Unclaimed parcel
Are you planning to order goods, think it over, and if you then decide you do not want them, simply not collect the parcel? Or have you ordered goods from several e-shops and intend to accept only the parcels that arrive first?
By ordering goods from our e-shop you enter into a valid purchase contract. As the buyer, you are obliged to pay the purchase price and take delivery of the goods. This obligation is imposed on you by law, namely Section 2118 of Act No. 89/2012 Coll. (Czech Civil Code). By failing to collect the parcel, you are in breach of that law.
Both our e-shop and the carrier you have chosen will send you notifications that the goods have been handed over to the carrier and, subsequently, that they are ready for collection at the pick-up point. In addition, the e-mail confirming dispatch of the goods contains a link for tracking the parcel directly. You will therefore be aware of every movement of the parcel.
Although it is your legal obligation, you have not collected the parcel
There are now 2 ways to resolve this:
1.) You are still interested in the order:
We will send the goods to you again, but only with payment in advance (bank transfer, card payment or another online payment). The price of the order will be increased by reasonable compensation for the uncollected parcel.
Here the situation is somewhat more complicated. Failing to collect the parcel does not mean that you have cancelled the order or withdrawn from the purchase contract. It only means that you have seriously breached the purchase contract under Section 2118(1) of Act No. 89/2012 Coll., the Civil Code.
By submitting the order and its subsequent acceptance and confirmation by our e-shop, a valid purchase contract came into existence, fully effective under our Terms and Conditions, which you accepted in the final step before submitting the order, and under the laws currently in force in the Czech Republic.
Our e-shop did not receive any request from you to change or cancel the order – neither before dispatch by our shop nor subsequently, up to the last possible collection date at the pick-up point you selected.
By law, our shop is entitled to compensation for the costs incurred for picking, restocking, postage and packaging from the buyer, i.e. from you. This compensation is legally enforceable, as by failing to collect the goods you have breached the purchase contract.
The total costs incurred in connection with an uncollected parcel are set at 120 Kč.
Lost or damaged parcel?
At the moment you fail to collect the parcel, the responsibility and risk for any loss of or damage to the goods also passes to you. If the parcel is therefore returned damaged, we are entitled to claim from you compensation for damaged, incomplete or lost goods.
If a parcel is not collected, we will send you an invoice with payment details, requesting that you pay the compensation as soon as possible – this way you will avoid complications. As a rule, this consists of the actual shipping costs incurred plus the handling costs associated with dispatching, and also receiving back, the parcel.
The laws currently in force in the Czech Republic give shops the means to defend themselves effectively against irresponsible customers who fail to collect cash-on-delivery parcels.
Since you have breached a valid contract, this may be resolved in the following three ways:
- Assignment of the receivable to our agency specialising in debt recovery.
- Through the courts.
- Payment of the postage compensation to our shop.
Options 1 and 2 are lengthy and financially very disadvantageous for you, but very effective for us. (You would be neither the first nor the last.)
Option 3 is the most acceptable and cheapest route for you.
Once the uncollected goods have been returned to us, we will send you an e-mail summarising all the points set out in this article. At that moment, no debt recovery proceedings will have been initiated against you. We firmly trust in your honesty and sense of responsibility, and that you will pay the postage compensation.
We believe you have every right to know what consequences failing to honour a concluded contract may have, even if it is a purchase contract concluded with an online shop.
If you think that we are "merely trying to intimidate you" or that "you have failed to collect cash-on-delivery parcels several times before and nobody had a problem with it", be assured that this is not the case.
For example, dTest (a Czech consumer monthly which focuses on testing products and services and also provides advice and guidance on consumer and seller rights, informs about new legislation, warns against unfair practices by sellers and misleading advertising, offers advice on complaints, etc.) says the following:
“By refusing to accept the parcel, the customer does not automatically trigger the period for withdrawal from the contract,” explains Lukáš Zelený, head of dTest's legal department. "The customer will therefore have to pay. They still have the option of withdrawing from the contract. However, a contractual penalty and default interest or postage compensation will have to be paid in any event – this obligation is not cancelled by withdrawal from the contract.”
We will not claim any penalty or default interest from you. Only compensation for postage, packaging and the costs of restocking and picking.
We therefore ask you to honour your obligations responsibly and collect your goods.