Ebay/Royal Mail Postage label wrong what to do now?

fred7777

I posted an item last week via Royalmail printing the label from ebay's website. Unfortunately I didn't check the label when it was printed off I just stuck it on and sent it, the reason why I use the ebay/royamail system is to avoid mistakes.

Today the parcel arrived at the address of a previous buyer!

One of two things has happened

Either:
I printed off a label last Tuesday for a parcel posted the next day then printed off the same label last Friday for a parcel sent that day and Royal Mail's System allowed two parcels to be sent on the same printed label.

or:
Something went wrong with ebay & Royal mail and the previous address got sent across for the new label.

So now the last package is with the wrong buyer, she has offered to send this on if I send her a label but ebay won't let me send her a pdf label via their messaging.

I can't cancel the order and refund the buyer as ebay's system shows the parcel as being sent.

Ebay are claiming they have no responsibility as the shipper is Royal Mail.
Royal Mail don't publish their claims form for individual users, their website appears to be messed up at the moment. If they did they will no doubt claim that as the parcel was delivered to the address on the label they have done what they should have and no compensation is available.

So what can I do now? I have accepted the fact that I have lost both the value of the item and the price of postage but ebay won't let me refund the buyer?

PDC

fred7777 wrote: »

So now the last package is with the wrong buyer, she has offered to send this on if I send her a label but ebay won't let me send her a pdf label via their messaging.

For this part do you have her email address from the payment? - you could email the label to that if you have it, unless she paid via cheque.

fred7777

Unfortunately I don't have her email address.

Ebay's policy is:

We don't allow our members to:

Exchange email addresses, phone numbers or other contact information, web addresses or links

All paypal shows is an ebay ID

soolin

Try to mitigate the loss by getting the item back- refund enough of the original payment via the original paypal transaction for the return, have it sent back to yourself and start again.

Do not ask current buyer to send it on, you shouldn't really be sending other buyers addresses to all and sundry.

This is how it looks from the buyers point of view:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=6003052

fred7777

soolin wrote: »

Try to mitigate the loss by getting the item back- refund enough of the original payment via the original paypal transaction for the return, have it sent back to yourself and start again.

Do not ask current buyer to send it on, you shouldn't really be sending other buyers addresses to all and sundry.

This is how it looks from the buyers point of view:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=6003052

Thanks, unfortunately ebay won't let me do that. Refunding 100% of the full price of the first item wouldn't cover the cost of them sending the mis-directed item back to me.

If I could I would then end up paying of the second item to be delivered 3 times, once to the wrong buyer, once back to me then once to the right buyer. This would exceed the value of the item.

The only option I can see is to wait until the second buyer raises a compliant, then I will be able to refund them.

soolin

fred7777 wrote: »

Thanks, unfortunately ebay won't let me do that. Refunding 100% of the full price of the first item wouldn't cover the cost of them sending the mis-directed item back to me.

If I could I would then end up paying of the second item to be delivered 3 times, once to the wrong buyer, once back to me then once to the right buyer. This would exceed the value of the item.

The only option I can see is to wait until the second buyer raises a compliant, then I will be able to refund them.

If you are happy for the recipient to keep the item rather than return it then let them know and write the item off. Then contact actual buyer and explain that the item has been mis delivered and grovel a bit and ask if they would be happy with a full refund. If they say yes, just go into the sale and choose the option 'buyer requested cancellation' , use that choice and system will allow you to refund automatically and reclaim your FVFs.

If they say no the just explain item was sent to wrong recipient and is therefore lost, so they will not be getting it and would need to,open an INR, and just refund through that.

POPPYOSCAR

I very much doubt the error is with Royal Mail and doubt they will refund you but you can try.

I have made this mistake by clicking on the wrong order and printing the label off again.

Luckily I do double check every time and noticed it before it went out.

soolin

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

I very much doubt the error is with Royal Mail and doubt they will refund you but you can try.

I have made this mistake by clicking on the wrong order and printing the label off again.

Luckily I do double check every time and noticed it before it went out.

Actually I missed that part of the question, well spotted.

OP I agree with Poppyoscar I can see no possible claim possible with RM here, they are not going to reimburse you when the error was yours.

88888888

fred7777 wrote: »

Unfortunately I don't have her email address.

Ebay's policy is:

We don't allow our members to:

Exchange email addresses, phone numbers or other contact information, web addresses or links

All paypal shows is an ebay ID

You actually DO have her email address - if she paid via PayPal.

If you go to the email "Notification of Payment received" and click on 'Reply', it rather surprisingly allows you to email directly to the buyer. You can delete the original part of the email if you want, or simply add to it.

Using this method, you can simply attach a PDF Royal Mail label to the email.

Private individuals are now able to purchase directly through Royal Mail website - you can even pay them using PayPal.

Hope you can get things sorted.

Emily_Joy

fred7777 wrote: »

Unfortunately I don't have her email address.

Ebay's policy is:

We don't allow our members to:

Exchange email addresses, phone numbers or other contact information, web addresses or links

All paypal shows is an ebay ID

Really? Unless it has changed, you can request the details of the person you have had transaction with. e.g. if you sell a collection-only item, it makes no sense not to have a mobile phone number of the person you are supposed to be collecting from. Moreover, certain couriers require you to provide email/phone number of the recipient.
In addition, you can send an image to the buyer, so just write on a piece of paper whatever information you want and send a photograph of the paper.
Also I haven't had any problems sending labels via dropbox/googledrive.
Moreover, Collect Plus stores are happy to print labels for you - all you need is just an order number.

fred7777

Thanks for all the good advice.

What appears to have happened is, due to a printer problem, the label I attached was the same as a label previously printed for a different item.

The first item went to Somerset correctly but during delivery the label was reprinted and fixed to the second item which Royal Mail accepted and delivered to the same address.

It appears that provided the item hasn't been delivered and it's within a certain time of ordering the label, you can send as many items as you want reprinting the same labels. Not saying you should, just it appears that you can.

The buyer of item one tried to send item 2 on (her suggestion) using the correct un-used label but as the item weighed over 2Kg the Post Office refused to accept it for 2nd Class Medium parcels and stated it has to be sent by parcel force.

As Royal mail Medium Parcels allows up to 5kg this is obviously wrong but whilst resolving this with the Royal Mail the label expired.

In future I will go back to filling out the details on Parcel2go and use couriers.

Thanks again for the help.