Item not received, tracking shows delivered to neighbour

Crabcrabcrab

Hi,

I posted about the whole situation in length on another forum but I'm posting it here as it is more appropriate.

Long story short(er), I bought an item from a business seller on ebay. The shipping was listed as royal mail 2nd class which I was happy with. The seller then contacted me to say they had sent the item by courier, and provided a tracking number. I was a bit annoyed that it was now coming by courier as I have had many bad experiences with couriers and hate that I have to stay in from morning until late afternoon to catch a delivery when I generally know when royal mail will be calling by, plus I do not drive so getting to depots is difficult.

After repeatedly 'missing' the delivery (they never knocked or left a calling card and I was always in when they said they tried to deliver) and rescheduling delivery dates with the courier, finally the tracking updated to say that it had been left with a neighbour. I had to call them to find out which neighbour, because again there was no calling card at my address. Now I was really annoyed because I never gave permission for this expensive item to be left with a neighbour as I do not know my neighbours.

I went to see my neighbour and she had no idea about a parcel, nothing has been left with her, and I've no reason to doubt her. The courier would not provide me with evidence of signature or the photograph of the door they said they had taken, so I went around my immediate neighbours and nobody has my parcel. At this point I opened an INR claim with the seller because I couldn't see how I was going to get this parcel the courier now considered it delivered.

The seller has been extremely unhelpful. Unapologetic, seemingly having zero patience for all this, told me that I was 'whingeing' about the method of postage being changed when being sent by courier was an upgrade in his eyes.
He has not responded to my last few messages asking for any updates on his progress with sorting this with the courier (a few days ago he said he had messaged them) and has not responded to my polite requests for the picture of the door he has of the property delivered to so I could maybe have a chance of finding this parcel, nor my request for his postage receipt so I could see if he hadn't perhaps made a mistake with the address. So it looks like this is going to have to be escalated to eBay.

I phoned eBay for a bit of advice and they told me that as the seller is able to provide a tracking number that says the item is delivered, I may be !!!! out of luck (not their words!). Is that really true? The tracking says delivered to a neighbour so in my eyes the contract of delivery is not fulfilled as it was meant to go to MY address. What on earth is to stop a seller from selling on eBay, sending the item tracked to their own or a friend's address, and then being able to keep their item and the money when eBay sides with them on an INR claim because their tracking shows 'delivered'?

mrcol1000

If online tracking shows that it has been delivered then you will not win any INR case. It needs to be shown as sent to your address, but it can be delivered to a safe place or neighbour to be considered delivered. So while it doesn't have to be delivered to your house, it does actually have to be sent to your house in the first place.

Did you go straight to the INR case or contact the seller first? Unfortunately it is the sender of the parcel who needs to sort this out. They need to contact the courier and find out what has happened and for more information. Or you might get lucky and have Ebay refund you themselves if you can convince them it was not delivered.

As a seller I have had customers claim non delivery a few times when tracking shows delivered. The courier has twice asked me to put in a claim for lost parcel but the customer has always found the parcel was actually delivered before I have put the claim through.

ballisticbrian

I once had a customer tell me afterwards that they had found the parcel under the hood of their BBQ.

Crabcrabcrab

I communicated with the seller every step of the way in the hopes they would take charge of sorting this all out with the courier, but they did not. I told them the courier was stating they were attempting delivery but never actually turning up at my house, and I let them know that they said they delivered to my neighbour but my neighbour knew nothing about this. Because the seller was doing nothing and leaving all the chasing to me and I reached a roadblock with the courier because they could not share the manifest with me, I started the INR claim as I felt I had gone as far as I could by myself.

During the INR claim the seller told me that the parcel had been signed for by a name that I do not recognise and is not the name of the neighbour at the address the courier says the parcel was delivered to, and he gave a brief description of the door (so I assume he has the picture the courier took) that does not match my neighbour's door at all. I asked him if I could also see the picture as I might recognise it as a different neighbour but he did not respond. I can prove my neighbour's name is not what is on the signature, and looking at street view would tell you the description of the door is completely wrong or I could take a photo if that was really necessary.

There seems to be nothing to make the seller expend the effort of sorting this, I imagine they feel safe in the knowledge that since tracking says it's with a neighbour they are not going to lose their money, what does it matter if I don't actually have what I paid for?

The ONLY thing I can imagine at this point is that the courier is delivering to completely the wrong address, because my road name is common in this area. I live in Swansea, on 'Swansea Road', of which there are at least 6 all several miles apart. I've confirmed my full address with the courier multiple times in my conversations with them so I know for a fact the seller has my correct address, but what if the courier was trying to deliver to the wrong road? It would explain the incorrect signature and completely different door, but I do not drive and I really can't be taking busses around the city to each Swansea Road and asking if they have my parcel on the off-chance that's what's happened.

theonlywayisup

Your frustration is completely understandable. But, the seller will win the INR.

You could try your card company (if you paid with one) to see if they will help dispute the transaction.

Failing that, when you lose the INR with Ebay, you could appeal. There is no guarantee they will let you appeal let alone allow you to win it.

How much are we talking about here?

Crabcrabcrab

It's a games console I paid £135 for, not a lot of money to some but far too much for me to just let go.

theonlywayisup

The difficulty you have is that the seller can dispute the delivery with the carrier but you cannot as you don't have any contract with the carrier.

As the seller is a business, if you go to any of his/her listings you will be able to find their business address.

If it were me, I would send one last message/email along the lines that the order address is abc and that there has been no delivery made.

If nothing comes of that after 48 hours or so I would send them a Letter Before Action (google for a template). You will need to send this 'signed for' ideally.

See what happens then. Most sellers are co-operative and will dispute a delivery on your behalf, clearly your seller needs a further push and the prospect of an LBA on his desk may just do that.

Crabcrabcrab

theonlywayisup wrote: »

The difficulty you have is that the seller can dispute the delivery with the carrier but you cannot as you don't have any contract with the carrier.

Yeah, this is the problem I'm having. I don't particularly think the seller is at fault here but I need them to resolve this on my behalf with the courier and they don't seem to be doing that. I've done all the chasing and gone as far as I can go, the courier simply cannot share their manifest with me and I understand that.

theonlywayisup wrote: »

If it were me, I would send one last message/email along the lines that the order address is abc and that there has been no delivery made.
If nothing comes of that after 48 hours or so I would send them a Letter Before Action (google for a template). You will need to send this 'signed for' ideally.

Thank you, it looks like that's what it might come to eventually unfortunately.

theonlywayisup

Crabcrabcrab wrote: »

Thank you, it looks like that's what it might come to eventually unfortunately.

Perhaps it may help (if you haven't already) to show the seller that there are 6 other addresses in the area which are similar. If he has any conscience, it could sew a seed of doubt enough for him to help.

Crabcrabcrab

I've held back on sending further messages because I don't want eBay to look at our claim and think I'm spamming him, but he just hasn't responded the last two messages I send asking for help with information he can get from the courier. I will send one final message asking if he is sure he put my full and correct address on the parcel and include this image that shows there are multiple 113 Swansea Roads (the address of the 'neighbour' that has the parcel supposedly)


(there are more, but google maps displays only the first 5 results I suppose)

Hopefully this shows eBay I'm doing everything I can to resolve this too, I don't want this guy to lose money over a lost console but I don't want to lose mine either!

iammumtoone

I feel for you OP. I have had this happen to me may times with ebay sellers. I only order things that come via RM as I am not here to receive deliveries it is easy, it gets taken to the sorting office where I can collect at my convince.

The amount of sellers who then use a carrier and don't understand why this makes a big difference as carrier don't have a local storage areas leading to parcels being left and more likely lost.

I would take screen shots/print out of the listing now in case you need to go to small claims you can use this against them, they didn't follow what they stated which in part lead to the situation you are now in.