missing parcel

Sold some kit on ebay, the Royal Mail claim to have delivered it, but the recipient claims not to have received it. Anyone know where I stand? Unfortunately I didn't send it 'signed for', I know silly of me, but if the recipient is at work it means he has to trail to the sorting office

Signed for isn't a requirement but online trackable is if you want to avoid the auto-refund trap.

Did you use one of eBays trackable options? If you did, you might be alright but the chances are that the buyer has the item but knows that all he has to do is open a case and he will be refunded automatically.

Edited By Pete Rimmer on 14/02/2022 18:07:36

Hi Duncan,

We get a lot of this aggravation!

If item is to the uk and under £20 we send 2nd class and ALWAYS get a proof of posting slip as this is the only way that Royal Mail will entertain any kind of claim for loss or damage.

Over £20 always send Signed For, (cover to £50), this then gets a tracking number.

When customer says it has not arrived we ask them politely to check for undelivered mail at their local PO or sorting office. This often solves the problem.

If not we ask them to wait a week or so and get back to us before they open a case with EBay.

all this at least gives you the sender an audit trail for a claim on R Mail. They usually cough up in a week or so.

surprisingly we have found that about 30% of people refunded DO contact us when an item eventually arrives.

Cheers, Martin

We do not use ANY of the EBay shipping services as too expensive and we pay so much in fees as it is..

Martin

We sell using eBay via Royal Mail most days. If you have proof of delivery from Royal Mail then eBay will accept that and you should not have any comeback. EBay go on the tracking info and if it is shown as delivered then it has been in their view.

You are correct about eBay's position. However, there can still be comeback for the seller if the buyer pursues a chargeback with his card provider, and the card provider for their part are satisfied the item was not in fact delivered in spite of the RM tracking claiming it was.

Thanks for the replies. The plot thickens, when it sold, the first message from Ebay gave an address, which is where I sent it. I got a second message, from ebay, same buyer but a different address, but I didn't notice. Something rotten in the state of Denmark? Waiting a reply from buyer, have asked him to nip round to other address, as it's only a mile away. May well be just a silly error down the line

I had that once, the numpty hadn't changed his Ebay address when he moved. All fine in the end, just keep the Ebay messages flowing for evidence as a cocked up address is the buyers fault.

I have a variation of the postal problem. I ordered a small item on ebay from China and it is 2 months late, despite being tracked from China. The other day I contacted the seller about it and got a polite reply asking me to contact my post office to find out whether they know about it. This sounds like stalling to me as the tracking originates in China and the post office here would be unlikely to know anything about it. I have tried before to check up on tracked items which were sent to me and got nowhere with the post office website, that seems to be only available to the sender.

I've had that one too. I just waited a couple of hours then said No the Post Office doesn't know about it.

When I sell something I give the buyer the option to send it the cheapest way at his own risk or the insured way. I always advice to choose the insured option. Most buyers choose the cheapest way and I haven't got complains that they didn't receive the Item.

The problem with this is you're relying on your customer to be an honest person, if you send something without tracking /proof of delivery, even if your customer has said "yeah whatever" they can still put a claim in through ebay and will get their money back from you if something goes wrong or they make a false claim.

I had Hermes leave a parcel on the doorstep of a factory on an industrial estate at the weekend, the buyer claimed it wasn't there, either way as it wasn't insured up to the actual value I lost out, luckily the insurance minimum was £25 and the parcel was only worth about £35 so not the end of the world, never again, everything gets sent fully insured and signed for as it's the seller who WILL ultimately pay for it if something goes wrong or someone is dishonest.

Edited By Pete. on 15/02/2022 00:30:09

Good to know that ebay will always refund the buyer so it is better to use insured shipping to avoid problems.

I don't have these problems because I do not sell by a third party.

Old Mart, I had the same problem, ordered some relays from a company in China, they say they despatched them but never arrived, when I complained was told they are with the Post Office, matter was never resolved. Dave W

I had another message about the missing item, they are despatching a replacement, which is a good easy outcome as it is not urgent.

 Just as one problem is solved, Hermes seem to be having trouble with a tracked item from a well known supplier of metal for model making.

Edited By old mart on 16/02/2022 21:26:05