During the Spring Festival, the staff of an express delivery company in the public distribution center of Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province, stepped up sorting and sending express packages.
Visual China. During the Spring Festival, online shopping has become the preferred way for many people to buy New Year's goods and send gifts. This not only ushered in the peak period of goods sales on the e-commerce platform, but also brought the national express delivery business to continue to run at a high level.
With a large business volume and few couriers, the surge in the number of online purchases during the Spring Festival has brought a lot of challenges to the express delivery industry, and the risk of express loss has also increased.
So, if the courier is lost, who should compensate for it? How should recipients and senders protect their legitimate rights and interests?
Scenario 1: The courier company fails to fulfill its compensation obligations
In the 2024 National Online New Year Festival, Ms. Deng, a citizen of Beijing, also "shopped". "It's been a busy year, and I want to treat myself well during the Chinese New Year, and I bought a lot of things while there are many activities during the New Year's Festival. ”
Although online consumption is convenient, due to the lack of personal experience, if the purchased goods are not suitable, they need to be returned or exchanged. "In the shopping process under return and exchange**, only consumers and merchants are involved, but online shopping involves express companies. Recently, an incident happened that caused Ms. Deng to have a lot of complaints about the courier company.
I bought a massage instrument for my family, and after the arrival of the product, the experience was average, so I initiated a return. "This is a common part of the consumption process, but after several days, Ms. Deng has not received the refund information. When she opened the return logistics page, she found that the courier had not uploaded the tracking number after picking up the package.
Ms. Tang rushed to contact the courier and the courier company, only to be told that they could not determine the whereabouts of the package either. "The logistics page clearly says 'The courier has picked up', but the shipment is missing. The way the courier company handled it was to make me wait and say that they would look for it again. Ms. Deng recounted.
Although dissatisfied, Ms. Deng had no other choice but to wait for news from the courier company. She called ** every once in a while to ask about the progress, but she got the same reply every time: I'm looking for, please be patient. Seeing that the time to confirm the receipt of the goods was approaching, Ms. Tang decided to resolve the issue through the complaint channel.
I contacted the platform to complain first, and the customer service just said that it was recorded, and it would be verified and notified to the courier company. Subsequently, Ms. Deng also received a call from the courier company to "verify the information", but the reply was still to make her wait.
In the weeks that followed, Ms. Deng appealed through various complaint channels, but all efforts were in vain: "The people who responded to my complaint were very good, but no one really helped me solve the problem." ”
After waiting for nearly a month, Ms. Deng's express delivery was still nowhere to be heard, and in desperation, Ms. Deng could only admit it, "Obviously the express company lost the express, but in the end I was asked to bear the loss, and I was very angry when I thought about it." ”
A reporter from China City Daily searched for relevant reports, and it is not uncommon for the express to be lost and not properly handled.
Article 28 of the Interim Regulations on Express Delivery stipulates that if the user is not satisfied with the quality of the express delivery service, he may complain to the enterprise engaged in express delivery business, and the enterprise engaged in express delivery business shall deal with it and inform the user within 7 days from the date of receipt of the complaint.
According to relevant legal sources, users can also appeal to the relevant departments and resolve them through mediation. If the negotiation fails or the mediation fails, a lawsuit can be filed with the people's court and resolved through judicial channels.
Article 65 of the Postal Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that postal enterprises and express delivery enterprises shall promptly and properly handle the objections raised by users to the quality of services. If the user is not satisfied with the results, he may appeal to the postal administration, and the postal administration shall deal with it in a timely manner in accordance with the law, and reply within 30 days from the date of receipt of the complaint.
In addition, according to Article 15 of the Measures for the Handling of Complaints by Postal Users, the enterprises concerned shall properly handle the complaints conveyed by the postal administration departments in accordance with the following circumstances: if there is a problem with the quality of service, it shall be resolved through consultation with the user in accordance with the law; where there are no service quality issues, they shall promptly communicate with users and try to resolve objections; Objections to the quality of service have entered the litigation, arbitration, administrative ruling, people's mediation and other procedures, to the postal administration.
Scenario 2: Unauthorized placement of collection points and loss of them
In Ms. Deng's case, the responsible party was clearly the courier company, and the lost courier was not compensated because it failed to fulfill its compensation obligations. In addition, there is also a type of compensation dispute, which is caused by the vagueness of the responsible party.
Mr. Li, a resident of Lanzhou, Gansu Province, is looking forward to the delivery of his new headphones before the weekend. But when he got home from work, Mr. Li found no trace of the courier. He turned on his phone to check the logistics information and found that the package showed that it had been signed.
Subsequently, Mr. Li called the courier in charge of the delivery. The other party said that he couldn't get through to **, so he put the package on the collection shelf set up at the entrance of the community.
Mr. Li went to the courier rack to look for the package, but did not find it. So Mr. Li called the courier company again and demanded that it bear the liability for compensation.
The courier company said that the package had been placed on the courier rack and sent Mr. Li the ** of the package into the shelf. The other party said that this means that the package has been delivered, so it is not responsible for the loss. Mr. Li believes that the courier stored the parcel at the collection point without permission, and should be compensated as usual if it was lost.
A reporter from China City Daily noted that Article 25 of the "Interim Regulations on Express Delivery" stipulates that enterprises engaged in express delivery business shall deliver the express mail to the agreed address, the recipient or the recipient designated by the recipient, and inform the recipient or the recipient to accept it in person. The recipient or the consignee has the right to accept the goods in person.
It can be seen that even if it cannot be accepted in person, the permission of the recipient should be obtained before placing the express locker or collection point, otherwise it is a violation. Relevant legal sources believe that the courier company should be responsible for the loss of the parcel by placing the collection point without authorization.
It should be pointed out that according to Article 832 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, the carrier shall be liable for compensation for the damage or loss of goods during transportation. However, if the carrier proves that the damage or loss of the goods is caused by force majeure, the natural nature of the goods themselves or reasonable wear and tear, or the fault of the shipper or consignee, the carrier shall not be liable for compensation.
In other words, if the courier is lost after being placed in the designated location with the consent of the recipient, the courier company will be exempted from liability during the compensation process.
Is there any liability for the escrow party? According to Article 897 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, during the custody period, if the custodian causes damage or loss to the custodian due to improper custody, the custodian shall be liable for compensation. However, if the gratuitous custodian proves that he or she is not intentional or grossly negligent, he shall not be liable for compensation.
Industry insiders suggest that if there is damage or other accidents without face-to-face inspection, the recipient can claim compensation from the insurance company if the insurance has been purchased.
Scenario 3: Uninsured items are lost
When transporting important items, the insurance mechanism puts a "safety lock" on the express. But in this process, there are also many disputes.
A certain merchant in Hunan Province purchased a batch of clothing online from a company, and after receiving the goods, negotiated with the company to return some of the clothes by express transportation.
The merchant contacted the courier company courier to collect the parcel through **, and the courier did not inform the precautions of the insured price rules when receiving the courier, and divided the clothes into two parcels after receiving the package, and clicked to agree to the "Express Service Agreement" and "Insured Price Statement" when placing an order online. However, one of the parcels was lost in transit, so the merchant requested the courier company to compensate for the loss of the parcel goods of 8,633 yuan.
However, the express company argued that according to the terms of the company's "Express Service Agreement" and "Insured Price Statement", the insured amount checked by the merchant was 200 yuan, and according to the agreement, it could only compensate for the insured price of 200 yuan.
Subsequently, the merchant filed a lawsuit with the Dao County People's Court of Yongzhou City, Hunan Province, requesting the court to order the express company to compensate for the losses.
After the trial, the court held that although the express company submitted the terms of the "Express Service Agreement" and the "Insured Price Statement" to the court, it could not prove that the merchant clicked to agree to this agreement, and based on the evidence submitted by the merchant to the court, such as screenshots of the door-to-door pickup ** monitoring and logistics information, call recordings, etc., it was proved that the courier clicked to agree to the company's standard terms after receiving the package.
However, the courier was at fault for failing to inform the customer of the company's precautionary note of the existence of insurance rules when receiving the package, so the "Express Service Agreement" and "Insured Price Statement" involved in the case did not have legal effect on the merchant, so the express company should compensate the self-employed person for the loss of the parcel in accordance with the law.
The court comprehensively considered that the merchant involved in the case failed to perform its obligation to inform the courier of the specific value of the mailed clothes when the courier came to pick up the goods, and was also at fault, so it held that the plaintiff and the defendant should each bear corresponding civil liability. In summary, the court supported the courier company in compensating half of the value of the lost package 4316$5.
The reporter of China City Daily noted that Article 27 of the "Interim Regulations on Express Delivery" stipulates that if the express mail is delayed, lost, damaged or the internal parts are short, the insured express mail shall be determined in accordance with the insurance rules agreed between the enterprise operating the express delivery business and the sender; For uninsured shipments, the liability for compensation shall be determined in accordance with the relevant provisions of the civil law.
Finally, it should be pointed out that there are many criminals who defraud in the name of compensation for the loss of express delivery.
In this regard, **remind, after online shopping, you can compensate for the loss of express delivery**, you must call the courier company as soon as possible**, log in to the official website of the courier company or check your own courier information on the shopping platform, confirm whether the package is lost, damaged, etc., before confirmation, do not agree to add WeChat, QQ application, and do not dial**sent**number, or click**give**link. In particular, when the other party mentions fraudulent words such as "transfer", "loan", "remittance", "credit limit" and "account password", do not believe it.
Zheng Xinyu, a reporter from China City Daily.