Ebay policy on items lost in post

VictorMeldrew

Hi everyone, I have just launched a dispute with a seller over an item not received. Unfortunatley I paid by personal cheque and so can't go down the PayPal refund route. The seller says she sent the item with RM Standard Parcels on 20th May,and claimed for a lost item in the middle of June, but when I phoned RM yesterday, there is no record of any claim registered to her name, address, or postcode. She refused to give me any refund until she herself received a refund from Royal Mail. I therefore suspect that she has been stringing me along with the hope that the time will pass when I can leave a feedback and start a dispute. I have just left her a negative feedback, and have started a dispute.
When filling out the dispute form, I noticed that items lost in the post are excluded from the Ebay standard Buyer's protection scheme, unless postal insurance was obtained. Does proof of postage count as postal insurance, as you can get a refund for £32 if the item becomes lost. What are my chances of getting any money back, and are there any other courses of action I can take? Many thanks in advance.

bleugh

there are few chances of getting your item or money back

there are only 3 methods of doing so

1 - small claims court, https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk will cost you £30 which the seller has to pay
2 - pay them a visit (not recommended)
3 - hope the seller becomes honest and pays up before it escalates

VictorMeldrew

Thanks again Bleugh - you might remember I posted the other day about this problem but have since realised that I paid with cheque not with PayPal. Will probably go down the small claims court route if all else fails.

frivolous_fay

I had no idea you were so screwed if things got lost in the post.

Sooooo... paypal make you pay if your item doesn't arrive with your buyer, but ebay don't?

jenniferpa

You know I think some of this is due to ebay having a standard puirchase protection policy across all countries, which doesn't take in to account local variations. RM offer inclusive insurance, many post services don't, particularly the USA. Therefore the policy is written assuming that if you don't pay for insurance, you don't get insurance. However, on the OP's case, assuming the item cost more than £15 (because of the ebay admin fees) it might be worth making a claim, simply stating that insurance was included in the postal cost. On the other hand, small claims court offers the opportunity to recoup all of the OP's losses. So, it's a toss up. If the OP really thinks the seller is giving him the runaround, AND he can afford to lose the £30 filing fee if the case goes against him, perhaps that is the best option.

soolin

frivolous_fay wrote:

I had no idea you were so screwed if things got lost in the post.

Sooooo... paypal make you pay if your item doesn't arrive with your buyer, but ebay don't?

Yes it is a two tier system, which is why I will continue to stress to people that the only safe way to buy on ebay is with paypal backed by a credit card.

It doesn't matter how good a sellers feedback is , if they don't take paypal I don't buy purely due to sellers like this.

Soo

VictorMeldrew

Is it true that I can't claim from the small claims court because the item value was less than £15? (Item cost £10.50 and postage was £8.50)

mishkanorman

what about your bank ?, go to them and explain the problem they may be able to help, dont some banks offer some kind of cover for this sort of thing,
( or did i dream that ??)

mishka

jenniferpa

Is there a minimum for small claims? I haven't seen anything about that. The £15 I was talking about was for ebay - they charge you a admin fee. Also, since they don't consider postage, I think you're out of luck there.

soolin

mishkanorman wrote:

what about your bank ?, go to them and explain the problem they may be able to help, dont some banks offer some kind of cover for this sort of thing,
( or did i dream that ??)

mishka

I can't see what a bank can do really, if it were possible to call back a cheque easily then the bottom would fall out of the whole bank and cheque industry.

Soo