What are my rights with a damaged delivery?

[prehensile]

I recently bought an amplifier from eBay, and upon examining it on arrival I noticed there was a large dent in the side of the metal casing. It seems that the item was dropped from a fair height, and obviously happened while still packaged because there are no scratches just like a padded bump indentation. I've contacted the seller who I was suspicious of immediately, it's an ex demo item so should have been all right, and he said it was in great condition. It turns out that the cardboard box which incidentally was completely covered in "fragile" tape has a bump mark in the same place as the dent was underneath. I've checked the courier web site and I seem to have signed a slip with tiny little letters at the top saying item received in good condition. Obviously I didn't have time to check it over when the guy was waving the form at me and handing me the parcel saying sign here please. I expect this can concern a lot of people, what are a person's rights in such situations?

[funnelhead]

technically you are meant to open examine and open the package before accepting. Once its in your possession then who's to say you didnt bump it? I would have thought your only chance is to scare the courier into giving you, like, 5 free deliveries or something....

[Scooby]

where's the bargain here ?

[Speedo]

If it's damaged you need to sign for it as such, or as unchecked. Else you're done for. I got stung on some £1400 alloys that way, the boxes were fine and it was early in the morning so I thought 'yeah, np looks fine'. Open them up, rim chipped by whatever retard fitted the tyre. Couldn't do anything about it because I'd signed for it . To make it worse they were a friends rims, he wasn't a happy bunny to say the least.

[Eddy396]

The problem with trying to check your items before signing it is completely impractical.

Can you imagine saying to a City Link grunt, "yeah you just wait here for 30mins while i check all these items to see if they work".

I can imagine what the response would be. The couriers know that most people just sign it because they dont want to be awkward and want them to get on there way with as much inconveniance as possible, and I have a feeling to couriers know this. Besides if everyone did start checking stuff delivery times would rocket, increasing costs which would be spead out to you and me no doubt.

Obviously if the parcel is badly damaged I wouldn't sign for it, but then there doesnt have to be external damage for the item inside to be wrecked.

[rajagra]

The problem with trying to check your items before signing it is completely impractical.

Which is why you do what Speedo says and sign it "contents not inspected" or something similar.
Trouble is, some couriers now use PDA thingies where you sign using a stylus, I doubt you can fit in a disclaimer. You could sign it with a random squiggle, though. Or write "Uninspected" so it looks like a signature unless you look closely.

[Howard]

I usually sign it with my name and then put *Unchecked* next to it, because as said, it's silly to have to go through every thing to ensure it hasnt' been dropped or whatever, while you're being rushed by the courier's impatience :|

[aeonf242]

One point to note is that unless the vendor has packaged the goods to the couriers minimum standards then the courier won't be held responsible....

It normally doesn't matter how many fragile stickers you have on it, some couriers read these as drop me anyway, if it's unsuitably packaged then no go.

Make sure you try to take photos of the item and the packaging if possible...

Of course you then still should have recourse to the vendor...if it's e-bay good luck...

[derthballs]

your screwed basically.