Amazon item not arrived in Spain

purplevamp

I'm after a bit of advice, please.

I sold a book on Amazon in October to a buyer in Spain. This was posted on 22 October by Airmail. I received an email yesterday to say it hasn't arrived (14 Nov).

I told the buyer I would look into it and get back to them.

The book was sold for £65 and cost £12.20 to post (Amazon postage credit £4.02 :mad:)

I've had a look on the RM website but cannot find anything clear about what to do about missing items.

It was properly packaged and labelled with my return address.

My question is do I have to refund the buyer straight away or wait until it either arrives with them or back with me? Also how long is acceptable before the item is deemed "missing"?

Thanks in advance for any helpful answers

soolin

It's been a good 3 weeks so it does seem likely to have been lost, although there is no harm in asking buyer to wait just a little bit longer on the basis that you will refund at that point.

You can do a normal claim from RM for a lost international item, I think it is still 20 working days after dispatch- you may want to check that. You are able to claim a total of £46, including postage, and I have always found Amazon claims to be a little more difficult than ebay as they expect all sellers to be businesses and want the original purchase price.

However, in the first instance send in the page showing the refunded amount and see how you get on.

purplevamp

Thanks soolin. I didn't think I could claim for an overseas parcel unless it was international signed for. The book sold for around £65 so I'm reluctant to just refund the seller without trying something! I'll tell them to wait a bit longer. You never know it may turn up or come back to me

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Check the Amazon ETA on the order in your seller account and ask the customer wait until the last date given.

3-5 weeks for international delivery isn't unheard of and Amazon do give very long ETAs to overseas customers (the order I sent to Norway today has a final ETA of the 28th Dec).

The customer can't open an A-Z claim until that ETA has past as the ETA is given by Amazon so they can't really argue with it. Delays do happen and if you reassure the buyer they shouldn't have any issues waiting.

purplevamp

The ETA is 27 Oct 2012 to 6 Nov 2012 so it's well and truly passed. That seems quite a short delivery time for overseas.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Yes that is short, possible Norway isn't classed as Europe by Amazon so has a longer window as being under "rest of the world"?

For £65 I would kindly ask them for another week for delivery and if it comes to a refund I personally would say they are more than welcome to return the book at your expense or repay if it arrives after being refunded (most buyers would choose to repay).

purplevamp

Well, I emailed the buyer and he confirmed the address was correct. He also said he doesn't mind waiting a bit longer for it to arrive and this gives me time to try to sort something out with RM / Amazon.

Thanks for your advice soolin and the_lunatic_is_in_my_head :T