Parcel not ordered: instructions for use
Parcel not ordered: instructions for use
I've received a parcel containing food supplements that I've never ordered. I'm not quite sure what to do with it, and especially with the invoice that came with it, which is full of spelling mistakes and has an address in Switzerland that seems a bit dubious, but is in fact addressed to me. I'm afraid I'm going to get sued...
M.-A.
Unfortunately, you are not the only one to have had this kind of misfortune, as some commercial companies do not hesitate to use this abusive procedure to obtain undue payments.
Under the law, and more specifically under Article 6a of the Swiss Code of Obligations, sending something that has not been ordered is not considered to be an offer; the recipient is therefore not obliged to return it or keep it. However, if the dispatch is clearly due to an error, the recipient must inform the sender.
To reduce the risk of legal action being taken, it is advisable to dispute the invoice received as quickly as possible, by registered post, stating that no order has been placed and clearly indicating your refusal to pay the amount claimed. You should also tell the sender that you are holding the unordered goods at his disposal for a specified period (e.g. 30 days), at his own expense. It would be unwise to send the package back by post yourself, even if the sender were to offer to reimburse you for the cost of returning it, to avoid the risk of the sender turning against you on the grounds that he never received the returned goods.
If you receive a debt collection order, you will of course have to lodge an objection, either immediately and orally when the postman notifies you of the order to pay (who will then immediately indicate the objection in his system), or within ten days of receiving it, by registered post to the relevant debt collection office. Be careful to respect this short deadline, otherwise the debt collection proceedings may continue against you.
Once the objection to the order to pay has been lodged, it will be up to the offending sender to apply to a judge to have the order cancelled (through a procedure known as the release of the objection). This is likely to prove complicated, as the sender will have to prove the existence of an order from you, by producing a copy of the signed contract or offer, when such a document clearly does not exist...
Pascal Rytz
