Buyer claiming having to pay postage but i have cert of postage?

marbella

I sold an item with free delivery, took it to the post office and got a printed cert of postage with the address printed on. The buyer is now saying that they had to pay the postage at their end and asking for the postage cost. Do I refund the postage cost or just indicate that I have the printed proof of postage?

theonlywayisup

Ask them for a photo of the request from Royal Mail showing it is your package and explain you will refund in full....

It should be for £1 admin plus the 2nd class postage cost. But you need to make sure it was for your item and not another.

theonlywayisup

Meant to add, if it is yours use the photo and your cop to get a refund from RM.

mrcol1000

This could genuinely happen. The labels do sometimes fall off. The people in the post office make a mistake and under charge you. But do check before you start refunding them.

BobQ

mrcol1000 wrote: »

This could genuinely happen. The labels do sometimes fall off. The people in the post office make a mistake and under charge you. But do check before you start refunding them.

I agree.

Proof of posting is only proof you sent the goods. If you want to reclaim the cost of the postage from RM you need evidence of what happened and they scrutinise claims closely.

I find it unlikely that if you handed the packet over the counter they would not have weighed it and either applied the correct postage or checked it carried the right postage already.

Before you refund anything get the recipient to send you a signed statement (or send him a simple form to complete) as evidence for you to send to the RM. If there is something iffy in his claim he may think twice about doing this in writing since RM will probably have evidence of the charge it levied and the why. You need to know what postage was on the parcel on arrival and why they charged an excess, as well as that its the same package.

soolin

BobQ wrote: »

I agree.

Proof of posting is only proof you sent the goods. If you want to reclaim the cost of the postage from RM you need evidence of what happened and they scrutinise claims closely.

I find it unlikely that if you handed the packet over the counter they would not have weighed it and either applied the correct postage or checked it carried the right postage already.

Before you refund anything get the recipient to send you a signed statement (or send him a simple form to complete) as evidence for you to send to the RM. If there is something iffy in his claim he may think twice about doing this in writing since RM will probably have evidence of the charge it levied and the why. You need to know what postage was on the parcel on arrival and why they charged an excess, as well as that its the same package.

I would not go down the route of getting signed statements from buyer, you might as well accuse them of lying.it seems the easiest way of getting poor feedback and stars, I would be very insulted to be asked to complete any pseudo form sent to me by a seller.

As above if postage fell off or was underpaid then OP only needs the outer packaging showing the yellow charge sticker.

There is no need to over complicate this, any charge will show on the outer packaging.

hollydays

Did you take it to the post office counter when you posted it

soolin

hollydays wrote: »

Did you take it to the post office counter when you posted it

A good few years ago I took a batch to the main sorting office and they weighed them all and wrote the postage costs on the envelope and gave me my receipt. They intended stamping them later and obviously forgot and they all went into the post un stamped.

Obviously I refunded my buyers as soon as I started to get emails asking me what was going in, the surprising thing was that several people never got in touch with me for a refund yet still left positive feedback.

marbella

hollydays wrote: »

Did you take it to the post office counter when you posted it

Yes i took it to my local post office and I watched as she stuck the labels on and gave me my receipt. Do you know what, i might just refund this postage cost as like has been said for £2.10 its not worth getting a bad feedback. Thanks for advice.

theonlywayisup

There is a common scam of buyers giving this type of scenario. As the amounts are low the seller just pays.

Now this may or may not be the case here.

But if your buyer is genuine, they will completely understand you need a photo so that you can reclaim. As long as you let them know this, and that you will refund them as soon as you see the photo, there should be no need for anyone to worry about feedback.

BobQ

soolin wrote: »

I would not go down the route of getting signed statements from buyer, you might as well accuse them of lying.it seems the easiest way of getting poor feedback and stars, I would be very insulted to be asked to complete any pseudo form sent to me by a seller.

As above if postage fell off or was underpaid then OP only needs the outer packaging showing the yellow charge sticker.

There is no need to over complicate this, any charge will show on the outer packaging.

Soolin, I agree that it may not be worth risking bad feedback but I was only commenting on the question asked.

I know that I submitted a claim to RM recently after getting a certificate of posting to return an item to Healthy Living Direct. After 2 months all HLD would say is "we have no record of receiving it". RM responded saying they could find no evidence that it had not been delivered and that HLD had failed to respond to RM. I was simply making the point that if you want to claim from RM and have no evidence beyond the certificate of posting you will not get very far. When I asked HLD why they were ignoring the RM they suddenly found the lost item and refunded me the full cost (even the postage which I did not ask for).

You are not accusing the recipient of anything if you say politely, I am happy to refund your postage provided you provide me with evidence anymore than they are accusing the OP of sending the item without postage.