In December we ordered a Sleeping Duck mattress which was dispatched late December. After several days it was logged into Allied Express depot in Brisbane. And there it sat with no movement /scanning.
We contacted SD & we contacted Allied Exp several times, not really getting anywhere.
Weeks past and we escalated our complaint to Sleeping Duck, they dispatched a second mattress! Which initially did the same thing as the first, scanned after several days and then nothing.
Even though it was marked as " High priority ".
We again escalated our complaints again with SD and finally it left the depot and within days the second one finally arrived.
Then last Thursday the first mattress turned up! It was supposed to be located by Allied at the depot in Brisbane and returned to sender.
We let SD know it had turned up, they asked us to print out a return packaging slip to stick to the box. They organised it to be collected the following Monday (so 4 days ago) between 9am & 4am. So we did as instructed and it sat waiting to be collected. No one came.
We’ve contacted SD and they are yet to reply. No one has come for the mattress since Monday. We even mentioned it the the courier who dropped off Mattress no.2 and they weren’t aware.
So my question is, how long do we wait before we can legally get rid of it?
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Until such time they indicate that you can dispose of it. Until such time it is there property and you don’t have any right to dispose it. If you do, they may claim damages…which would be the value of the disposed item.
The challenge is getting them to agree it its disposal. It is unlikely if the product has some value and potentially can be use again by someone else. The best option is to formally write/email to them and indicate you have one of their mattresses in your possession, it is inconvenient to store as it takes up room, they need to come and collect. Give them a reasonable timeframe to respond (say 5 or 10 business days) to confirm when they will collect the mattress.
This should trigger them to act.
The courier may have been responsible for its collection and a mix up at their end. SD might not know that the courier has not collected it and reason for formally writing to them.
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Or charge them storage fees.
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Welcome to the Community @SharonA
In Qld you must hold it and protect it until you reach agreement with the owner or get a Court Order, a business has different rights to a private person, so I am fairly sure this would be similar for every State/Territory. Getting some Legal advice would be a good first step and there are many free legal advice centres that would guide you. Note that you must protect the Goods until you are legally allowed to dispose of them, so leaving it where it can be stolen or damaged may leave you able to be held liable for the loss and/or damage.
https://www.legalaid.qld.gov.au/Find-legal-information/Neighbourhood-and-property/Abandoned-goods
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