HERMES DELIVERY - BUYER SAYS NOT RECEIVED

24Tweezers

I sold an item for £40 and sent it via Hermes, paying the 90p extra for a signature and a few pence more for the additional insurance.  All tracked fine and the item showed as delivered on friday.  However, today the Buyer sent me a message claiming he hadn't had the parcel.  The tracking just showed this, (see photo).  No confirmation to the name of whoever  took receipt and no GPS pin  the delivery location.  On phoning the CS at Hermes, I was told a request has been sent to the courier asking him for any info he could remember about the delivery. 
   My query is this, if my Buyer opens an INR case against me and Hermes don't budge on stating the parcel was delivered where do I stand, please?  

olgadapolga

24Tweezers said:

I sold an item for £40 and sent it via Hermes, paying the 90p extra for a signature and a few pence more for the additional insurance.  All tracked find and the item showed as delivered on friday.  However, today the Buyer sent me a message claiming he hadn't had the parcel.  The tracking just showed this, (see photo).  No confirmation to the name of whoever  took receipt and no GPS pin  the delivery location.  On phoning the CS at Hermes, I was told a request has been sent to the courier asking him for any info he could remember about the delivery. 
   My query is this, if my Buyer opens an INR case against me and Hermes don't budge on stating the parcel was delivered where do I stand, please?  

Whenever this has happened to me, I've asked the buyer to wait for the outcome of Hermes' investigation before taking any further action via eBay. Some will wait, some will open a case.

If they open a case, you have tracking to state delivery. Use that information as eBay will close the case in your favour, which protects your account. If it gets that far, then once the case is closed, you can still work with the buyer as to what's happened to the parcel.

Hermes will eventually get back to you, usually in a couple of days. What's usually happened with me has been that the courier doesn't know anything. Hermes will ask you to ask your buyer to complete and sign a 'denial of receipt' form, which is what it says on the tin. Hermes will ask you to complete a claim form to which you need to attach the DoR form. Every time this has happened to me, Hermes have refunded the item cost plus courier fee but it takes about 28 days from the time you submit the forms.

Obviously, you can't expect your buyer to wait that long so I tend to refund the buyer once they have sent the DoR form back to me (photo via email usually). It's easier if they haven't opened a case as then you can refund and get your fees back.

Slightly more complicated if the case has been opened and closed in your favour and you'd need to get eBay involved to get your selling fees back.

soolin

Protect your account first , you will win any INR claim with proof of delivery.

After that, and only after that start helping the buyer by asking Hermes for more information .

pbartlett

you got through to hermes cs ?????

JJC1956

pbartlett said:

you got through to hermes cs ?????

There’s always a first time 😳 

24Tweezers

soolin said:

Protect your account first , you will win any INR claim with proof of delivery.

After that, and only after that start helping the buyer by asking Hermes for more information .

soolin   Would you know if Ebay remove negatives given in these instances, please?

soolin

24Tweezers said:

soolin said:

Protect your account first , you will win any INR claim with proof of delivery.

After that, and only after that start helping the buyer by asking Hermes for more information .

soolin   Would you know if Ebay remove negatives given in these instances, please?

As soon as a seller wins an INR then the buyer cannot leave feedback. If they do manage to leave it then ebay will remove it. 

24Tweezers

Thank you, soolin, for your help.

BelMalinois

Just to echo what olgadapolga advised, that has been my experience of how Hermes handle claims. It's not the best photo but has the buyer specifically said it's not their property and they don't recognise it? Hermes drivers in my area cover specific areas and know the roads. I've recently had similar to you but had a quick look on Rightmove to see if the property had sold, which it had, and it was clearly the buyer's front door partially open. I have the Hermes denial of receipt form saved and the buyer used the usual "no printer" excuse and eventually went away. Hermes photos don't prevent some people trying it on as my local driver told me. 

Unless a signature was mandatory with the extra insurance cover you bought, it's never worth paying for it at the moment as no drivers are taking signatures.

24Tweezers

Clever thinking, BelMalinois!
I looked their address up on 'Google' but couldn't pin-point the paving slabs.  Their garden looked overgrown with pieces of old cars littering the frontage.
The buyer hasn't escalated it, but ebay still hold my £40.  At the moment I am just waiting for this to time-out, which I understand is after 30 days so they'll release the money to my bank account.  Whether the 30 days is from the date of the sale (22 June), the tracked date of delivery (25 June) or the date the buyer first asked where was his parcel, (30 June), I don't know.
I have the suspicion that as my ebay listing was with free P&P the Buyer maybe took the assumption I'd send it untracked as cheaply as possible, so was 'playing' me.  I heard no more from him after uploading the tracking info, as requested, but as I said the £40 is still on hold.

soolin

24Tweezers said:

Clever thinking, BelMalinois!
I looked their address up on 'Google' but couldn't pin-point the paving slabs.  Their garden looked overgrown with pieces of old cars littering the frontage.
The buyer hasn't escalated it, but ebay still hold my £40.  At the moment I am just waiting for this to time-out, which I understand is after 30 days so they'll release the money to my bank account.  Whether the 30 days is from the date of the sale (22 June), the tracked date of delivery (25 June) or the date the buyer first asked where was his parcel, (30 June), I don't know.
I have the suspicion that as my ebay listing was with free P&P the Buyer maybe took the assumption I'd send it untracked as cheaply as possible, so was 'playing' me.  I heard no more from him after uploading the tracking info, as requested, but as I said the £40 is still on hold.

You should have won the case as soon as you reminded ebay that you can confirm delivery, this case doesn’t time out if you win it immediately with proof of delivery. Have you responded fully to the open case uploading your tracking number again (for some reason ebay seem to occasionally overlook the already uploaded tracking) , if so I would phone ebay and ask them to close the case in your favour.