delivery-dispute

---
name: delivery-dispute
description: Turns a short, wrong, damaged or warm delivery into a priced credit claim sent inside the supplier's own deadline, using the readings, photographs and delivery note taken at the door.
---

# Getting the money back on a bad delivery

You give me what actually arrived: the delivery note, what was short or wrong or damaged, the temperature readings you took, and the photographs from the door. I give you back a priced claim, one line per fault, with the deadline from your supplier's own terms on it and the message to send. The claim is only as good as what you record while the van is still outside, so most of the work below happens at the kerb.

## What it does

1. **Log the delivery before anyone signs anything.** Write down, in this order: supplier name and account number, delivery note number, invoice number if one is printed, the date, the time the vehicle arrived, the driver's name and the vehicle registration. Checking before signing is a condition of the claim in most wholesale terms: "All Goods should be examined upon delivery at case level prior to being signed for" (Bestway Wholesale, Terms & Conditions of Sale, clause 3.7). If the driver says he cannot wait, write "not checked, driver would not wait" on the note before you sign it, and record the time you wrote it. Never sign a clean note for a delivery nobody has opened.

2. **Probe the chilled and frozen lines and write the actual number.** Take the reading between two packs, or an infra-red reading off the pack surface, before the cages come off the kerb. The FSA's caterer pack sets the delivery targets as "Chilled foods: Approximately 8°C" and "Frozen foods: Approximately -18°C", and asks separately, "Do you check that fresh tuna, mackerel & other high-risk fish deliveries are at or below 4°C?" (Food Standards Agency, *Safer Food, Better Business for Caterers*). Treat 8°C as a hard line rather than an approximation: under Schedule 4 of the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013, a person who keeps such food at food premises "at a temperature above 8°C commits an offence". Record supplier, time, product, the reading itself and whether you accepted or rejected, and never write "OK" where a number belongs.

3. **Photograph each fault in the same four shots.** Shot one: the pallet or cage where it stands, with the vehicle in frame. Shot two: the product label showing the code, the batch and the use-by date. Shot three: the fault itself, close enough to read. Shot four: the probe or the vehicle gauge with the product in frame. Your supplier already builds its case this way, so match it: "our electronic delivery notification (photograph of the goods delivered and GPS location) shall be sufficient proof of the delivery. For frozen/chilled products a photograph of the vehicle temperature gauge and/or print out the temperature shall be sufficient proof of the product temperature range at the time of delivery" (Bidfresh Limited, Trading Terms, clause 12(iii)).

4. **Write each fault onto the delivery note and get the driver to sign your copy.** Use the product code, the description, the quantity short or damaged and the fault, in the same words you will use in the claim. The terms usually put this in the driver's own book: "The annotations or alterations should be noted in the driver's credit request book (and agreed with Our driver), a copy of which should be retained by You" (Bestway Wholesale, clause 3.8). Photograph the annotated note with the signature on it before the driver leaves, because a book that lives on the van is the supplier's record and not yours.

5. **Decide accept or reject line by line, and send back what has to go back on the vehicle.** The FSA's instruction is to refuse rather than take it in: "If you do not think that the food a supplier delivers has been handled safely (for example, if you think it has not been kept cold enough) reject the delivery, contact your supplier immediately & write the details in the diary" (*Safer Food, Better Business for Caterers*). The same pack tells you to "throw away any punctured vacuum packs, swollen packs or badly dented cans & check that tops are secure on bottles & jars & seals are unbroken". Where the terms require it, rejected stock leaves on the same van: "Damaged, faulty and/or short dated Goods or excesses equivalent to complete case or more must be returned with Our driver" (Bestway Wholesale, clause 3.8). Write the rejection in the food safety diary as well as on the claim, because those are two different records.

6. **Find the claim window in this supplier's own terms and put a date and a clock time on it.** The windows are short and they differ. Bidfresh Limited requires shortages "at the time of delivery" (clause 14), shortages or damage on an unattended drop "on the day of delivery itself" (clause 12(iv)), and damaged goods notified "within 24 hours of delivery" (clause 15). Bestway gives one working day and closes the door hard: "If notification is not received within 1 working day of the delivery then the Goods shall be deemed to have been properly delivered and accepted. Time and manner of the notification are of the essence" (clause 3.12), with non-arrival tighter still at "the latest the working day after delivery was due" (clause 3.11). Where two clauses cover the same delivery, work to the earlier one. If the written terms are not to hand, say the window is unknown and ask for them rather than assuming 24 or 48 hours.

7. **Build the claim table, one row per fault, priced.** Columns in this order: product code, product description, quantity ordered, quantity delivered, quantity claimed, unit price excluding VAT, line value excluding VAT, fault, photograph reference, action wanted. The supplier's own code is not optional, because the terms require the detail "by way of product description and code" (Bestway Wholesale, clause 3.12). Take every price off this delivery note or this invoice, never off last week's. Total the claim excluding VAT and state that total once.

8. **Phone inside the window, then email the same facts within the hour.** Where the terms name a method, use that method: Bestway requires the customer to "notify Us by phone within one working day of the delivery" (clause 3.12), which makes the call the claim and the email the proof it happened. Subject line: account number, delivery note number, delivery date, and the words "credit claim". Body: one short paragraph of what happened, the table, the photographs attached and named to match the reference column, the clause you are claiming under, and the total. Ask for one outcome per line, credit or replacement on the next drop or collection, and do not invite them to propose something else.

9. **Chase the credit note itself and check it before the invoice falls due.** A promise on the phone is not money. HMRC requires a valid credit note to "reflect a genuine mistake or overcharge or an agreed reduction in the value of the supply, and be issued within 14 days of the refund payment being made to the customer", and to show its own number and date, the supplier's name, address and VAT registration number, your name and address, a description, the quantity and amount for each description, the total credited excluding VAT, the rate and amount of VAT credited, and the number and date of the original invoice (HMRC, *VAT guide (VAT Notice 700)*, section 18.2.3). If it is marked "This is not a credit note for VAT", your VAT does not move and whoever keeps your books needs telling. Check the credited lines and values line by line against your table, and check the credit reaches the statement before the payment date.

## Then it checks

1. Every row in the claim table carries the supplier's own product code, a quantity claimed and a unit price excluding VAT, and the line values add up exactly to the stated total.
2. Every temperature in the output is a number with a time beside it, and the words "OK", "fine", "cold" and "about" appear in no temperature field.
3. Every fault in the table points to at least one named photograph, and every named photograph has a one-line description of what it shows.
4. The output names this supplier's deadline, quotes the clause it came from word for word, and gives the date and clock time the window closes, or else states plainly that the terms were not supplied and the window is unknown.
5. The message asks for exactly one outcome per line and contains no sentence inviting the supplier to suggest a different one.
6. Every number, temperature, price, quantity, time and clause in the output traces back to the owner's own records or to the supplier's written terms, and nothing appears that neither source contains.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Never invent, round or tidy a temperature reading, a case count, a weight or a price. A claim built on a number nobody actually took falls apart the moment the supplier asks to see the probe record, and it poisons every honest claim you make afterwards, which is far worse than having claimed nothing.
- Never state a claim window from memory, from another supplier, or from a general rule of thumb. Real windows run from "at the time of delivery" to one working day, so a guessed window either makes the owner miss a live deadline or makes them wrong in writing to their own supplier; if the terms are not in front of you, say the window is unknown.
- Never smooth over a rejection by recording only the credit. The credit is a money record and the food safety diary is the legal one, and a gap in the diary tells an environmental health officer the system is not being run, which does more damage than the delivery ever did.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner's environmental health officer, accountant or solicitor to check. It is not legal advice, not accounting advice and not a food safety determination, and it must never be presented or sent as though it were.

## Built from
- Food Standards Agency, "Safer Food, Better Business for Caterers" (Crown copyright pack, adapted edition published by Islington Council), https://www.islington.gov.uk/~/media/sharepoint-lists/public-records/environmentalprotection/information/adviceandinformation/20232024/20240101-adapted-sfbb-pack.pdf, adapted January 2024: gave the delivery acceptance targets (chilled approximately 8°C, frozen approximately -18°C, high-risk fish at or below 4°C), the packaging faults that mean reject, and the instruction to reject, contact the supplier and write it in the diary.
- The Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013, Schedule 4, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/2996/schedule/4/made, made 2013: supplied the wording that keeping such food above 8°C at food premises "commits an offence", which is why this skill treats 8°C as a reject line and not an approximation.
- Bidfresh Limited, "Bidfresh Trading Terms", https://www.campbellbrothers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Trading-Terms-and-conditions-Bidfresh-vMarch24-Scotland.pdf, version marked March 2024, read 13 September 2026: supplied the same-day and 24-hour claim windows, and the fact that the supplier's own photograph and vehicle temperature print-out count as proof, which is why the owner takes matching evidence.
- Bestway Wholesale, "Terms & Conditions of Sale", https://www.bestwaywholesale.co.uk/terms-and-conditions, last revised 1 November 2021: supplied the examine-before-signing condition, the driver's credit request book, the requirement to give product description and code, and the one-working-day deadline after which goods are deemed accepted.
- HM Revenue & Customs, "VAT guide (VAT Notice 700)", https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-guide-notice-700, published 17 December 2014 and last updated 25 June 2026: supplied section 18.2.3, the list of details a credit note must show to be valid for VAT and the meaning of a note marked "This is not a credit note for VAT".

# delivery-dispute

## You are given
A folder from a UK hospitality business covering one delivery: the delivery note (usually a photograph, often with handwriting on it), the invoice if one was printed, the photographs taken at the door, a note of the temperature readings with the times they were taken, the order or order confirmation, and the supplier's written terms and conditions if the business holds them. The supplier name, account number, delivery date, arrival time, driver name and vehicle registration are supplied in a text file. Assume the photographs have camera file names, the delivery note is a phone picture taken at an angle, and the terms may not be in the folder at all.

## Produce
Write into an `output/` folder next to the inputs:

1. `claim-table.csv` with these columns in this order: `Product code`, `Product description`, `Quantity ordered`, `Quantity delivered`, `Quantity claimed`, `Unit price excluding VAT (GBP)`, `Line value excluding VAT (GBP)`, `Fault`, `Photograph reference`, `Action wanted`. One row per fault. `Action wanted` holds exactly one of `credit`, `replacement on the next drop`, `collection`. Write the claim total excluding VAT once, at the foot, and nowhere else.
2. `temperature-record.csv` with columns: `Date`, `Time`, `Supplier`, `Delivery note number`, `Product`, `Product code`, `Reading (degrees C)`, `Probe between packs or surface reading`, `Accepted or rejected`, `Source file`. Every reading is the number that was taken. No cell in the reading column may contain a word.
3. `deadline.md` - the supplier named, the clause number, the clause reproduced word for word, the delivery date and time it runs from, and the date and clock time the window closes. Where two clauses cover the same delivery, quote both and work to the earlier one, saying which. If the written terms were not supplied, this file contains one line: `Terms not supplied. The claim window is unknown. Ask the supplier for the written terms before relying on any date.` and no date at all.
4. `photograph-index.csv` with columns: `Photograph reference`, `Original file name`, `What it shows`, `Claim row it supports`, `Time taken if the file carries one`. Every fault in the claim table points to at least one reference here, and every reference here has a one-line description.
5. `delivery-log.md` - supplier name and account number, delivery note number, invoice number, date, vehicle arrival time, driver name, vehicle registration, whether the goods were checked before signing, and the exact words written on the delivery note before it was signed.
6. `claim-email.md` - subject line: account number, delivery note number, delivery date, and the words `credit claim`. Body: one short paragraph of what happened, the claim table, the photographs attached and named to match the reference column, the clause being claimed under quoted word for word, and the total excluding VAT. One outcome asked for per line. No sentence invites the supplier to propose a different one.
7. `rejected-lines.csv` with columns: `Product code`, `Product description`, `Quantity rejected`, `Reason`, `Reading (degrees C)`, `Time`, `Returned on the vehicle (yes/no)`, `Written in the food safety diary (yes/no/not recorded)`, `Photograph reference`.
8. `not-claimable.csv` with columns: `Product code`, `Product description`, `What is wrong`, `Why it cannot be claimed`, `What is needed to claim it`.
9. `credit-note-check.csv` with columns: `Claim row`, `Product code`, `Quantity claimed`, `Line value claimed excluding VAT (GBP)`, `Credit note number`, `Credit note date`, `Quantity credited`, `Value credited excluding VAT (GBP)`, `VAT rate credited`, `VAT credited (GBP)`, `Original invoice number on the credit note`, `Difference (GBP)`, `Marked "This is not a credit note for VAT" (yes/no)`. Leave the credit note columns empty until a credit note is supplied.
10. `README.md` - the files read, the delivery date, the number of fault rows, the claim total excluding VAT, and whether the deadline is known, and if so when it closes.

## Rules
- Every price comes off this delivery note or this invoice. Never take a price from last week, from another delivery, or from a price list.
- Never invent, round or tidy a temperature reading, a case count, a weight or a price. The words `OK`, `fine`, `cold` and `about` must not appear in any temperature field.
- Never state a claim window from memory, from another supplier, or from a general rule of thumb. If the written terms are not in the folder, `deadline.md` says the window is unknown and no date is written anywhere in the output.
- Quote the supplier's own terms word for word with the clause number. Never paraphrase a deadline.
- Use the supplier's own product code on every row. A row without a product code goes to `not-claimable.csv`.
- Purchase prices go in excluding VAT and are labelled as such. The line values must add up exactly to the stated total.
- Keep the money record and the food safety record separate. `rejected-lines.csv` records whether a rejection was written in the food safety diary; it never writes the diary and never states whether a temperature was lawful.
- Codex records readings, prices and deadlines. It never decides whether a line should have been accepted or rejected, and it never makes a food safety determination.
- Use British English, £, and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dashes.
- The output is a working document prepared for the owner's environmental health officer, accountant or solicitor to check. Write no sentence that presents it as legal advice, accounting advice or a food safety ruling.

## Return
A list of the files written with their absolute paths, the number of fault rows, the claim total excluding VAT, the deadline date and clock time or the words `window unknown, terms not supplied`, the number of temperature readings recorded, and any fault row with no photograph reference.