The BI professor believes consumers should push the Norwegian Consumer Agency to sue Postnord.
– There are a lot of things that purr. What do they do when they can’t find a recipient?
This is said Peter Gottschalk, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Management and Administration at the BI Norwegian School of Management. He is an expert in economic crime and strategic auditing.
The online newspaper recently revealed that lost Postnord packages are ending up in auction. We have also revealed that not only do the parcels end up at auction, but they are also sold through another company and specifically on Finn.no.
Postnord’s responsibility
Postnord doesn’t want to mention what the company and its auction partner earn from selling the lost property, but admits that until the fall of 2020, they had no control over the income that came from the various sales channels. The newspaper’s online source, who has worked closely on these operations for many years, estimates Postnord will take 80 percent of the income from the sale and Auksjonshuset 20 percent, but no party has confirmed this.
Haakon Nikolai Olsen, Postnord’s director of press, said Postnord had 6,000 claims for lost goods in 2020. With a total of 30 million shipments, this means an average of one out of every 5,000 packages will be lost.
– It’s not a very large number, but they should explain how their routine works. Gottschalk says if there are posters falling off along the way, that’s Postnord’s responsibility.
– It should be very easy to track the supplier and send the parcel back to him, in case the sender is not found. He points out that if you open a parcel, you usually show the identity of the supplier.
Read also: Postnord partner sold lost property on Finn.no: – We had no control
– Go to court
If Postnord gives up if they don’t find a recipient, Gottschalk is not in doubt.
– This could be a scam. They do very little to find the sender and receiver. He says that if they make money from mistakes they make themselves, then it’s not just fraud, but gross fraud.
– This is really conspiratorial, but Postnord makes money by people sending packages with them, and then makes money by selling merchandise in bundles to the auction house, Gottschalk points out.
If you lose your package, and then discover that the items it was meant to be sent to are being auctioned off, the BI professor is clear about what you should do.
– Go to court against Postnord. Not as an ordinary person, but seek help from the Norwegian Consumer Agency. The Norwegian Consumer Agency should be prepared to take the case to those affected by this, he says.
Postnord tells Nettavisen that the criticism is misleading, and adds that they are entitled to sell the goods. Read the entire answer below.
value packs
The online paper learns that there are valuable Postnord items that have ended up up for auction and off “other sales channels”. Apple TV boxes, heart rate monitors, grill thermometers and batteries are some of the items sold by Auction house management through Finnish ads.
Postnord confirmed to Nettavisen that it has agreed to this private sale of merchandise from Postnord deliveries of “unmarked merchandise” – until the activity ceases in the fall of 2020.
In last week’s Nettavisen case, Postnord agreed that merchandise bearing the name and address may end up at auction., if over time they do not succeed in obtaining the sender or owner. But first the item must be stored for at least three months in their Lost Property Depot.
Read also: Postnord customers are angry with customer service: – They seem to hide the whole service
– We deliver to Fretex
Norwegian Post and parcel carrier Bring deliver millions of parcels annually, some of which end up as unprocessed goods. Press Director Kenneth Tyndale-Petersen does not have the exact number, while estimating that the volume of lost packets is at a low level per mile.
This still means that several thousand parcels will also be lost in the Norwegian Postal Service. However, they have a different procedure than Postnord for what happens to these packages.
When what we call careless mail and parcels finds no owner, he is in stock with us for twelve months. These packages can be poorly tagged, have the wrong address or where patches have fallen off. If we haven’t found the owner yet, the package is delivered to Fretex. So we have no income from this. It’s only sad when the package doesn’t arrive, says Tjønndal Pettersen.
Postnord will be faced with Norway Post’s practice more lower in this case. Read what they answer there.
Norway Post also has several full-time employees tracking parcel owners and a separate “informant” for Christmas packages, says Tjønndal Pettersen.
Gottschalk believes that Norwegian Post sends goods to Fretex when they cannot find a recipient.
– It’s much more justified. It’s very good, he says.
You can make millions in profits
It could be due to delays, damage or loss of merchandise when the item doesn’t arrive, says press director Olsen at Postnord explained to Netavizen.
– Postnord explicitly states that about 6000 packages are lost annually. They blame damage to merchandise and falling labels. Could there be other reasons they don’t talk about frankly?
– If you take 6000 packages, and let’s say they earn a thousand kroner on every parcel sold at the auction house, then there are six million kroner in pure profit, Gottschalk answers.
He says there are many hypotheses or conspiracy theories one can think of as to why parcels have come to auction.
Is there an unfaithful Postnord server who takes the posters and gives them to the auction house? asks the professor.
Although one can question Postnord’s relationship with Auksjonshuset in general, Gottschalk points out that public agencies also sell things at auction.
-The police have an annual auction of bikes and other things confiscated by the police, he says.
Read also: Mary Ann was shocked when she opened her Postnord package
– no trust
But he still thinks it’s undoubtedly frowned upon how goods sent with Postnord end up at auction.
– What should Postnord do to create consumer confidence after Nettavisen’s discoveries?
The first thing you should do as a company, when affected by this scandal as Nettavisen reveals, is to calculate the extent. He says they don’t necessarily have to lie down.
He sees the situation in this case as Postnord giving the impression that parcels that end up at the auction house are “lost” and they can do nothing about it.
– It’s a very dangerous situation in terms of reputation. Just as we have zero tolerance for corruption, Postnord should have zero tolerance for waste, he says.
The BI professor asks if it was justified for them to make money from the mistakes they made, as the marks disappeared during transmission.
– As long as they make money from their indolence, Gottschalk says, they don’t trust them.
– He believes the money they earn from sales through Auksjonshuset should go to a fund they set up, where victims can apply for compensation.
Right to sell merchandise
– Criticism is unfortunately misleading, says press director Olsen to Netavizen.
PostNord has the right to sell the goods, if the sender or recipient cannot be found. We have people working on tracking the right sender or recipient. If this is not possible, we wait 3-6 months with sales, so that the sender or recipient has a reasonable time to contact the package. Unmarked merchandise, Olsen says, are packages in which we have no information about the sender and receiver—here the packages are opened in the hope of finding information that can lead us to the right owner.
– What do you think of the allegations that this is fraud?
– We think it is sad to be accused of fraud without justification. PostNord earns a living by delivering packages at the right time, place, and recipient. Of the 30 million shipments last year, 99.98 percent were delivered — and the vast majority of our customers are very satisfied, Olsen says.
When asked how the labels on packages might fall off or disappear, Olsen said:
– It is the responsibility of the sender to classify the parcel well, we encourage all of our customers to label well. The fact that some packages still lose marking, for example, may be due to lower quality of the labeling, moisture and blurred markings. Feeling good is important! Olsen says.
Consider doing as Norway Post
Nettavisen reports that in 2020, 3,249 parcels were replaced from the 6,000 lost packages.
– The party that pays the fare is the legitimate claimant. The package sent from a company to a private individual will be the company that owns the product, which will forward the claim to PostNord. Olsen explains that if the purchase and sale are between private individuals, this also applies, and then the seller must file a compensation claim against PostNord.
What is required to receive compensation from Postnord?
– If you are going to claim compensation from PostNord, you must prove that you have incurred a financial loss, and you obviously have it if your order arrived damaged or in the worst case never arrived. Furthermore, compensation claims must be submitted to PostNord and then claims are processed on an ongoing basis according to industry standards, says press director Olsen.
– Norwegian Post provides the goods to Fretex, when they cannot find the owner. They also leave packages in storage for twelve months before sending them to Fretex. Why not do that, instead of making money on merchandise through sales at Auksjonshuset?
– We are not familiar with Norwegian Post’s practices with Fretex. We will always do better by delivering the goods to the correct recipient or returning them to the sender, rather than auctioning them off. Unmarked merchandise and lost packages are neither desirable nor profitable. “We are open to considering alternative ways of handling non-marked merchandise, and it is conceivable that we will do the same as Norway Post in the long term,” Olsen says.
Get compensation
Postnord customers receive compensation from Postnord if packages disappear, as is usual today.
Our complaints department does a lot of work with this and will ensure that customers who feel that the package is lost or damaged, receive compensation. The seal is often damaged, the labels have fallen off or are not visible, when the package does not reach the station, Olsen, press officer, told Nettvizen.
Gottschalk still maintains his suggestion that a fund should be created where customers can request compensation.
– I think very few of them go that way and get compensation from Postnord. Are there really 6000 compensation cases a year? At the same time, Postnord probably has a bureaucracy where you’ll probably have to document yourself that you’re worthy of compensation, he says.
Postnord will not provide any exact figures about the amount that will be auctioned or the income from such sales.
– Delivery of merchandise to the auction house usually varies according to what is stocked on non-marked items in our system, Olsen told Nettavisen earlier.
– Not dressed properly
Earl Poe is a lecturer in the Department of Accounting, Auditing, and Business Administration at BI, and is an expert in warehousing, logistics, and transportation and logistics management.
Bø points out that although it seems a lot that 6,000 parcels a year, or one in 5,000 parcels, are lost, there are only one to two for every 1,000 parcels sent by Postnord.
—There is actually a small percentage of packages that disappear, she says.
Bø points out that it can be very different in how labels with the name and address of the recipient are placed on packages, whether they are made by online stores or private individuals.
– Often they are not installed well enough. But there can of course be cases where a note gets stuck while loading, she says.
As a general rule, packages pass only one sorting plant on the way from sender to recipient, says Bø. But this can vary.
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