Parcel mix up one UK one Canada. 5 November 2022 at 7:17PM edited 5 November 2022 at 7:18PM in Ebay, auctions, car boot sales, post & parcels 8 replies 341 views

brightondave

Don't know if anyone can advise?
I've had a catastrophe with a parcel label mix up.
Somebody in Canada will get the person in the Uk's item and the person in the UK have received the person in Canada's item.
So its easy to get the parcel back from the Uk customer but the item the person in Canada I'll just have to write it off?  And the item from the Uk for the Canadian person I'll just have to refund him and relist the item? 
If you can pick your way through this and come up with any suggestions?
Its not so bad if it involves the UK on both parcels but once one of them involves somebody in another country it gets really complicated?

soolin

A lot of responses will depend on the cost of the items and the weight. Getting something back from Canada might be expensive and of course you’ll have to pay import costs (dependent on price) as well. 

Spoonie_Turtle

soolin said:

A lot of responses will depend on the cost of the items and the weight. Getting something back from Canada might be expensive and of course you’ll have to pay import costs (dependent on price) as well. 

There will probably be a way of claiming them back as the parcel was a return, but could be awkward. 
I don't know if there's a section on the customs form the original recipient could fill in to say it's a returned item thus not incurring the charge in the first place.

Belenus

What are the items?

Is the UK item sent to Canada valuable?

Tell both buyers what has happened. There is a remote possibility that the Canadian buyer will accept the incorrect item if it is worth a lot more than he paid if he can use it or resell it in Canada.

Unlikely but possible.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Depends on the value, if the UK item is worth a bit then I'd ask the buyer to return it and refund them in full, once it's back send it off to the buyer in Canada and tell them to keep the incorrect item (unless that's hundreds of pounds in which case it might be worth seeing if you can get it back).

If neither are of much value then perhaps refund both and apologise profusely, generally buyers accept mistakes with greater understanding if the communication is good.  

Pembroke

When I did this, although admittedly both buyers were in the UK I asked them, rather than returning the item to me, then me resending it out that they exchange parcels between themselves and tell me how much it cost so I could reimburse them both via a PayPal payment. 

As I include an invoice / bill of sale with each parcel I send they would both have had each others address as it was on the invoice.

This was for similarly priced, but different design items.

soolin

Pembroke said:

When I did this, although admittedly both buyers were in the UK I asked them, rather than returning the item to me, then me resending it out that they exchange parcels between themselves and tell me how much it cost so I could reimburse them both via a PayPal payment. 

As I include an invoice / bill of sale with each parcel I send they would both have had each others address as it was on the invoice.

This was for similarly priced, but different design items.

This used to be almost the ‘recommended’ option but then GDPR meant that sellers could get into all sorts of problems if they disclosed information to the wrong people. Now on the forums it is generally recommended that the buyers return the parcels to the seller and the seller sorts it out.

I'm not sure where that leaves a seller with invoices inside a parcel though or even if this is truly a GDPR breach. 

Belenus

Does GDPR apply to eBay sellers who only sell occasionally and do not sell as part of a business?


Link.

soolin

Belenus said:

Does GDPR apply to eBay sellers who only sell occasionally and do not sell as part of a business?


Link.

I’ve no idea , but on other forums people seem to think that any seller has a duty to take care when using buyer or seller details. I don’t print out packing slips so I don’t know exactly what information is on them anymore.