eBay item delivered to wrong address by Royal Mail

zebedoo

Hi

I'll try to be brief describing this problem!

I bought a £350 iPhone on eBay. I paid with PayPal using a debit card. The seller sent the item 'Recorded Delivery Signed For'. It didn't arrive, so I contacted the seller, who provided the tracking number. On the Royal Mail's website, it claimed that the item had been delivered. There was a signature (not mine) which was illegible. There was no printed name or anything else to identify the person who signed for the item.

The item was not delivered to my address, or to any of my neighbours. There was no card left by the postman.

I spoke to the postman who did not recall delivering any parcel to my address on the alleged recorded date of delivery.

I raised a claim (with the seller, who has been very helpful) via eBay's Buyer Protection Scheme. They took their time making a decision but decided not to issue me with a refund as the seller had 'proof' that the item had been delivered.

I have also raised a 'P58' request with the Royal Mail, which allegedly means that they will investigate the issue. According to their customer services people, this means that they will 'ask the postman', as they do not capture anything other than a signature when they deliver an item.

If they do decide to pay me compensation for the loss, it will be a max of £48! A bit of a joke really.

The Delivery Office also admitted that the postman would deliver to 'anyone' who happened to be at the address at the time, if no-one answered the door. I live in a block of flats, so this could be literally ANYONE, people coming and going etc. Regardless, the postman does not recall making a delivery on this day. It looks like the item has simply been delivered (and signed for) at the 'wrong' address, but I have no way of proving this.

I plan on escalating this as far as I can with both eBay and the Royal Mail. Can anyone offer any advice as to the best route to take, or any other avenues that may help me get a result?

Many thanks in anticipation,

Si

custardy

zebedoo wrote: »

Hi

I'll try to be brief describing this problem!

I bought a £350 iPhone on eBay. I paid with PayPal using a debit card. The seller sent the item 'Recorded Delivery Signed For'. It didn't arrive, so I contacted the seller, who provided the tracking number. On the Royal Mail's website, it claimed that the item had been delivered. There was a signature (not mine) which was illegible. There was no printed name or anything else to identify the person who signed for the item. have you checked the item number relates to a package delivered by your local delivery office? It states the name of the delivering office on the track and trace page.

The item was not delivered to my address, or to any of my neighbours. There was no card left by the postman.

I spoke to the postman who did not recall delivering any parcel to my address on the alleged recorded date of delivery.

I raised a claim (with the seller, who has been very helpful) via eBay's Buyer Protection Scheme. They took their time making a decision but decided not to issue me with a refund as the seller had 'proof' that the item had been delivered.

I have also raised a 'P58' request with the Royal Mail, which allegedly means that they will investigate the issue. According to their customer services people, this means that they will 'ask the postman', as they do not capture anything other than a signature when they deliver an item.
what would you expect them to capture?
If they do decide to pay me compensation for the loss, it will be a max of £48! A bit of a joke really.
the maximum for the service used

The Delivery Office also admitted that the postman would deliver to 'anyone' who happened to be at the address at the time, if no-one answered the door. I live in a block of flats, so this could be literally ANYONE, people coming and going etc. Regardless, the postman does not recall making a delivery on this day. It looks like the item has simply been delivered (and signed for) at the 'wrong' address, but I have no way of proving this.
they said the address,not some random address.its the same for every address in the UK.
I plan on escalating this as far as I can with both eBay and the Royal Mail. Can anyone offer any advice as to the best route to take, or any other avenues that may help me get a result?

Many thanks in anticipation,

Si

what do you expect eBay to do?

arcon5

custardy wrote: »

what would you expect them to capture?

A surname perhaps. Like many of the mainstream couriers.

Op, your contract is with the seller, whoes contract is with Royalmail so RM have no obligation to payout to you. Any action you do take will be against the seller.

Have you contacted the seller since eBay have made their decision to see what they say about it?

If they are unwilling to assist, you could try and see if your debt card company will issue a chargeback -- however, most will not do this as the payment was infact made to PayPal, whom then transferred the funds from your PP account to the seller, and you do not have a problem with PayPal.

Failing that, perhaps get their contact details and issue a letter before action following by filing a claim at moneyclaim.gov.
The burden of proof would be on the seller to prove delivery. If you can provide something official with your signature on (e.g. driving license) you may well win the case.

Nilrem

arcon5 wrote: »

A surname perhaps. Like many of the mainstream couriers.
.

However Recorded/registered delivery is not a courier type service (the couriers start at about a fiver), it's just a signature and a tracking number, intended for small, low value items, not high value consumer electronics.

The normal postmen don't have the sort of PDA* required for "capturing" the surname as they don't deal with packages that generally require it (IIRC a lot have a simple one that can scan the barcodes on tracked items but that is about it).

It unfortunately sounds like the ebay seller went for the cheapest option, and didn't bother to look at what it provided (a lot of people I know who sell on ebay will always send by courier/SD if the value is more than about £40 because it offers the better protection.



*Every one of those I've seen in use by a courier is a fairly bulky unit, and definitely not suited to being lugged around all day on foot/bike (they would have to sacrifice space for actual post for it, not to mention the cost of the units and added time involved in getting the surname entered every time).

arcon5

You don't need a PDA to collect something as basic and simplistic as a Surname. Especially where in most cases where signatures are illegible to read, making a surname possibly much more important than a signature itself. Afterall, isn't that why people use the signed for service? To make the transaction safer, so it's completely counter productive even getting a signature if it means nothing to nobody and proves nothing.

I could swear i've had to sign for parcels by RM before and has to write a name and date also (in a little red book the postie had)

DWatts

arcon5 wrote: »

Op, your contract is with the seller, whoes contract is with Royalmail so RM have no obligation to payout to you. Any action you do take will be against the seller.

Technically, no - you can claim if you're the recipient (or intended recipient, in this case), hence the option on the official claim form. Though you'd need proof of postage etc. to make a claim for compensation.

texranger

ive had many RD delivery itresm just p[osting the the letterbox with normal mail and i have even had the signature turn out to be the postmans number as hes marked this then just posdted in the letterbox/left at the door ot took back to sorting office.

arcon5

DWatts wrote: »

Technically, no - you can claim if you're the recipient (or intended recipient, in this case), hence the option on the official claim form. Though you'd need proof of postage etc. to make a claim for compensation.

Technically, yes... op can submit a claim to RM but that doesn't change the fact that op doesn't have a contract with RM, it is the seller who is held liable for missing parcels.

Ops contract is with the seller and that is who he should take this up with, not the RM -- and nor should op loose over £300 by claiming via RM!

jc808

arcon5 wrote: »

Technically, yes... op can submit a claim to RM but that doesn't change the fact that op doesn't have a contract with RM, it is the seller who is held liable for missing parcels.

Ops contract is with the seller and that is who he should take this up with, not the RM -- and nor should op loose over £300 by claiming via RM!

And for seemingly under-insuring the parcel

Depending on what type of purchase (New/ secondhand/ Business or private seller/ In the UK or from outside) I would be asking the seller to refund!!!

System

I don't see why capturing a surname would have helped at all. The parcel has obviously been nicked so they would have just written the surname they read on the parcel. Or made one up. Also its the 21st century poastmen have to use pdas so their records can be available electronically and accessed anywhere by the royal mail customer services. If they just used a red book it would take days to answer customer queries

System

arcon5 wrote: »

Technically, yes... op can submit a claim to RM but that doesn't change the fact that op doesn't have a contract with RM, it is the seller who is held liable for missing parcels.

Ops contract is with the seller and that is who he should take this up with, not the RM -- and nor should op loose over £300 by claiming via RM!

The op must have agreed to the delivery method offered by the seller. The seller has proof that they have despatched the parcel with that method so I don't see why the seller is to blame. EBay have accepted the seller has done nothing wrong and I agree with them.