Who's responsible when non delivery?

melliott1963

Hi,

I've just sold an item on Ebay and gave the buyer the option of Recorded delivery or special delivery - they chose recorded delivery.

The item I sold went for £71.

I posted it first class recorded delivery on Monday, but to date, nothing is showing on Royal Mail's track and trace. I've just emailed the buyer to find out if it's arrived yet and am awaiting their reply.

I know it's early days yet, but, if it turns out the the item has got lost in the post, because it was sent recorded delivery, the maximum compensation Royal Mail will pay is £28, which falls short of the true value of the item. If the buyer had taken my offer of special delivery, the full amount would have been covered.

So my question is this. If the item does get lost, is it the buyer's hard luck, or is the onus on me to ensure that it was adequately covered?

I don't want to get my first negative feedback just because a buyer was too mean to take out adequate insurance or do you think I should be OK?

Thanks for any advice which, hopefully, won't be required for now, but may come in useful in the future.

apprentice_tycoon

If you offered Spec Del and it wasn't taken up then I'm afraid it's their loss - they might say that they didn't know that Recorded didn't have any cover over £30.00 (it goes up each time the stamps go up) and you should have explained that fully, if you did explain it then I would say 'tough' but in VERY gentle words!

soolin

This has been covered quite a lot recently on this board so do a search and you will see a variety of responses.

Basically though the insurance is to protect the seller not the buyer, if the item went for more than was covered by recorded delivery (which has a £30 limit) then you should have protected yourself by sending it special delivery.

What happens now depends on how the buyer paid. If he paid by cheque or cash then he (or she) will be able to report you to ebay as a non performing seller if you don't offer him a full refund, and ebay will mark your account accordingly. They can also leave you negative feedback which can hurt if it is worded well. A negative for non delivery of a high cost item would leave other buyers thinking you might be a scammer, but then it really depends on how cleverly he words the neg.

If however the buyer paid by paypal then all the above still applies but he can do a chargeback via paypal and recover funds from you. The only way you can stop that chargeback is to prove delivery of the item, which it sounds like you are unable to do.

Selling on ebay is fun and safe, but you MUST protect yourself. Never send anything high cost without sending it special delivery, for smaller items recorded is sufficient and really for smaller items a COP is perfectly adequate. You have to be prepared for the buyer claimingnon receipt and have a back up plan to receover your money from Royal Mail. Never just offer recorded or special delivery, if the item is expensive make it mandatory and show your post and packing charge as special delivery only.

Soo

soolin

Try this thread for starters:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=52245

Soo

Jellicle

I'm afraid under British law the seller retains ownership of the item until it is actually received by the buyer, thus it is the sellers responsibility to recover any loss due to an item being "lost in the post".
It is a very good reason for always getting "proof of postage" or sending it by "recorded delivery"/"special delivery" so that a seller has proof that it has been received by the buyer.

Altarf

When I am selling I choose a postage method that will protect me from a loss if the goods going missing, and do not offer the buyer any other postage option.

When I am buying, I would NEVER buy anything for more than a few quid where the seller was distancing themselves for their responsibility for ensuring safe delivery. A bargain is only a bargain if you actually receive it.

melliott1963

OK, thanks for the advice. As I said, it's still early days yet, so I guess I'm just going to have to keep my fingers crossed that it turns up.

soolin

melliott1963 wrote:

OK, thanks for the advice. As I said, it's still early days yet, so I guess I'm just going to have to keep my fingers crossed that it turns up.

It is early days, there is even the possibility that it is slow purely because it is a recorded delivery item, strange as it might sound. There was an article in yesterdays Daily Mail about recorded delivery parcels not actually being carried on the postmans rounds, instead they just put a card through the door and expect the person to collect it from the sorting office. ADd to that the many reports on here in the past about cards not being put through the door and that gives the possibility that this parcel is at the sorting office and the buyer isn't aware it is there.

A second possibility is that it has been delivered and the slip wasn't signed so it will never actually show up as received. That happened to me before Christmas.

I would certainly wait and see if your buyer says anything, you might be worrying when in fact he already has the item.

Soo

rchddap1

One bit of advice that I would give is always make sure that you have a 'return to if undelivered' address on the back of the parcel. This way, if no-one collects the parcel, or it does get lost it may actually get returned to you intact.

melliott1963

Well, just to wrap this up, I'm OK - just received an email to say it had arrived and he was very happy with the item.

Will definitely make sure in future that I use Special Delivery if the item is over £30.

It's a shame there's no viable alternative to Royal Mail at the moment for people like me as their service seems to be getting worse and worse.

Thanks again for all the advice.

soolin

I'm glad it worked out well for you.

Soo