Motorcyclist wins payout after bike bag goes missing
Garry Joiner feared he’d lost more than £500 after he sold two motorbike saddlebags on eBay and one of them went missing in transit.
In July, Garry, from Dunfermline, sold the items to a customer in Cornwall for £540.
The panniers were collected in two separate packages from a Hermes couriers’ drop-off point in Duloch, Fife – but only one reached its destination.
“When I checked the Hermes tracking website I could see that one package had been delivered but the other hadn’t,” said Garry.
When the issue was raised with the online marketplace, Garry was stunned to learn the £540 transferred by the buyer via PayPal had been then taken directly from his bank account and credited straight back to her.
“I will be able to get the pannier that was successfully delivered returned to me but, as they come as a matching pair, it will be very difficult to sell on its own,” he said.
Garry said he was getting nowhere while trying to open a compensation case with Hermes, so he wrote to Raw Deal. The company said Garry had taken out extended cover for the first package but not the second one, so he couldn’t be compensated for both.
However, the firm has now offered the motorcyclist £300 for his troubles.
Hermes said: “Our customer service team has been in regular contact with Mr Joiner about this issue and have apologised.
“We successfully deliver more than 335 million parcels each year but occasionally things go wrong, so we would urge people to ensure they consider additional cover when sending valuable items.
“Unfortunately, Mr Joiner failed to do this on his second parcel.
“As a gesture of goodwill we have compensated him £300 – the maximum allowed.”
Garry is grateful for the cash but said he would still now be saddled with a single pannier to try to sell.
“I would urge anyone using courier services from the likes of eBay to check the small print very carefully before arranging to post anything,” he said.