A Norwich marketing consultant has won a month-long battle to be reimbursed for a late Christmas gift that was never delivered.
Chris Gould claims CCTV footage shows a Hermes delivery driver taking away his Xbox One from a newsagents after the shopkeeper refused to accept it.
The 27-year-old, from Edinburgh Road, said despite presenting the company with the footage, it initially refused to reimburse him for the £150 games console.
Now, after being contacted by this newspaper, Hermes has finally admitted a mistake was made and offered Mr Gould a full refund.
'It's been the worst customer experience I have ever had,' said Mr Gould, who purchased the console as a late Christmas present for his girlfriend.
'I've shown them CCTV of their driver walking out of the shop with my package, yet they were out right ignoring this.
'They are just going by what their forms say. I understand having trust in your staff and systems, but when there is CCTV proving the contrary to this, how can you ignore that.'
Mr Gould said he ordered the console along with four games from a reputable seller on Ebay on December 28, 2018.
He claimed the seller used the Hermes click and collect service and Mr Gould chose for the company to deliver it to the newsagents on Alexandra Road.
He received notification the item was dropped off at 12.59pm on December 31 and a delivery note showed it was signed for by someone called 'Mr'.
But when Mr Gould when to pick up the item on January 9, it was not there.
Instead, the shopkeeper said he had not accepted the parcel as it did not have an ECP number, which is a unique identification code.
Mr Gould said: 'I go into this store on a regular basis, as it's my local shop and I know the shop keeper quite well, but I still asked to see CCTV that he had not accepted the parcel, to which he obliged.'
The footage shows a man attempting to deliver a parcel, but then taking it back out.
A member of staff at the newsagents confirmed they do not accept items without an ECP code as the shop does not receive commission without one.
Despite showing Hermes the CCTV, he said the company had refused to reimburse him - even after it carried out an investigation.
Now, the company has apologised to Mr Gould.
A Hermes spokesman said: 'This delivery was booked through a third-party supplier and was rejected due to missing information.
'The courier in question wrongly marked the parcel as delivered before it was sent back to the depot, and we have since provided him with additional training.
'We apologise to this customer for any inconvenience caused and we will be processing a refund for the full value of the item.'
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