HOW SHALL THE POST OFFICE COMPENSATE FOR THE LOSS OF PARCELS?

Recently, I have come to the district post office to send a parcel worth VND 200,000 to my customer in the country, but 2 days later I heard from the Post Office that this item was lost. When coming to settle, the Post Office representative will only reimburse me for the amount 4 times of the postage. Is this payment appropriate? I hope that FDVN Law Firm will respond soon.

FDVN’s opinions:

Thank you for concerning FDVN’s legal services. Regarding your consulting requests, after studying the relevant legal documents, FDVN Law Firm would like to give you the following advice:

Principles for payment of compensations for damage in the provision and use of postal services are specified under Article 40 of the Law on Post 2010 as follows:

“1. A compensation payable for damage in case of loss, damage or fraudulent alteration of the whole of a postal article shall be determined according to the limit liability to pay compensation for the whole damage applicable to the postal service concerned.

….

3. Compensations for damage shall be paid in Vietnam dong and in lump sum. unless otherwise agreed by the involved parties.

….

5. The level of compensation for damage shall be announced and applied by postal service providers but must not be lower than that prescribed by a competent state agency in charge of post”.

 If the post office has lost your parcel, they must have liability for compensation which is determined according to the limit liability to pay compensation for the whole damage when you have a document confirming the acceptance of a postal article or a document proving the using postal services. (as prescribed in Article 24 of the Decree  No. 47/2011/ND-CP detailing the implementation of some content of the Law on Post).

The limited level of compensation liability is prescribed in Clause 1 Article 25 of Decree No.47/2011/ND-CP as follows:

“a) For domestic postal services: 04 times of charge (included repaid amount of used service charge) of the used service;”

Pursuant to regulations of Law on post 2010 and guiding documents, there is no regulation on compensation for lost goods that you have sent. Therefore, the post office just must compensate on the amount not lower than the limited level: 04 times of used service charge. The time limit to pay compensation shall not exceed 30 days since parties have made a document defining the liability of compensation. If longer than the time limit to pay compensation as above, the compensator must pay interest of late payment as prescribed by law. (Pursuant to Article 26 of the Decree No.47/2011/ND-CP).

In case the value of the goods is larger than the amount received compensation, you can file a complaint requesting payment of the value of the lost goods with documents proving the value of the goods to the post office where you have sent the parcel to be handled.

Above is the advisory opinion of FDVN related to your consulting request on the basis of researching legal regulations. Hopefully, the advice of FDVN will be useful to you.

Nguyen Thi Suong – FDVN Law Firm

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