Damage and shortages

Look at the outer before anything is signed. A crushed corner, a split seam, a wet patch or a box that rattles is worth noting on the driver's device at the point of hand-over, because a note made then is attached to the carrier's own record of the delivery.

If a signature is taken on a device, signing as damaged is not an accusation, it is a timestamp. If the parcel is left without a signature, photograph it where it was left before carrying it indoors.

Keep the packaging. The outer, the void fill and the inner box are the parts of a claim nobody can reconstruct once they are in a bin, and a carrier assessing a claim is assessing the packaging as much as the line.

Outer, label readable

One photograph of the whole box with the carrier label in frame and legible. This ties every other photograph to a consignment.

Void fill in place

A photograph of the box open, before anything is lifted out, showing how the fill sat around the line.

The damage itself

Close enough to see what has happened, far enough to show which part of the line it happened to.

Consignment number

Off the label or the tracking email. A claim cannot be raised against an order number alone.

The packing note

For a shortage. The note records what left the bench in that box, which is the figure a count is compared against.

On a multi-parcel order each box carries its own note, so the count that matters is the count for that box. An order split across three parcels that arrive on two days will look short until the last parcel lands, which is why the note rather than the order confirmation is the document to count against.

Where the count is genuinely short, the note tells us which packer sealed that box and the bench can be checked for a line that never went in. That is a quicker answer than a carrier enquiry, and it is checked first.

1. Email the order number and attach the photographs

   Say what arrived and in what state. Sooner is better: a carrier enquiry is easier to raise while the scans and the round are recent.

2. A claim line is opened

   It is recorded against the consignment and the manifest line it travelled on, with the photographs attached to that record.

3. The bench is checked first

   For a shortage, the packing note and the packer's bench are checked before anything goes to the carrier. For damage in transit, the enquiry goes to the carrier.

4. The outcome is recorded and emailed

   What was found, what the carrier said where it was asked, and what follows for the line. Nothing is promised in advance of that answer.

Where the outcome is that the line comes back, a return reference is raised and it is handled as sheet 08 describes.