Royal Mail Item not collected

ballisticbrian

What is the general consensus of all the seasoned professionals plus *well educated guessers* on this site as to how to handle "Royal Mail - Item not called for" for items which didn't fit through the letter box and is returned to sender? (it's back here with the red label on)


Nowadays it's nearly 3 quid to send a small item of little value back to the recipient, who has opened a case a month after ordering the item and it was not collected from the Royal Mail depot?

forgotmyname

How to handle it? Complain to the buyer for not collecting it?

You need to add these costs into your business plan.

ballisticbrian

Who pays for the second delivery attempt?


See how many people on this site would complain about P&P being 20p too much "add these costs on to your business plan"? LOL

ballisticbrian

bumpety bump.

mrcol1000

It depends on what the seller says. If they still want the item then you will have to send it again. It might not necessary be the buyers fault. The postman may not have bothered to leave a card or something might have happened to stop the buyer collecting the item.

If the buyer isn't replying to your messages then I'd wait and hang on but I think you will have to pay for a second attempt. Possibly ask them if there is a note you could put on the parcel for the postman such as a neighbour to leave with.

Or just cut your losses, refund, block them and resell. You risk bad feedback but it'd be the cheaper option especially if they don't collect a second time.

ballisticbrian

The trouble is, if you refund, the money has already gone to Royal Mail = made a loss. If they want a replacement (which in this case they said they do), you pay Royal Mail twice = made a loss. They are adamant that no card has been left and one of them works from home.

forgotmyname

My postman has phases where they wont leave a card. Except last week they dropped one through the door with the letters.

No attempt made to deliver it. We were all in that day also. Part and parcel of having a business selling by mail.

km1423

If the buyer wants the item, then they must pay the cost of postage again.

If a card was left, then the buyer had 18 calendar days to arrange redelivery, that is over 3 weeks. I suspect if they didn't contact you to say that they hadn't received the item, then they had a card.

Ask the buyer for an alternative address, where they will be somebody to receive it, i.e. place of work, or family address. Do not resend to the original address.

The cost of redelivery is their responsibility, as they were slack in collection the first time around.

Hermione_Granger

km1423 wrote: »

If a card was left, then the buyer had 18 calendar days to arrange redelivery, that is over 3 weeks.

I think that you meant working days.
18 calendar days is actually just over two and a half weeks.

forgotmyname

Slack in collecting something they had no idea it needed collecting?

If its something they were not in a rush for then i wouldnt have chased it up either.
I would only chase it as the deadline approached for claiming a refund.

The buyer will get a refund anyway. You cannot force them to pay again.

Some years back i bought an item off ebay. Contacted the seller on the 4th day just enquiring if/when they will post it.
They said they had already posted it and will chase it up.

Contacted me saying it was at my sorting office. I went to collect it and no parcel. Even though they were supposed to hold it for 5 / 7 days it had actually been returned to the sender he received it the day after.

So i bid on Monday, He posts it Tuesday and receives it back by Friday.

Sometimes the postal system lets everyone down.

ballisticbrian

It does, I've now decided to open the item, and the postman had tried to force it through the letter box and it's broken. I think it snapped as he tried to force it through, so rather than leave a card, he just quietly took it back to the depot.