Delivery problem

happyandcontented

This happened to my son, it was eventually found in a neighbouring st (with a similar name) in the car port. The house owner had been in Australia for 3 weeks and so it was only found 3 weeks later.

NBLondon

Snowbelle wrote: »

I will continue to try and sort this out with Shutl and if the parcel is found and returned or deemed lost then I shall refund the buyer.

soolin wrote: »

If item is returned to sender then I would expect any good seller to refund the buyer, just as I would expect any buyer to refund a seller if they get an item after winning an INR.

Yeah - that's what I would expect... and I had no doubt Snowbelle was doing their best to chase Shutl. If the courier has messed up then neither buyer or seller should lose out - the courier should.

soolin wrote: »

I'm afraid this is what happens after eBay revised their idea of what constitutes good customer service. I now automatically protect myself and my account first by using the abay process, and then I help the buyer.

This is the thing that made me join in - why the first thought is "cover myself" rather than "how do I put it right?". I guess there's a difference between the occasional seller and the person for whom it is a business and source of income.

What this looks like is what really constitutes "proof of delivery" - you can defend a case by showing that the item was delivered somewhere but not necessarily delivered to the buyer!

jimmijamie

It sounds like you've done all you can in the situation you were placed in, and they've been rude and threatening so you have dealt with it well (with help from the posters here). I've had similar experiences and as a rookie seller would often forget to ask for proof of postage in the first place with Royal Mail, and it would always be those ones where the buyer would mysteriously not receive the item and then request a refund...

Maybe i'm being cynical and a little off topic, but it highlights something, you have to know what you are doing on eBay now and cannot merely sell things on there with good intentions and not know how the 'system' works because there will always be someone unscrupulous at the other end to catch you out, or at least attempt to.

ballisticbrian

This is the thing that made me join in - why the first thought is "cover myself" rather than "how do I put it right?". I guess there's a difference between the occasional seller and the person for whom it is a business and source of income.

There's even slightly more to it. If you were a large online retailer with your own web site, you might put in practice customer protection to avoid time wasting court actions (even if you were to win them) and customers reporting you to trading standards.


So eBay had a system where if you can prove delivery they will shut the case in your favour but if the customer banged on to them enough, they would give a no-fault refund to the customer from their own pocket. (I don't know if this is still the case as so much has changed but this is what used to happen). In a sense, you could call this part of the "seller protection." So in this case, an intervention by eBay would leave neither the seller or buyer out of pocket, but the alternative to this is for the seller to keep pursuing it with the courier.

Snowbelle

For anyone that's interested I didn't hear any more from this buyer so can only assume they did indeed receive their item.

soolin

Chantelle1972 wrote: »

Have you checked google earth? Sounds silly but the person could be lying about having a porch.... I had the same thing with an ebay sale and I challenged them with a picture from google earth of their house

Have you actually read the thread at all?