’s contents will be required. Then the company needs to assess the situation, and then you will be given a response.
Why Do Packages Get Misdelivered?
Usually, this happens due to receiving inaccurate or erroneous addresses or information. It can be a real challenge sometimes to find an individual home, so it’s vital to be careful with the information you give and check how accessible it is. Should the data be imprecise or the location obsolete, the parcel is generally brought back to whoever sent it by the carrier or the wrong beneficiary. So it is possible that you receive an unwanted parcel.
Often, issues come up when the location is hard to pinpoint. Generally, you don’t have to label your parcel and put information on the box (carriers mark the packages on their own – if not, they will need you to print a label and glue it to the parcel).
Nevertheless, it is useful if you point out who sent the package and who should receive it and their locations in the eventuality that the tag deteriorates or cannot be read anymore due to the delivery mechanism. It is then when the parcel gets from a depot to another, as the carriers try to read the undecipherable. If they do not succeed, the order will be returned to whoever sent it, if that information is still available.
A critical piece of information is the postal code – it aids in the sorting process, speeding it up for the delivery company. Generally, this is an automatic process, which means that is there is a mismatch between the actual location and the postal code, it will take a while until this gets observed. The delivery might get to the right place or be sent back.
There are times, though, when misdeliveries are just mistakes. Should the courier company say that the delivery has been made, yet you didn’t get anything – it usually means that your package was received by the wrong person.
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Tags: Overnight Delivery, Parcel Delivery, Parcel Delivery Services