Compensation claim to eBay, Global Shipping Program (Pitney Bowes), or Royal Mail?

ming60

Hi. I need some advice and guidance please.

I've recently sold a £300 original Jimi Hendrix record album on eBay, to a buyer in the USA. However, the item was sent via Royal Mail, Special Delivery, on June 5th, to eBay's Global Shipping Program (Pitney Bowes) warehouse in Lichfield. The tracking indicated it failed to reach the GSP, getting as far as RM's North West Midlands Mailing Centre. On June 19th I contacted RM, they agreed it was lost, and asked me to put in a claim for the cost of the LP and postage. I did this, and in the meantime, the buyer in the USA has been refunded, through eBay's 'Item Not Received' process, as the item never arrived in the USA.

My claim with the Royal Mail has taken until now for me to get an answer. They are saying that their investigations showed that they believe that the item was delivered as part of a bulk delivery to the GSP (Pitney Bowes), but that they failed to get a signature (which they apologised for!). They have refunded me, but just for the postage cost!! They are saying that if the eBay Global Shipping Program (Pitney Bowes) can supply confirmation to me that the item was not delivered, they will review my case.

QUESTIONS.....

1) If eBay's GSP (Pitney Bowes) say that it was not delivered, or they can't locate it, who is responsible for the loss? (Don't forget there was no delivery signature obtained by Royal Mail!).

2) Who do I claim compensation from, eBay, Pitney Bowes, or Royal Mail?

3) Could this end up as a drawn out legal battle?

Many thanks in advance, for replying.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

ming60 said:

 They are saying that their investigations showed that they believe that the item was delivered as part of a bulk delivery to the GSP 

What proof are they supplying to demonstrate this?  

soolin

I would be arguing this with Royal Mail as special delivery is a fully tracked service and shouldn’t just be handed over unscanned. I sell a lot via GSP, mostly lower end so use standard parcels and even those show delivered at the hub when I check the delivery number on RM track and trace. Special delivery is expensive for a reason and should be treated as such. 

As this went to the hub and I assume eBay agree it didn’t arrive, this is an RM issue, get into them on social media and be persistent. 

RFW

I agree that it's Royal Mail you need to chase.
From what has been said that's a terrible way for RM to act. Your contract with RM was for them to deliver it and provide confirmation of delivery, they can't, so they need to resolve that.

mrcol1000

I think this is a much bigger problem. I have loads of undelivered parcels showing on my Hermes account and all of them GSP. Some don't make it past the national sorting depot and some are just blank. This has been going on for years. If you contact MyHermes they just remove them from your account. 

Thankfully they all made it to GSP and onwards but it is very troubling that things aren't being properly tracked to them. 

ming60

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

ming60 said:

 They are saying that their investigations showed that they believe that the item was delivered as part of a bulk delivery to the GSP 

What proof are they supplying to demonstrate this?  

At the moment, nothing, except what they said in the letter I received last Thursday, saying amongst other things, and I quote, "My investigations into your enquiry have included checking all available service information and we believe that this item has been delivered as part of a bulk delivery, but we have unfortunately failed to obtain a signature."  They then went on to say that they have logged and passed on the details to others etc, and have apologised blah, blah, blah.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Is there an email address towards the bottom of the letter for furthering the claim if you are not happy with their response?

If so I'd send them an email asking for them to actually demonstrate on the balance of probability that the parcel was delivered and if they aren't able to do so you request the claim is paid or you'd like details of their complaints procedure noting your intention of escalating the issue to the regulator if having exhausted their procedures the claim is still yet to be paid. I'd also check the CEO email website and cc in the chairman's office. 

Sorry if it's a silly question but the parcel had GSP reference number clearly included as part of the address? 

I agree with Soolin, I get the odd GSP sale and most Royal Mail parcels are scanned as delivered, I've had a couple that weren't (just normal 2nd class so only delivery confirmation) but they were still forwarded to the buyer so the tracking shouldn't affect the way the GSP warehouse processes orders.

There is a slim chance Royal Mail failed and then the GSP warehouse failed but again as Soolin says you've paid Royal Mail a premium for a service which they haven't delivered (no pun intended). 

ming60

Thanks for your comments. No, there is no email address, just some small print saying that the outcome to my claim has been reached according to the RM's Terms and Conditions of posting, and quoting there web link. Then there is an address to write to, if I, quote "feel they have acted outside of these terms and conditions", which is the Escalated Customer Resolution Team, Plymouth.

I have sent an email to Pitney Bowes, to ask them to confirm, or not, whether they have received the parcel. Maybe I'll wait to see if they reply before writing to RM.

ming60

The latest....

I was put through to the Escalated Customer Resolution Team at Royal Mail after I rang them up a week ago, to moan about the letter I got, and the lack of full compensation in it, for my lost item, and that they should be checking out the reason behind the lack of signature. The guy said that he will get in touch with the GSP (Pitney Bowes) to confirm or not whether the item has been accepted as part of the bulk delivery that my item was part of. However, it might take a while, and that he wasn't sure how quick he would get back to me!

I'm still waiting for both parties to get back to me.

ming60

Update.....

Thanks to everyone on here for the help and guidance received. After 3 weeks of waiting, and no replies from either Ebay or Royal Mail, I phoned RM earlier last week, and spoke to their Escalated Customer Resolution Team. They said that due to the fact that they too hadn't heard from Ebay Global Shipping Program (Pitney Bowes), they agreed to fully compensate me for the loss of my package. Cheque received a week later. At last, a result.

Thanks again to you all.