Ebay item posted - not arrived. How liable am I?

Nurseshark

I sold a kiddies toy on ebay, and stated in my listing that i will obtain proof of posting and if it goes missing in the post I will send it to them to claim.
Typically, the toy has not arrived and the buyer has emailed me to complain. I have suggested I send the certificate off to them, but I wonder how far they can take it. The item was only for £7 so if push comes to shove I will refund them as I have 100% feed back and I hate conflict.
I would be grateful for any advice. I think cos of the Royal Mail strikes it has just got lost in the post as other items I posted same day got delivered (i know this as I have received feedback already)

DaveAshton

Don't send them the proof of postage. You'll need it to claim from Royal Mail. Tell the buyer to open an item not received claim with Paypal, then refund through that.

If you send them your PoP, they could still go to Paypal, get a refund, and you'll lose out because you won't be able to get anything back from RM.

soolin

Ultimately you are completely liable and I would suggest you remove anything to the contrary from your auctions in future.

However in this instance how long ago was it posted? I would normally suggest that you ask the buyer politely to wait until well into week 2 before refunding and maybe with the current postal issues see if they would wait a few days even longer.

If it has already been a while then just refund the initial paypal payment in full and then after 15 working days use your certificate of posting to reclaim your losses from the RM.
RM usually pay out item cost and actual postage paid but you will need to refund th ebuyer in full.

cyberbob

Nurseshark wrote: »

I and stated in my listing that i will obtain proof of posting and if it goes missing in the post I will send it to them to claim.

That is a totally worthless statement. It is your responsibility to get the item to your customer. If they open a Paypal claim you will have no proof of delivery so they will get refunded. Refund them then claim off RM with your proof of posting.

Nurseshark

Thank you all for your advice.
I only put the statement about proof of posting on my ebay listing as I saw lots of other people did that and being new to it, thought it was common practice.

alison999

It is your responsibility to make sure the item gets to the buyer.

If it hasnt arrived then you will have to refund and claim from royal mail YOURSELF

geri1965_2

How long ago did you post it? I had a letter today dated 23 August!

RoyalBlues

Nurseshark wrote: »

Thank you all for your advice.
I only put the statement about proof of posting on my ebay listing as I saw lots of other people did that and being new to it, thought it was common practice.

Why mention anything about 'proof of postage' ?

I sell sometimes and wouldn't dream of doing this because IMHO it may make a partially dishonest buyer think that he/she is ripping off Royal Mail and not the seller if he/she decides to 'not receive the item' as they well know that the seller can claim and get a refund from Royal Mail.

In future I'd remove that from your listings if I were you!

Good luck with your future eBay selling

mrcol1000

Only the seller can claim for a lost item. You need to get a claim form from the post office. May sure you give the number of working days they state before claiming as they have returned one to me in the past because they recieved it on the last working day before I could claim and then it took them a month to return the form to me with a letter saying I hadn't waited long enough!

You should write your listings as if you were a buyer. Think about if anything you have written would put you off and to be honest lots of rules and regulations will put people off.