Buyer claims item not received

kitty5

I sold an item for about £80 on Sunday 2nd Dec and posted it out the next day.
I very stupidly sent it standard parcels.
The buyer contacted me last Friday (the parcel was only sent Mon!) claiming that it hadn't arrived. I answered back asking if he would leave it a few more days. He got back to me today asking for a refund.
I really feel that he may be trying it on.
I realise that Ebay will find in his favour but i don't want to make life easy for him. Any advice?
Thanks in advance.

porto_bello

The maximum claim you can submit to Royal Mail for Standard Parcels is currently £46. If you submit a claim to Royal Mail in excess of this value, I suspect you'll have your claim completely rejected, as RM will simply dismiss the delivery service as inappropriate and declare the claim therefore invalid.

So I wouldn't try claiming £80.

kitty5

Thank you.
I originally bought the item for about £50. I have this receipt so I was going to claim using this receipt as I was worried that they might reject the claim. The box I sent was huge, I just couldn't see it going missing.

sharnad

You should get your £46 back from the royal mail

porto_bello

sharnad wrote: »

You should get your £46 back from the royal mail

You will have to offer some kind of evidence of the value to accompany the claim (a current price list or whatever), without going over the £46 limit.

kitty5

I have looked up my original receipt and it is for £46.87, that was in Jan 11. The current selling price is around £80. It is a discontinued toy.
I am starting to feel slightly worried now that I may not be able to claim from RM.
And also annoyed because I suspect the buyer has got himself a freebie.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Check with the buyer's delivery office yourself (buyers often say they have when they haven't) and if no joy tell them to wait longer (at least until next Monday, it's December after-all and the post is very slow with standard parcels, along side 2nd class, being left till last when RM are too busy) before the parcel is classed missing.

Ask them to check with their neighbours as well and I'd advise them that you shall be speaking with the manager of their delivery office as the parcel was very big and they shouldn't have lost it (in a caring, very concerned manner rather than accusatory) and you may find the parcel suddenly appears.

soolin

I have to say I lose any reason to respond where I see the 'item has been reported as lost therefore buyer is a scammer' type of line.

ravenjet

I've got a few buyers claiming non receipt of items at the moment (posted on different days at different post offices). Is it best to just refund or ask the buyer to go via ebay and claim non receipt? I have proof of postage for all items.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

soolin wrote: »

I have to say I lose any reason to respond where I see the 'item has been reported as lost therefore buyer is a scammer' type of line.

Of the last two customers I had a funny feeling about when they claimed INR, one said they has been to the DO that morning but the lady at the DO said she'd been at the collections window all day and they hadn't and the other had a long story that didn't add up and said they'd spoken with the DO (which later changed to their son had instead) which, based on the rest of their story, I very highly doubt.

In one case eBay removed a negative I received for non-delivery without any proof of delivery. I did however have emails from the DO and photos of the returned replacement to show what had happened wasn't what would happen unless the buyer was being untruthful.

Regardless of anything if a massive parcel has gone missing the manager of the DO should know.

INRs happen, buyers falsely claiming INR happens and when you deal with 4 or 5 every month you start to get a feel for what is what.

Without reading the messages between the OP and the buyer it's hard to tell anything so covering all bases is best.

soolin

ravenjet wrote: »

I've got a few buyers claiming non receipt of items at the moment (posted on different days at different post offices). Is it best to just refund or ask the buyer to go via ebay and claim non receipt? I have proof of postage for all items.

The problem is if you get them to go via ebay then each claim counts as a case opened on your seller dashboard- more than a couple of them and a small seller may find themselves restricted.

I diverted one buyer there recently only because they were the most abusive obnoxious deranged person I have ever come across and I thought they might have a history on ebay and wanted them to open a case so that ebay could see what I was complaining about. Ebay assured me that as long as I then refunded in 3 days the case would not show on my dashboard- but it does.

Post does seem slow already so do try and get buyers to wait a realistic amount of time but yes ultimately you will have to refund if the item is lost and then after 15 working days reclaim your losses from RM.