Misaddressed Goods

A reminder for those shipping in/to the UK

[vincevincevince]

Many of us depend upon the user providing their correct address. If we only ship to the verified billing address, we might have a good level of confidence, but even then the billing address might be out-of-date.

Everyone makes mistakes, and some people even deliberately provide false information.

So - what happens if you ship your widgets to the wrong address? It goes without saying that your customer will file a chargeback if you don't refund them... but what about the goods themselves?

Can you require whoever recieved the goods to return them?
Can you give them the choice to pay for or return the goods?
Who has the title to the goods?

Under current law, the goods are legally owned by the recipient the moment that they arrive - they are treated as unsolicited goods.

Whilst your mind starts thinking of ways in which you might be able to recover the goods (remember they may be worth thousands of pounds)... bear in mind that the following are specific criminal offences:

- To tell the recipient they have to pay
- To threaten to take legal action to recover the goods
- To threaten a black-list if goods are not returned
- To start or threaten to start any collection procedure

The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 [opsi.gov.uk]

In short, you have lost the goods forever.

[Marshall]

Well that's a @itch. Here in Pennsylvania, it is a crime to accept items addressed to another. Good tip though.

Marshall

[jecasc]

If someone receives goods that do not belong to him by error this does not mean he can keep them for free.

What kind of action you can take depends probably on the country - and on the courier.

If a parcel gets lost because of a wrong address with the type of shipment I use it's the couriers problem. He is not allowed to deliver the package to anybody if the name on the package does not match the address. If he does anyway and cannot recover the package he has to pay for it- at least up to a certain amount.

I think in the EU customer protection laws are nearly the same in most countries. In Germany the legal situation for the wrong recipient to my knowledge would be like this:

If someone receives a package that it is not meant for him this does not mean he can simply keep it.

However he does not have to take any action either. The only thing you can do is to contact the person and send a courier to pick up the package at a designated time. This he cannot refuse. If he had expenses for the storage you have to pay for them.

If he does refuse to hand out the goods or destroys the goods or uses them he has to pay for the goods. At least if it was obvious that the package was clearly not meant for him. For example if there is an invoice inside with a name of another person.

Things could look different however if the goods could be mistaken for free samples or something like this.

And of course you need to be able to proof (for example with a signature) that the recipient did actually receive the parcel.

[jecasc]

Inertia Selling
24. - (1) Paragraphs (2) and (3) apply if -
(a) unsolicited goods are sent to a person ("the recipient") with a view to his acquiring them;

(2) The recipient may, as between himself and the sender, use, deal with or dispose of the goods as if they were an unconditional gift to him.

(3) The rights of the sender to the goods are extinguished.

If I am not mistaken paragraph 1 means that if the goods are clearly not intended for the recipient, as is the case with a misdirected parcel paragraph 2 and 3 do not apply.