Refund Question

somersetapple

I would be grateful for some advice please.

A buyer has contacted me to say that an item I posted to them has not arrived. It's quite clear that it has gone astray now as it's been a little while since I posted it.
I have proof of posting however I don't want to be difficult and as the seller ( who I believe has to be the one who takes the matter up with the Post Office) I'm wanting to issue the buyer with a refund.

Am I right in believing the Post Office won't refund the postage for 'lost' items and if they don't what is the position for offering the seller a 'full' refund?

Many thanks
Somersetapple

slowen

somersetapple wrote:

I would be grateful for some advice please.

A buyer has contacted me to say that an item I posted to them has not arrived. It's quite clear that it has gone astray now as it's been a little while since I posted it.
I have proof of posting however I don't want to be difficult and as the seller ( who I believe has to be the one who takes the matter up with the Post Office) I'm wanting to issue the buyer with a refund.

Am I right in believing the Post Office won't refund the postage for 'lost' items and if they don't what is the position for offering the seller a 'full' refund?

Many thanks
Somersetapple

Not sure how it works with proof of postage if the post office just issue a refund or not but a package is not considered lost until about 15 days have passed according to Royal Mail

With Royal Mail it is the senders responsibility to make a claim against damaged/lost items and the person who was supposed to receive the goods cannot claim

If the item was of little value then you could just refund then take it up with Royal Mail but if it was a decent sum of money then I would speak to Royal Mail as you don't want to be out of pocket

soolin

As a seller you must refund the buyer the full amount that was originally paid including the post and packing. This is what the buyer would get back anyway if he started a paypal chargeback. Also, always refund using the same method as the original payment, send a cheque to a cheque payer or refund the original paypal payment if that is the case.

As has already been said a RM claim cannot be started until 15 working days has elapsed and can then take up to about another three weeks before you get your cheque. Your buyer will not wait thi slong, so refund now and reclaim from the RM in your own time.

Also, as you point out in the original post the RM will not refund the post and packing element of the claim, so you will unfortunately be out of pocket by that much. There are incidences when the full amount is refunded, I usually suspect a new RM employee who hasn't worked out that RM like to take a cut of things even when they are at fault, so you may be lucky and get it all back.

Dealing with your buyer quickly and reasonably now will probably mean you will get a lovely positive back. I lost a parcel a month or two ago and got lovely feedback when I refunded the buyer.

Soo

appleblossom

Soo, some buyers will wait for RM to do the refund. I have been on both ends of this, I waited and got the refund after a couple of weeks, and I advised a buyer that I would need to claim through RM, I mailed them a copy of the claim form and kept good communication with them and the day I had my refund, they had theirs. It depends really on the buyer - if they seem from the outset they won't wait, then just refund them, but if they know the RM procedure, they may well be prepared to do so.

soolin

The problem is though that by waiting for the seller to complete the full RM process will almost certainly take the buyer over the 45 days allowed for chargeback by paypal. As a buyer even if the seller sounded reasonable and such like I would still go to chargeback to protect myself if a seller refused to refund in a timely fashion.

bleugh

I always deal with problems by refunding the when the buyer grumbles, it's just good practice, thats all

however, if they grumble BEFORE two weeks, i delay them, then refund in full on the second week, then claim from RM in my own time

(1st class mail can take up to 10 working days i think!!)

Chalky87

1st class mail can take as long as it wants!...I once had a package from eBay, that took 4 months to arrive!!! No fault of the seller, simply Royal Mail being a little slow.

I think you're correct with regards to your refund policy, give the item 14 days and then refund and claim back from Royal Mail, this is the way it should be done, some sellers wait for Royal Mail compensation before refunding the buyer and this is not good.