Sent an item - may be lost in post...

nobile

Pair of trainers were sent last week to the winning bidder. (Total £8.98 inc p&p)

Had a message off them to say that they still havent received it.

I've replied to explain that it was despatched 7-8 days ago, so should have arrived & will look into it.

I have kept the proof of postage but have no idea what I'm supposed to do next as I dont sell that often & Ive never had something go missing.

Any advice please?

19lottie82

Firstly ask your buyer to confirm their delivery address and check it against the one supplied by eBay and PayPal.

Then ask them to check the parcel isn't sitting with a neighbour or their local sorting office.

If no sign ask them to oen an item not recieved case, then you will need to refund but as you have your proof of postage you can make a claim with royal mail for the lost parcel.

soolin

The problem with asking buyers to open a claim is that it counts as a defect under the soon to be new rules. If you are a small seller as few as 5 defects in a year will see you restricted and possibly banned.

Unless my scam radar is running I tend to get them to wait a few more days and then just refund without opening a case.

nobile

That sorts out the buyers costs, and my p&p costs.

But what about the lost trainers - can I claim any of their costs back?

bxboards

nobile wrote: »

But what about the lost trainers - can I claim any of their costs back?

The trainers in all probably arn't lost - you sent them untracked, and the buyer has them, and probably read a 'freebay' facepost post or blog, and has decided to steal them.

Royal Mail would not be in business if all the so called 'lost in post' threads we see just here were genuine. This is the reason Royal Mail has a special tickbox for 'Ebay' on their claims form.

Ask them to raise a Not Recieved case in Ebay - these 'loses' must be logged so abuse patterns can be tracked and clamped down on.

Do not just refund without asking a buyer to open a Case, after waiting a few more days. Chances are they 'will have just arrived'...

nobile

So I won't be able to make any claim to the RM for the 'lost' item?

Sorry to sound stupid. I dont sell that often on ebay & Ive never lost anything the mail.

This_Year

nobile wrote: »

So I won't be able to make any claim to the RM for the 'lost' item?

Sorry to sound stupid. I dont sell that often on ebay & Ive never lost anything the mail.

Of course you can claim from RM. They may not refund you or they may give you some stamps. You will have to wait until 15 working days are up before claiming though.

https://royalmailemailform.datasquirt.co.uk/

soolin

nobile wrote: »

So I won't be able to make any claim to the RM for the 'lost' item?

Sorry to sound stupid. I dont sell that often on ebay & Ive never lost anything the mail.

Yes you can claim from RM , don't worry about some of us being negative - things do get lost and RM understand that. I've just had to report an Amazon marketplace purchase as missing and apparently my travel insurance documents are also lost having been sent more than 10 days ago, things happen.

Not all people claiming losses are scammers.

Refund the buyer after a decent time period has elapsed, then after 15 working days send a claim to RM. make sure you copy all the stuff you send into RM as daft as it might sound the incidence of the claim forms going astray is surprisingly high. I have always been paid out in full for RM claims except for a recorded delivery one many years ago where I had a dispute about the post code. Oh, and another recorded where the buyer phoned RM and abused them and it got complicated.

I don't insist my buyers open claims unless I feel they are scamming, I get so few losses though despite sending several thousand parcels a year.

nobile

soolin wrote: »

The problem with asking buyers to open a claim is that it counts as a defect under the soon to be new rules. If you are a small seller as few as 5 defects in a year will see you restricted and possibly banned.

Unless my scam radar is running I tend to get them to wait a few more days and then just refund without opening a case.

So these new rules are just to be enforced? Will I be punished if I go along with this option?

soolin

nobile wrote: »

So these new rules are just to be enforced? Will I be punished if I go along with this option?

For smaller sellers who are assessed on a 12 month period any cases open now will definitely count when the new rules are enforced.

Look at your expanded dashboard to see if you can risk a defect on this.

ballisticbrian

Personally I will keep insisting on cases for lost items. Since the changes eBay brought in where cases are automatically opened, missing items are at an all time low, and if you used my figures, it would mean about 80% of people claiming items not received were fraudulent.