Item not received - Chargeback or small claim?

gambool

Hi,

I bought an item on ebay over 2 months ago. Paid using paypal (credit card), and seller sent the item royal mail recorded. However royal mail lost the item. I've given the seller more than enough time to resolve with royal mail, however still no refund, and no responses to my emails now. I now know about the 45 days you have to make a paypal claim (which i'm way past now), but i guess some people are too nice

The total amount was only £31, but having been stung previously, I refuse to let this drop. My question is what are my options?

Small claim - Ebay have only provided me with a partial address, so not sure how I can do this.
CC chargeback - I have read that credit card chargebacks are only for £100+.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

Red.

soolin

Small claims is going to cost you more than the £31 and you will need a full geograhic address. If buyer contests it they are entitled to get you to travel to their nearest court to have it heard. Also even winning in small claims does not get your money back, you have to further instruct the court to arrange this.

There's no harm in trying a CC chargeback, HSBC were happy to do one for me a while ago on a small item, but I think many cards will argue that paypal is a third party so you are not covered anyway.

UnderPressure

A chargeback would be your only course of action now really, is the seller still trading on EBay? Have you tried contacting them with a general enquiry on another item to see if they reply?

Your credit card company would be the way to go, just tell them you want to perform a chrageback for non receipt try not to go into too much detail and you should be OK?

Was it an electrical item?

Paypal are useless after the 45 days but would still make a coplaint to them using one of their phone numbers maybe as they do tend to frown on chargebacks, sadly if Royal Mail have lost the parcel there is an argument that you should make the claim with Royal Mail, this happened to me a few years ago with a power seller, he just sent me the details of the reorded delivery and I had to make the laim myself.

Agree with Soolin small claims is not really the way to go especially without a full address

Best of luck...........................

crantinope

The goods are the responsibility of the Seller until received by the Buyer, why would the OP have to claim through RM for a lost item???

Jackinbox99

Looks like chargeback could be your only option if the seller is being funny.

As a seller, ive had one item damaged / lost in the post before. As a matter of courtesy, rather than wait for the Royal Mail claim to go through, I refunded the buyer instantly with the full amount. Then I claimed off Royal Mail myself which took a while to go through. I didnt see why the buyer should suffer through non fault of their own.

But, not all sellers are like me, and I can imagine some will wait until Royal Mail pay before giving the buyer a refund.

gambool

Thanks for all your replies. The funny thing is after waiting for weeks for any kind of email, I get one hours after posting this thread. What are the odds! Refund offered, so hopefully we'll all live happily ever after.

Interesting comments, I agree the whole 45 day limit on paypal claims is pretty restrictive. I guess I'll be a little more cautious in future, just in case.

Thanks.

martindow

gambool wrote: »

I agree the whole 45 day limit on paypal claims is pretty restrictive.

Doesn't seem too restrictive. It is reasonable to have a time limit and most buyers would be worrying about non-delivery long before 6 weeks. From threads on here some are clamouring for delivery after 6 hours!