BI professor believes consumers should get the Norwegian Consumer Agency to sue Postnord.
– There are many things that gurgle. For what do they do when they can not find a recipient?
This is what Petter Gottschalk, professor emeritus at the Department of Management and Organization at BI Norwegian School of Management, says. He is an expert on economic crime and strategic scrutiny.
The online newspaper recently revealed that missing Postnord packages end up at the Auction House. We have also revealed that the packages not only end up at auction, but have also been sold through another company and privately on Finn.no.
– Postnord’s responsibility
Postnord does not want to state what the company and their auction partner earn from selling lost property, but admits that until the autumn of 2020 they have not had control over what income comes from the various sales channels. The online newspaper’s source, who has worked closely on these processes for many years, estimates that Postnord will receive 80 per cent of the income from the sale and Auksjonshuset 20 per cent, but neither party has confirmed this.
Postnord had 6,000 claims related to lost goods in 2020, says Haakon Nikolai Olsen, who is press manager at Postnord. With a total of 30 million shipments, this means that on average one in 5,000 packages will be lost.
– It is not a very high number, but they should explain how their routines are. If there are labels that fall off along the way, it is Postnord’s responsibility, says Gottschalk.
– It must be exceptionally easy to track the supplier and send the package back to them, if they do not find the sender. If you open a package, it usually says who the supplier is, he points out.
Also read: Postnord partner sold lost property on Finn.no: – We had no control
– Go to court
If Postnord gives up if they do not find a recipient, Gottschalk is not in doubt.
– This can be a scam. They do too little to find the sender and receiver. And if they make money on the mistakes they themselves make, it is not just fraud, but gross fraud, he says.
– This is really conspiratorial, but Postnord makes money by people sending packages with them, and then they make money by selling the goods in the packages to the Auction House, Gottschalk points out.
If your package has been lost, and you then discover that the items you should have received are sold via the Auction House, the BI professor is clear on what you should do.
– Go to court against Postnord. Not as a private person, but seek help from the Norwegian Consumer Agency. The Norwegian Consumer Agency should be willing to take the case to those affected by this, he says.
The criticism is misleading, says Postnord to Nettavisen, and adds that they have the right to sell goods. Read the entire answer further down.
Valuable packages
The online newspaper knows that there are valuable goods from Postnord that have ended up at the Auction House and further out in «other sales channels». Apple TV boxes, heart rate monitors, grill thermometers and batteries are some of the items that have been sold by The auction house’s management through Finn ads.
Postnord has confirmed to Nettavisen that they have approved this private sale of goods from Postnord’s deliveries of “unmarked goods” – until the activity was stopped for the autumn of 2020.
In Nettavisen’s case last week, Postnord agreed that goods with name and address could also end up at auction, if over time they have not succeeded in obtaining the sender or owner. But first the item must be stored for at least three months in their own lost property warehouse.
– We deliver to Fretex
Posten and the parcel carrier Bring carry many millions of parcels a year, and some of them end up as unprocessed goods. Press manager Kenneth Tjønndal Pettersen does not have the exact number, while estimating that the volume of lost packages is at a low per mille level.
This still means that several thousand parcels will also be lost to Norway Post. However, they have different routines than Postnord for what happens to these packages.
– When what we call carefree mail and packages do not find an owner, it is in stock with us for twelve months. These can be packages that are poorly marked, have the wrong address or where patches have fallen off. If we have not yet found the owner, the package is given to Fretex. So we have no income on this. It’s just sad when the package does not arrive, says Tjønndal Pettersen.
Postnord will be confronted with Norway Post’s practice further down in the case. Read what they answer there.
Norway Post also has several employees who work full time to track down the owners of the packages and a separate “detective” for the Christmas packages, Tjønndal Pettersen states.
Gottschalk thinks that Norway Post sends the goods to Fretex when they cannot find a recipient.
– It is much more justifiable. It is very good, he says.
Can make millions in profits
It can be due to delays, damage or lost goods when the item does not arrive, says press manager Olsen in Postnord explained to Nettavisen.
– Postnord openly states that around 6,000 parcels a year are lost. They blame damage to goods and labels falling off. Could there be other reasons they do not talk openly about?
– If you take 6,000 packages, and let’s say that they earn a thousand kroner on each package sold at the Auction House, then there is six million kroner in pure profit, Gottschalk answers.
He says there are several hypotheses or conspiracy theories one can think of as to why the packages end up at the Auction House.
– Is there an unfaithful servant in Postnord who removes the labels and gives it to the Auction House? asks the professor.
Although one can problematize 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 bicycles and other things that the police seize, he says.
Also read: Mari Anne was shocked when she opened her package from Postnord
– No trust
But he still believes that it is undoubtedly reprehensible how goods sent with Postnord end up at the Auction House.
– What should Postnord do to create trust in consumers after Nettavisen’s revelations?
– The first thing you should do as a company, when you are affected by such a scandal as Nettavisen reveals, is to account for the extent. They do not necessarily have to lie down, he says.
He perceives the case in this case as Postnord giving the impression that the packages that end up at the Auction House are “waste” and something they can not do anything about.
– It is a very dangerous attitude in terms of reputation. Just as we have zero tolerance for corruption, Postnord must have zero tolerance for waste, he says.
The BI professor asks if it is justifiable for them to make money on mistakes they have made, in that the labels have disappeared during transmission.
– As long as they make money on their own laxity, they have no confidence, says Gottschalk.
– The money they earn from sales via Auksjonshuset should go to a fund they create, where the victims can apply for compensation, he believes.
Right to sell goods
– The criticism is unfortunately misleading, says press manager Olsen to Nettavisen.
– PostNord has the right to sell goods, if it is not possible to find a sender or recipient. We have people who work to track the right sender or recipient. If this is not possible, we wait 3-6 months with sales, so that the sender or recipient will have a reasonable time to call for the package. Unmarked goods are packages where we do not have information about the sender and recipient – here the packages are opened in the hope of finding information that can lead us to the right owner, says Olsen.
– What do you think about the allegations that this is fraud?
– We think it is sad to be unjustifiably accused of fraud. PostNord makes a living by delivering packages at the right time, place and recipient. Of last year’s 30 million shipments, 99.98 percent were delivered – and the vast majority of our customers are very satisfied, says Olsen.
When asked how labels on the packages can fall off or disappear, Olsen says:
– It is the sender’s responsibility to label the packages well, and we encourage all our customers to label well. The fact that some packages still lose the marking may, for example, be due to less good quality of the marking, moisture and indistinct marking. Feeling good is important! says Olsen.
Considering doing as Norway Post
He informs Nettavisen that in 2020, 3,249 packages of the 6,000 that were lost were replaced.
– It is the party who is the freight payer who is also the rightful claimant. A package sent from a company to a private individual will then be the company that is the product owner, and which will direct the claim to PostNord. If the purchase and sale has taken place between private individuals, this also applies, and then it is the seller who must file a claim for compensation against PostNord, Olsen explains.
– What does it take to get compensation from Postnord?
– If you are to claim compensation from PostNord, you must prove that you have suffered a financial loss, and you obviously have that if what you ordered arrived damaged or in the worst case never arrived. Furthermore, compensation claims must then be submitted to PostNord and the claims are then processed continuously in accordance with industry standards, says press manager Olsen.
– Norway Post provides goods to Fretex, when they can not find the owner. They also leave the packages in stock for twelve months before sending them to Fretex. Why do not you do it, instead of making money on the goods via sales at Auksjonshuset?
– We are not familiar with Norway Post’s practice with Fretex. We will always be better served by delivering the goods to the correct recipient or returning it to the sender, rather than auctioning it off. Unmarked goods and lost packages are neither desirable nor profitable. We are open to considering alternative ways of handling unmarked goods, and it is conceivable that in the long run we will do the same as Norway Post, Olsen says.
Get compensation
Postnord customers receive compensation from Postnord if the packages disappear, as is the routine today.
– Our complaints department works a lot with this, and will ensure that customers who experience that the package has gone astray or is damaged, receive compensation. Most often it is the seal that is damaged, or labels that have fallen off or are not visible, when a package does not reach the terminal, Olsen, press officer, has stated to Nettavisen.
Gottschalk nevertheless maintains its proposal that they should set up a fund where customers can seek compensation.
– I think very few go that way and get compensation from Postnord. Are there really 6,000 compensation cases a year? At the same time, Postnord probably has a bureaucratic system, where you probably have to document yourself that you are entitled to compensation, he says.
Postnord will not provide any exact figures on how much will be sold at auction or on income from such sales.
– The delivery of goods to the Auction House normally varies according to what is stored on unmarked goods in our system, Olsen has told Nettavisen earlier.
– Not put on properly
Eirill Bø is a lecturer at the Department of Accounting, Auditing and Business Administration at BI, and is an expert in warehousing, logistics, transport and logistics management.
Although it sounds a lot that 6,000 parcels a year, or one in 5,000 parcels, are lost, there are one to two per thousand of the parcels Postnord sends, Bø points out.
– There is actually a vanishingly small proportion of packages that disappear, she says.
Bø points out that it can be very different how well the labels marked with the name and address of the recipient are put on the packages, whether it is made by online stores or private individuals.
– Often they are not fastened well enough. But there can of course be cases where a note has hung up during loading, she says.
As a rule, the parcels pass by only one sorting plant on the way from sender to recipient, says Bø. But this can vary.
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