One of my clients recently had a case which I am explaining below and if you are stuck in such similar situation, here is what to do.
Note: Due to attorney-client privilege, I cannot disclose complete case details or identify the actual parties involved. However, I am sharing the essential facts and legal approach so that if you find yourself in a similar situation, you can understand the available solutions and legal remedies.
TL;DR: When a courier refused to deliver your parcel and then logged delivery attempts that never actually happened, the remedy is a consumer complaint for deficiency in service, not a support ticket. You can file before the District Consumer Commission within two years of the failure, and the tracking record itself is usually the strongest piece of evidence you have. Take screenshots before the page is updated, and stop arguing with the call centre.
It was a Tuesday afternoon, and nothing arrived.
Rohan Kulkarni had ordered replacement parts for his motorcycle from an online seller, paid in full, and had the parcel routed to his flat in Nagpur. The tracking page said an agent would reach him before six. Nobody came. By that night the page showed a failed delivery attempt. The next morning, a second one. By the third day, a third entry, each logged against a reason he says never happened.
He called the courier's customer care four times that week. The parcel sat at a local hub. He raised a grievance on the National Consumer Helpline on the same evening as his last call, and heard nothing back. Three weeks on, the parcel was still sitting there. That is when he approached the Chamber of Advocate Sudhir Rao.
The complaint was built under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 before the District Commission, with tracking screenshots, the payment record, call logs and the email trail annexed in sequence. Advocate Sudhir Rao's experience in this domain, particularly in deficiency-of-service matters against logistics and e-commerce companies, helped secure an order in the client's favour: the company credited the order value, and the Commission closed the complaint as settled.
Key Facts of the Case
- An online order was placed and paid for, with delivery to a residential address in Nagpur.
- The courier's tracking page recorded three separate failed delivery attempts.
- The client says he was at the address on all three dates and no delivery was actually attempted. Customer care was contacted repeatedly over the following days; the parcel was not delivered.
- A grievance was registered on the National Consumer Helpline, and no effective response followed.
- The order value was eventually credited to the client, and the consumer complaint was closed as settled.
One thing to be clear about before the law: we have one side of this. The courier's internal notes, the agent's version of what happened at the door, and the reason codes attached to each entry on the tracking page are not in front of us. Where the record contradicts the customer, the complaint gets harder. It does not become impossible, but it gets harder.
What the law says about a delivery that never happened
A courier company is a service provider. When you hand it a parcel and money changes hands somewhere in the chain, it owes you a standard of care: carry the goods with reasonable skill, attempt delivery honestly, and tell you the truth about what happened. When it does none of those things, the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 gives you a forum.
Deficiency in service under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019
"Deficiency" is defined in Section 2(11) as any fault, imperfection, shortcoming or inadequacy in the quality, nature and manner of performance which is required to be maintained by law or by contract. A fabricated delivery attempt fits that description comfortably. So does sitting on a parcel for three weeks without telling anyone anything.
Deficiency is not the same as delay. Couriers are late all the time and that alone is rarely actionable. What pushes a case across the line is the false record: an entry saying an agent reached your door when no one did, followed by a refusal to correct it. That is a manufactured excuse for non-performance, and commissions have dealt with this pattern for years.
Why the tracking page usually decides the case
Most of these complaints turn on documents, and the customer controls almost none of them. What you can control is what the tracking page said on the day it said it.
Take timestamped screenshots, including the URL bar and the system clock where you can. Save the email and SMS alerts. Keep the call log with durations. If the page later changes, you still have the earlier version. This is the single most common reason these complaints fail — the customer argues from memory while the company argues from a system printout.
Who you can name as a party
Usually two respondents: the seller or marketplace you paid, and the logistics company that held the parcel. The marketplace will argue it is only an intermediary. Under the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 that argument is not the full answer — entities covered by those rules must appoint a grievance officer, acknowledge a complaint within about 48 hours and resolve it within a month, and the marketplace that took your money is a proper party to a deficiency complaint about that transaction. Name both. Let the Commission sort out liability between them.
What can you do when a courier failed delivery attempt is logged but nobody came?
Work in this order. It is not complicated, and the sequence matters more than the paperwork.
Step one: freeze the record
Screenshot the tracking page today, not tomorrow. Export the order confirmation, the invoice, the payment receipt and every email. Note the dates and times of every call you made. If you spoke to an agent who admitted no one was sent, write down their name and the time of the call while you remember it.
Step two: send a written notice
The Act does not require a legal notice before a consumer complaint. Send one anyway. A short email to both the seller and the courier's grievance officer, stating the order number, the delivery failure, and a demand for delivery or refund within a set period, creates a dated record and occasionally ends the matter in a week. Keep it factual. Angry emails read badly in a file.
Step three: the complaint before the District Commission
A complaint is filed under Section 35 of the Act. It can be filed online through the e-Daakhil portal or physically before the Commission that has jurisdiction. Along with the complaint you file an affidavit, a list of documents, and copies of the tracking record, payment proof and correspondence. You can argue it yourself; you do not need an advocate, though a badly drafted complaint with the wrong respondents is a common way to lose a good case.
If the parcel is genuinely lost or the company has admitted fault, many of these matters are settled at the first hearing or shortly after. If the company defends the false entries, expect it to run longer.
Time limits and cost
- Limitation: two years from the date the cause of action arises, under Section 69 of the Act. In a delivery failure, that is roughly the date of the failed attempt or the date the company finally refused to do anything. Do not sit on it.
- Condonation: the Commission can condone delay for sufficient cause, but building a case around that is a bad plan.
- Filing fee: nominal, and it scales with the value of the claim. Small claims cost very little.
- Realistic timeline: weeks for a settlement at the first hearing; several months to over a year if the matter is contested and evidence is called for.
- Appeal: an appeal from a District Commission order lies to the State Commission, generally within 45 days.
Where to file
Pecuniary jurisdiction decides the tier: the District Commission hears claims up to ₹50 lakh, the State Commission from ₹50 lakh to ₹2 crore, and the National Commission above that. For most courier disputes you are before the District Commission. The 2019 Act also lets you file where you reside or work for gain, which matters if the courier's registered office is in another state.
Is a criminal case possible?
Falsifying a delivery record to avoid liability can, on appropriate facts, be treated as forgery under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 — creating a false document and using it as genuine. Practically, police rarely register an FIR over tracking entries. The intention element is hard to prove, and a single wrong entry looks like a system error, not a crime. What changes the picture is a pattern: repeated false attempts, an internal note instructing staff to log attempts, or the parcel later turning up elsewhere.
If you want to push the criminal route, a written complaint to the police station, and thereafter a request to the magistrate to direct an investigation under the BNSS, is the sequence. It runs parallel to the consumer complaint and does not replace it. Recover your money first.
Where these complaints actually fail
- No screenshots of the tracking page as it stood at the time.
- The wrong respondent — suing the delivery agent instead of the company, or naming only the seller when the courier is the one at fault.
- Filing after the two-year window, when the dates were never in dispute.
- Claiming compensation figures with nothing to support them. Ask for the order value, and for a modest sum for mental agony and litigation cost, and be ready to explain both.
Frequently Asked Questions
The courier says I refused delivery or my address was wrong. Now what?
That is a defence, not an answer. Ask for the proof behind it: the agent's name, the GPS ping at the time of the attempt, any photograph, and the call made to you before the attempt. Companies rarely produce all of it. If the address on the order is correct and you were present, the burden of showing a genuine attempt sits awkwardly with them.
Can I claim more than the value of the parcel?
Yes, but keep it proportionate. The Act allows compensation for loss or injury suffered, which can include mental agony and the cost of pursuing the complaint. Inflated claims without evidence weaken the parts of your case that are actually strong. If the goods had special value, you needed to declare it and insure the shipment.
The parcel arrived after I filed. Is my complaint over?
Not automatically. If delivery happened weeks late after repeated false entries, the deficiency already occurred. You can press for compensation for the delay and the false record even though the goods reached you. If you have been made whole and just want it closed, you can withdraw.
Do I need a lawyer for a consumer complaint?
No. The forum is designed for people appearing on their own. What a lawyer adds is the framing — which respondent, which documents, which relief, and what not to claim. On thin facts, there may be very little to argue, and it is cheaper to hear that early than after a dismissal.
What should I send to a lawyer before a consultation?
The order confirmation and invoice, screenshots of the tracking page with dates visible, your payment record, and a two-line note of what happened and when. That is enough for a first read.
This article is general information about Indian law and is not legal advice on your own situation. Every complaint turns on its own documents and dates.
If a courier has logged attempts that never happened and the company has stopped responding, send the order confirmation, the tracking screenshots and a two-line note of the dates to /contact-us. You will get a straight answer on whether there is anything to file, and how long it is likely to take.
Advocate Sudhir Rao, Supreme Court of India