Buyer claims item not received

macfly

Fair enough.
Perhaps the best thing about this post is people will realise why they get mithered at the PO counter re services.

kitty5

Thank you so much for your help.
I know that I may seem harsh to some of you but after selling on ebay for a few years and always selling to lovely honest people, including refunding immediately to a couple of people who had not received their items, something about this buyer is ringing warning signs for me. I really feel that it was really jumping the gun to start emailing about an item not being delivered four days after the item ending. Other items that I sent from the same post office at the same time all arrived on the same day that he began emailing me about not having received it. Although I would love to believe that the buyer is genuine I can't help but suspect that the parcel arrived and he realised that I had sent it standard parcels so knew that he could simply say that he hadn't received it.
He has started to send emails asking for a refund as he needs to rebuy the item from someone else. I honestly can't see someone being so persistent if they were genuine after only 7 working days of the item ending. I buy things from the Internet all the time and often things don't arrive for a couple of weeks and that is when you would begin to worry. I also feel that he would have checked neighbours, sorting office etc himself.

I came on this forum to ask for advice from more experienced sellers / buyers who may have come across similar scenarios and thank you to those who have offered me the advice.
After spending the last couple of days looking into this on the web, I cannot believe how easy it is for buyers to adopt dishonest practices. It realise now that you need to try to protect yourself as a seller. Next time I will send an item like this special delivery and charge it as postage to the buyer.

KxMx

kitty5 wrote: »

Thank you so much for your help.
I know that I may seem harsh to some of you but after selling on ebay for a few years and always selling to lovely honest people, including refunding immediately to a couple of people who had not received their items, something about this buyer is ringing warning signs for me. I really feel that it was really jumping the gun to start emailing about an item not being delivered four days after the item ending. Other items that I sent from the same post office at the same time all arrived on the same day that he began emailing me about not having received it. Although I would love to believe that the buyer is genuine I can't help but suspect that the parcel arrived and he realised that I had sent it standard parcels so knew that he could simply say that he hadn't received it.
He has started to send emails asking for a refund as he needs to rebuy the item from someone else. I honestly can't see someone being so persistent if they were genuine after only 7 working days of the item ending. I buy things from the Internet all the time and often things don't arrive for a couple of weeks and that is when you would begin to worry. I also feel that he would have checked neighbours, sorting office etc himself.

I came on this forum to ask for advice from more experienced sellers / buyers who may have come across similar scenarios and thank you to those who have offered me the advice.
After spending the last couple of days looking into this on the web, I cannot believe how easy it is for buyers to adopt dishonest practices. It realise now that you need to try to protect yourself as a seller. Next time I will send an item like this special delivery and charge it as postage to the buyer.

It is Christmas though, I had an item sent last Friday (2nd LL) which only turned up today, and still waiting on a 2nd class packet sent Monday.

Ordinarily I would be fine to adopt a "wait and see" approach but I was getting twitchy about getting things in time and wondering when I should contact seller/seek a replacement etc. Far faster than I would normally do.

pulliptears

kitty5 wrote: »

Thank you so much for your help.
I know that I may seem harsh to some of you but after selling on ebay for a few years and always selling to lovely honest people,

How on earth can you assess someones moral compass from an ebay sale? You could have sold to Fred West for all you know!

including refunding immediately to a couple of people who had not received their items, something about this buyer is ringing warning signs for me.

Why? Its Christmas and he's out an expensive item and you want to make him work for a refund.

I really feel that it was really jumping the gun to start emailing about an item not being delivered four days after the item ending.

Again, its Christmas. To source another item and have it delivered is time sensitive now. I'd be concerned as well

Other items that I sent from the same post office at the same time all arrived on the same day that he began emailing me about not having received it.

And? This means absolutely nothing other than they all left that particular PO together. Unless your other items were going to the same address I don't see how you can possibly use this is a comparison.

Although I would love to believe that the buyer is genuine I can't help but suspect that the parcel arrived and he realised that I had sent it standard parcels so knew that he could simply say that he hadn't received it.

Thats your paranoia perhaps, but at the end of the day this was your mistake and if buyer says he's not got it you need to refund.


He has started to send emails asking for a refund as he needs to rebuy the item from someone else. I honestly can't see someone being so persistent if they were genuine after only 7 working days of the item ending.

No? Lets see, buyer buys your item as a present, it fails to arrive, you by all accounts "dont want to make life easy for him" and he's probably getting concerned that he'll be a gift down because some seller can't use the right postage methods.

I buy things from the Internet all the time and often things don't arrive for a couple of weeks and that is when you would begin to worry. I also feel that he would have checked neighbours, sorting office etc himself.

How do you possibly know he hasn't?

I came on this forum to ask for advice from more experienced sellers / buyers who may have come across similar scenarios and thank you to those who have offered me the advice.

In other words 'la la la I'm not listening to anything I don't want to hear'.

After spending the last couple of days looking into this on the web, I cannot believe how easy it is for buyers to adopt dishonest practices.

Again, please show us your proof that your buyer is dishonest.

It realise now that you need to try to protect yourself as a seller. Next time I will send an item like this special delivery and charge it as postage to the buyer.

It is your responsibility to get an item to a buyer safely. Special delivery is for your benefit, not your buyers. Of course you need to be charging for it on high value items, but similarly when you !!!! up and send an £80 item untracked you really can't pass the buck and call your buyer dishonest because you simply don't know that.

kitty5

Update:
After contacting him this morning telling him that I would be contacting his sorting office and calling RM customer services he has just emailed meto say that the parcel arrived today!
What a relief. I will make sure that I send things using the correct service next time so if the worst happens I am covered.

Thanks again everyone.

pulliptears

kitty5 wrote: »

Update:
After contacting him this morning telling him that I would be contacting his sorting office and calling RM customer services he has just emailed meto say that the parcel arrived today!
What a relief. I will make sure that I send things using the correct service next time so if the worst happens I am covered.

Thanks again everyone.

So he wasn't lying or dishonest. Just a worried buyer trying to finish his Christmas shopping.

I think you owe your buyer an apology, you've slated him here, said you didn't want to make life easy for him and accused him of getting a freebie.

Yet even though you sent the item untracked and he could have lied he's told you the item has come thus saving you £80.

I do hope you feel some pang of guilt and have perhaps learned not to judge so harshly next time.

...Time_for_a_brew_then..

So he wasn't lying or dishonest. Just a worried buyer trying to finish his Christmas shopping.

Or....he had it delivered last week and was trying it on, to save £80 that he should be paying off his creditcard balance at the end of the month...

Not being funny, but more 'ebay' parcels go missing in the UK than any other type, Amazon or any of the other online retailers don't suffer from this (at least not at the % that 'ebay' items do...which can only mean one thing. There are more ebay buyers willing to commit mail fraud than you think...

The only way I've found to combat this is this - Make your parcels 'stand out' with different coloured tape or bright mailing bags that the postman will remember delivering, thus making it easier for him/her to recall delivery if a claim is made... I use the black & yellow hazard tape wrapped once around every package - works every time.

Not one lost parcel in the UK in the last 4 years... <insert smug smiley here>

pulliptears

...Time_for_a_brew_then.. wrote: »

The only way I've found to combat this is this - Make your parcels 'stand out' with different coloured tape or bright mailing bags that the postman will remember delivering, thus making it easier for him/her to recall delivery if a claim is made... I use the black & yellow hazard tape wrapped once around every package - works every time.

Do you truly believe that this would ever make a scrap of difference in a lost parcel case? Do you really think Paypal would take the postie saying "Oh it's ok I recall delivering it!" over proof of delivery?

They deliver hundreds of parcels a day this time of year, believe me yours will be no more memorable than any other.

techspec

Standards parcels is alarmingly unreliable. Postmen know there is an item of value being sent untracked - and so do the buyers.

Result - parcels often go 'missing'.

You could have save money AND had tracking via collect plus or myhermes. Even with their record - they are still more reliable than standard parcels.

macfly

techspec wrote: »

But Standards parcels is alarmingly unreliable. Postmen know there is an item of value being sent untracked - and so do the buyers.

Result - parcels often go 'missing'.

Have you got any evidence for either of these wild allegations?
How the france would a postman know the value?