Another ebay question

catmiaow

I sold something for £45 (worth over twice this price), sent it special delivery as it was a rare ornament. I wrapped it well and I put tape around the box as I usually do. I have done this hundreds of times with boxes to make sure the label is on securely, which covered the stamps. The parcel was accepted nothing was said at the desk.

I sent it the same day it was bought. The buyer contacts me today to say that because the stamps were taped over he was charged around £20. I have never heard of this being a problem before and I have never had a problem when I have done it previously.

So not really sure what to do, it's a lot of money to give back to buyer for something that has never been an issue previously nor the post office ever mentioned to me. Any help would be appreciated?

soolin

catmiaow wrote: »

I sold something for £45 (worth over twice this price), sent it special delivery as it was a rare ornament. I wrapped it well and I put tape around the box as I usually do. I have done this hundreds of times with boxes to make sure the label is on securely, which covered the stamps. The parcel was accepted nothing was said at the desk.

I sent it the same day it was bought. The buyer contacts me today to say that because the stamps were taped over he was charged around £20. I have never heard of this being a problem before and I have never had a problem when I have done it previously.

So not really sure what to do, it's a lot of money to give back to buyer for something that has never been an issue previously nor the post office ever mentioned to me. Any help would be appreciated?

You can't cover up stamps with Sellotape.

Anyhow, RM probably assumed stamps were being re used so the postage had not been paid, hence new charge. £20 sounds like a strange amount though, you will need to reimburse buyer unfortunately but get the receipt from them first and then see if you have any argument you can use with RM.

RFW

catmiaow wrote: »

I sent it the same day it was bought. The buyer contacts me today to say that because the stamps were taped over he was charged around £20. I have never heard of this being a problem before and I have never had a problem when I have done it previously.

I'm not an expert on this happening with Special Delivery but it doesn't sound right. Has your buyer got a receipt?
Presumably you have your Special Delivery receipt and the acceptance by the Post Office. If so, if the buyer is genuine, you can just complain to Post Office and Royal Mail and let them know.

I doubt this is genuine though, for underpaying/no post they usually charge the lowest fee plus £1, SD may be different but surely not that much.

catmiaow

RFW wrote: »

I'm not an expert on this happening with Special Delivery but it doesn't sound right. Has your buyer got a receipt?
Presumably you have your Special Delivery receipt and the acceptance by the Post Office. If so, if the buyer is genuine, you can just complain to Post Office and Royal Mail and let them know.

I doubt this is genuine though, for underpaying/no post they usually charge the lowest fee plus £1, SD may be different but surely not that much.

The stamps weren't used by they weren't sticky ones and I had no glue but as usual I used sellotape, never heard of it being a problem and I am disgusted they are causing an issue now.

soolin

catmiaow wrote: »

The stamps weren't used by they weren't sticky ones and I had no glue but as usual I used sellotape, never heard of it being a problem and I am disgusted they are causing an issue now.

Why weren't the stamps sticky, they weren't the grey area ones sold on eBay were they?

elsien

I've had the post office refuse sellotaped over stamps before now - they presume that you are reusing ones that have come through the post unstamped. When it happened to me though, it got picked up at the post office and they refused to accept the parcel.

catmiaow

soolin wrote: »

Why weren't the stamps sticky, they weren't the grey area ones sold on eBay were they?

No they were lick ones, I used them from special edition packs they aren't sticky. I licked them but they didn't stick to the material very well.

catmiaow

elsien wrote: »

I've had the post office refuse sellotaped over stamps before now - they presume that you are reusing ones that have come through the post unstamped. When it happened to me though, it got picked up at the post office and they refused to accept the parcel.

See that's my point why didn't they refuse it then? I have never had an issue before and genuinely didn't think it was a problem.

soolin

A quick google search shows plenty of sites suggesting that stamps should not be covered with Sellotape. It is one of those things that I always accepted as a no no but I have no idea why.

The various sites picked up by google suggest all sorts of reasons why this should not be done. The reasons include fraud measures , being unable to be machine read or even not being able to be franked.

Goldfizz

My question is,....if this is true, why did R.Mail charge them £20???

elsien

They probably didn't notice and it got picked up further down the line.
How much did you pay to send it, and can you ask the buyer for a breakdown of the £20?