Laptop delivered to work address then "disappeared"

N

Neuken

Registered User
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15
Hi

Some advice please. Ordered a laptop via the web and gave my work address as delivery address. Laptop arrived, was signed for, was placed in an office and then "disappeared".

Now in discussion with employer but they say they may only pay a portion of the cost.

For me, ownership of Laptop transferred to company when signed for by a company employee, therefore company is 100% liable as they had a duty of care..........?

Or does the fault lie with the delivery company as they should have delivered to me or had the delivery signed by me?

Would like to know what my legal options are here.

Thanks
Neuken
 
I don't think that anyone other than yourself should take responsibility.

You gave your work address so the delivery company delivered it to there. someone signed for it - they fulfilled their part of the contract.

Presumably this is not part of your employment contract to take deliveries of stuff for personal use. Your employer is allowing you use this facility. You should have spoken to reception and told them to expect a delivery and to notify you as soon as it arrived.

If you persist against your employer, then a note will come out banning employees from getting deliveries to work.

The right thing to do is to try to find it. Not to blame others.
 
Neuken said:
For me, ownership of Laptop transferred to company when signed for by a company employee, therefore company is 100% liable as they had a duty of care..........?
Click to expand...

There is no way the ownership transferred to the company. The terms of delivery are presumably agreed between you and the laptop supplier - your company has nothing to do with this.

I recommend that you stop any conversations with your company about trying to recover any costs - even if they offer to pay a contribution. If you continue chasing compensation it may affect your own relationship with the company and also perhaps stop them accepting all personal deliveries in the future for everyone.

It was your at your risk that you allowed the laptop supplier to deliver to someone other than yourself. Unless you have insured against this risk, I think you should fully bear any costs.
 
Neuken said:
Hi

Some advice please. Ordered a laptop via the web and gave my work address as delivery address. Laptop arrived, was signed for, was placed in an office and then "disappeared".

Now in discussion with employer but they say they may only pay a portion of the cost.

For me, ownership of Laptop transferred to company when signed for by a company employee, therefore company is 100% liable as they had a duty of care..........?

Or does the fault lie with the delivery company as they should have delivered to me or had the delivery signed by me?

Would like to know what my legal options are here.

Thanks
Neuken
Click to expand...

Agree with the other posters, you had a high-value personal item delivered to your work address at your own risk. FWIW the company I work for refuse to accept any personal deliveries - they will only accept pre-notified deliveries from a very small subset of pre-nominated people and all others are turned away on attempted delivery.

SSE
 
Surely the delivery/courier company had a duty to ensure that it was delivered to you personally and that you should have signed for it.
 
Emiso said:
Surely the delivery/courier company had a duty to ensure that it was delivered to you personally and that you should have signed for it.
Click to expand...

Once an item is delivered to the address given (which it was in this case) and a signature obtained, then that is the standard proceedure, what happens after that is not their problem.
 
Is the delivery guy supposed to wait around while they go and look for the person who placed the order?

if that person isn't present, are they supposed to come back the following day?
 
I know that postmen are asked to deliver to the address on the envelope and not the name on the envelope . Dont know what the policy is with couriers though.

I deal with courier companies regularly , and I have to say that their POD ( proof of delivery ) is always poor.

They arrive , are in a hurry , will accept the first signature they get .- will accept a scribble , and I have seen many illegible proof of delivery documents .

They are supposed to get the persons signature - persons name - and company stamp , if available
.
This rarely happens , and most couriers accept anything that looks like a signature .

There are also employess , who will sign ,without checking out the name and address on the parcel.
 
You are liable, you are not supposed to have personal items delivered to your work!

The courier was as previously posted delivering to the address, they were not to know that it was a personal item etc.!

You are doing well to get anything back from your employer so just learn from the mistake.
 
I had something taken of me in work once so I send a message out to say that whoever took the item for safe keeping can they please return it to me before I have to report it as stolen to the garda. It worked a treat and the item was returned straight away.
Perhaps you could circulate an email in work similarly. Say that an item was delivered to the office for you and that whom ever took it for safe keeping for you could they drop it to you otherwise you will have to proceed with a report to the garda.
 
Whilst I would agree with other posters that the employer bears no liability, there is a seperate issue in that it indicates that one of the employers staff or someone else with access to the office (eg cleaners) is a thief. If I was your employer, the fact that I was potentially employing someone who is dishonest would concern me far more then the fact that you are out a few quid. Have they instigated any investigation into this?
 
I think the idea about a "Did anyone put this away for safekeeping?" email is a good one, but liaise with your employer as they have gone beyond the call of duty in offering you anything for a personal item.

I used to work as a consultant for investment banks in the City of London, and in one of them there was a spate of small thefts of personal money from wallets left in/on desks, £50 or so a time. After a massive enquiry, and a basic assumption that it was one of the lowly cleaners/service staff, the thief was identified as a bond trader who earned at least a quarter of a million pounds a year (and that was in the early 90s), so don't go jumping to conclusions about cleaners......

SSE
 
Is there a CCTV camera in use in the company?
If so you may be able to find out who stole the laptop.
You wouldn't even need to have one pointed at the place it was left.
Once the approaches were covered you should be able to form an idea of who it was.

Even if there is no CCTV system in place, you could WORK WITH your employer and suggest to other members of staff that such a system was recently installed, that there is evidence on tape of theft, but that if the person involved returns the property no further action may be taken. Don't specify the laptop and see how much stuff gets returned.

:)

ONQ.
 
I had a kitchen extractor hood delivered to my work address once and the couriers called me on my mobile as I had to sign for it when it arrived. I was kind of annoyed at the time as I thought they could have just left it at reception, but I can see the necessity for it now, reading this.
 
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