Item posted on 20th April - buyer says lost today!

chemical.galaxy

I posted an item on 20th April but I have only just received the 'where is my item' email.
This is well past the 45 day Paypal timeline - is it the same for an Ebay case - can the buyer still leave me feedback?
I will make a claim via RM and refund the buyer, as long as I am still within their limit to claim! is it 3 months now....

soolin

RM recently reduced the time frame for a claim, but I cannot remember what to.

Buyers can leave feedback up to 60 days from transaction date.

hermum

It's 80 calendar days now, http://www.royalmail.com/customer-service/personal-customers/refunds-and-compensation/claims-process
The buyer can leave FB for 60 days.
Ebay disputes can only be opened up to 45 days after payment.

chemical.galaxy

So buyer has left it very late... What would you do?
This is a buyer in Russia by the way, just before I blocked Russia after a previous parcel took 3 months to arrive!

Crowqueen

I'd personally refund and claim. If you are business, your buyer does have a legal right to delivery (Sale of Goods Act establishes it to within 30 days after payment), and your responsibility extends beyond delivery to carrier. (It wouldn't extend any further if you were a private seller; but from your posts on this forum I think you are a business, aren't you).

Secondly, a scammer would know the dispute timetable and know when to open a dispute - your buyer obviously doesn't, which is something in their favour. The later it gets, the more genuine it's likely to be.

Do the right thing and the feedback is more likely to be positive.

chemical.galaxy

Crowqueen wrote: »

I'd personally refund and claim. If you are business, your buyer does have a legal right to delivery (Sale of Goods Act establishes it to within 30 days after payment), and your responsibility extends beyond delivery to carrier. (It wouldn't extend any further if you were a private seller; but from your posts on this forum I think you are a business, aren't you).

Secondly, a scammer would know the dispute timetable and know when to open a dispute - your buyer obviously doesn't, which is something in their favour. The later it gets, the more genuine it's likely to be.

Do the right thing and the feedback is more likely to be positive.

Yes I am a business - I emailed last night to say that I would refund - buyer has only 17 feedback so as you say she probably did not realise the time scale...
She has left a negative for another buyer whose item got lost on the way to Russia, then a follow up saying item had arrived! So I suppose mine could still get there!
This is why I no longer post to Russia!

Crowqueen

I really, really hate it when that happens, particularly as a buyer.

Read my thread about Amazon Lost and Found. Luckily I hadn't put the refund through my personal accounts, so it's still easy simply just to add the extra purchase to them and carry on, but there has been twice now when the item has simply never materialised, so although it could turn up, it might just simply be lost. (and in the grand scheme of things, last night I made £100 simply by finding my iPod - I can't live without one - but I had to search the deepest reaches of my bag four times to find it - and was mentally allocating money to buy a new one ...I wouldn't ever buy s/h electronics, false economy in my experience ---- so a £4 book is not going to break the bank.)

I must say, I find it very funny - ha-ha - when a seller responds to a buyer having waited all this time for an item by saying 'Why didn't you tell me sooner?!' Prior to this American issue, the longest I've managed to wait is two weeks, and then it was because I forgot I'd ordered the item (and with the American sale, I waited five weeks - I must say, it was worth the wait and worth repayment!). But surely any seller who has an INR wants a buyer to wait as long as possible for it to turn up!

Re - the neg - did it say the seller was truculent? The only times I've left non-positive feedback - and refused to revise them - is for INR where the seller was bolshy. Both times the item turned up - but the seller did not put me in the mood to suggest that I revised the feedback. I've actually never left non-positive feedback for something not-as-described. INR annoys me more as most things I buy on eBay are cheap enough for me not to mind when a book turns up with scribbling in the margins (it will only get more scribbles in it!) or a different cover to that advertised (it happens with megalisters, there's no way they could photograph every cover of every book in their inventory). And I don't buy stuff that is in danger of breaking or whatever.

Anyway, glad you've got it sorted.

soolin

Russia is on my blocked list as well for having major issues with its postal services.

chemical.galaxy

I have refunded my buyer, as she waited over the 45 days I can't get my FVF's back!
Just hope RM refunds me now...

Crowqueen

Hope so. Must be a bit frustrating. Do you factor losses into your price model? May not be a bad idea. A lot of people 'self-insure', that is, they put a few pence per sale into a fund for losses themselves and thus are covering for loss in the post

Given it should be very rare that an item goes missing, so pence should add up nicely and the fund only needed in a few circumstances, this usually compensates without having to worry about length of time taken.

I've never sent to Russia but sent to Ukraine and Belarus with no problems.

chemical.galaxy

Crowqueen wrote: »

Hope so. Must be a bit frustrating. Do you factor losses into your price model? May not be a bad idea. A lot of people 'self-insure', that is, they put a few pence per sale into a fund for losses themselves and thus are covering for loss in the post

Given it should be very rare that an item goes missing, so pence should add up nicely and the fund only needed in a few circumstances, this usually compensates without having to worry about length of time taken.

I've never sent to Russia but sent to Ukraine and Belarus with no problems.

I factor in 5% for 'bad stock' etc...
I have a box full of 'seconds' which I keep meaning to list sometime!