Buyer claiming item not recieved

cabra1

Shelly.............

there has always been a chargeback
fee on paypal,when someone opens up
a chargeback claim and you have gone
through the dispute proccess and lost
if you dont repay the bidder promptly
paypal take the money out themselves
they add the charge on top.

Anyone can get a certificate of posting
in the event of loss it helps you to
make a claim.But thats all it will do.

but if you have got recorded post or
special delivery on your parcel then
disputes tend not to happen.The kind
of people who scam ebay sellers wont
entertain bidding or buying from a seller
who posts on these types of mail.
The idea of SD & RP is to keep scammers away
from your listings.Have to say its worked for
me and plenty of other sellers who include
it in their postal charges for the same reasons.
Its how I came to offer it in the first place.

Its no headache to me as I dont pay for it,
but if two sellers were selling the same
thing at the same price I would go with the
seller who had RP included in the postal
cost over one who did not offer it.

essexhoney

sara1980 - I personally would try and get the buyer to hang on for a couple more days to see if it arrives by the sounds of it they are not going to be very willing to do so though.
The easiest and simplest option would be to refund the buyer and then put a claim in to Royal Mail - whatever you do dont mislay the COP!! lol
You can pick up a claim form from the post office next time you are there. It will cover you for the post of the item but not the postage (always seems strange to me that they dont refund the postage even though you have paid for a service which they havent provided - but thats another thread lol) and the COP will cover you for up to £32.

Hope your son is ok

soolin

Like the others have said reassure your buyer that you will refund but ask if he will wait another couple of days until you can chase up the Post office. That gives the package a bit more time to get there. I recently sent my father a CD and it took 10 days to arrive using 1st class post and only travelling 20 miles.

I never assume that I am being scammed when someone doesn't get their parcel, if I really thought that everyone was out to get me I would give up ebay and tak eup knitting instead. It is a sad fact of life that items do go astray, my mother has never forgiven me or my sister when 1 year neither of the gifts we sent ever arrived!

Basically though refund the buyer with a good will and a pleasant remark, then after 1 working days reclaim th eloss from the Royal mail. If you let it go to chargeback it gets messy and you're going to lose anyway, so why put yourself through the hassle.

As for the recorded or not recorded debate my view is that using recorded is not necessary. Adding the 68p onto each of my items will make my p and p high compared to my competitors so I will lose buyers. Also even if i only send 100 packages a month it would cost me an additional £68 a month on postage, and frankly it is cheaper to replace my parcels than pay that as most of my items are in the £10-£15 region. I do however keep my cOPs for months in case I ever need to claim from the RM.

As a buyer I do not like recorded as it means I have to go to the sorting office to collect everything, If i have a straight choice I would prefer to buy from a seller with standard post than pay extra for recorded.

Soo

kevinyork

essexhoney wrote:

sara1980 - I personally would try and get the buyer to hang on for a couple more days to see if it arrives by the sounds of it they are not going to be very willing to do so though.
The easiest and simplest option would be to refund the buyer and then put a claim in to Royal Mail - whatever you do dont mislay the COP!! lol
You can pick up a claim form from the post office next time you are there. It will cover you for the post of the item but not the postage (always seems strange to me that they dont refund the postage even though you have paid for a service which they havent provided - but thats another thread lol) and the COP will cover you for up to £32.

Hope your son is ok

I agree. I point out that Royal Mail dont class an item as lost until 15 days have expired but offer a compromise..say 10 days. For what its worth I also point out that when I make a Royal Mail claim they will write to the buyer who will need to confirm non receipt and I trust they will take part in that process, almost all confirm in an email that they will. At least this alerts them to the fact that Royal Mail will be contacting them at some stage.

Royal Mail will now pay back your postage as long as the item cost and postage paid are both under £32.

I sell high volume low profit stuff in a competitive field and cannot charge for recorded delivery. I offer it as an option to those that want it but actually found making it compulsory damaged my sales because of the heavy competition in this area. Also, as I can ship up to 100 items daily writing out 100 recorded delivery slips would take me forever so on balance I have to put up with the claimed non receipts.

I dont mind too much. When I claim I enclose my sales invoice with the RM claim form and they pay out the lost sales value (not the cost of the item to me) so I actually end up making on these claims and it covers my time involved in resolving such issues.

Finally, the feedback I leave for the buyer will then include a comment such as 'sorry Royal Mail lost your purchase but replacement sent/refund given'. I just think if the buyer had a few comments like this other sellers could spot a dodgy claimant!


Kev

nelly05

I recently purchased an item valed at £50 + 5.50 recorded delivery.

I never received the item. When i made enquiries to the seller he could not provide me with a tracking number. I waited two weeks and then still noth9ing. He tried to fob me off telling me Royal Mail guaranteed him that my parcel had been delivered - and that was without a tracking number!!!

He was obviously attempting to rip me off - either by underpaying postage on the item and the item has subsequently gone missing - or by never sending it in the first place. There are unscrupulous people, both buyers and sellers on ebay.

In your case you have done evrything properly, you have a receipt so you can claim the money back - i would state that you will offer them a refund if the item hasnt turned up by friday. This will keep your buyer happy as they have an email via ebay stating they will get a refund.
Also as suggested, state in the feedback that a refund was given due to "item lost in transit".

Unfortunately you will never know if they have it for sure, but you should not be out of pocket for it anyway.

Most people are honest and see ebay as a way of buying and selling genuine goods for a fair price, but as with everything you will always get those who try and exploit it.

Dont let it put you off, and try and let your buyer leave feedback before you do, they may not bother at all in which case neither should you, and if they do you can reply in a way to neutralise any poor feedback they leave.

Best wishes

soolin

nelly05 wrote:

I recently purchased an item valed at £50 + 5.50 recorded delivery.

I never received the item. When i made enquiries to the seller he could not provide me with a tracking number. I waited two weeks and then still noth9ing. He tried to fob me off telling me Royal Mail guaranteed him that my parcel had been delivered - and that was without a tracking number!!!

He was obviously attempting to rip me off -

Definitely another TSFE seller for two reasons. Firstly trying to convince you that item was delivered despite not having a tracking number, and secondly for using recorded on an item worth £50. Recorded only covers up to £32 for items dearer than that special must be used.

Soo

essexhoney

kevinyork wrote:

Royal Mail will now pay back your postage as long as the item cost and postage paid are both under £32.

Thanks for correcting me i hadnt heard about that

merikiito

Hi all, I only send out items recorded post. The buyers are given the option not to use recorded post and informed that although I will get proof of posting for non recorded items this would be done at their own risk. It is a shame that everybody does not use recorded post then everyone will be on a level playing field when it comes to postage costs. I know that it can add to the cost of low value items but it is not profitable to sell such items on ebay. See how much you are left from a £3 item after deducting the following: Ebay listing cost and final value fee,Paypal cost,packaging costs, time spent packaging item, time spent going to the post office inc petrol/transport cost. If you are putting items on privately it is only worth it if these items are higher value and more so if you are only doing the odd item as you are not sharing transport/time cost over mutiple items. So far I have never had a lost item even when the buyer has requested normal post, so something works!

soolin

merikiito wrote:

Hi all, I only send out items recorded post. The buyers are given the option not to use recorded post and informed that although I will get proof of posting for non recorded items this would be done at their own risk. It is a shame that everybody does not use recorded post then everyone will be on a level playing field when it comes to postage costs. I know that it can add to the cost of low value items but it is not profitable to sell such items on ebay. !

Offering recorded is fine but a savvy buyer won't take it up as they know the signature is to protect the seller and not them, so why pay the extra? Also, why should sellers have to use recorded? I pay the Royal mail enough as it is without having to pay an additional 68p each time just for them to prove they are doing what I paid for in the first place.

Also, if I see my competitors are using recorded I automatically put a line in my auctions pointing out that my postage is cheapest on ebay :eek: All my items up to £32 in value are sent just with a COP, for items over £32 then it is mandatory special delivery.

I'm currently losing around 1 in 300 - 400 parcels which I suppose isn't too bad.

Soo

frivolous_fay

By the way... yes, there would be a fee if paypal refunded the buyer without your cooperation. I think it's fixed, though.