Yodel safe place

Keswick1uk

Yodel say they left an ebay item "in a safe place - porch" at my property.

Seller rubbed his hands of it and its a vintage item anyway, so not replaceable.

Ebay "buyer protection " relied on Yodels tracking and closed the request unless Yodel will agree it wasn't delivered.

I'm irritated because...
We were in and received other deliveries that day
We don't have a porch but a front door step which fronts a public road
Yodel say they take photos in these cases, but every time I ask them for the.photo they ignore my request and simply repeat driver says he delivered and tracking shows he did

I seem to have nowhere to turn.

I'm.lucky it's all under £5 but I'm concerned for future purchases using Yodel and Ebay as the support seems non existent in these circumstances 

Any advice? 

tightauldgit

Probably have to raise a formal complaint in writing to Yodel. 

Did you agree to items being left in a safe place? 

eBay thing is a bit of a pain and I disagree with the idea that leaving something at a property is the same as delivering it but that does seem to be eBay policy. Especially seems unfair when couriers have a track record of telling fibs or making errors. 

Keswick1uk

No I didn't agree to safe place and Yodel.

I also agree that Ebay are in the wrong. Ebays only "protections" seem to involve blame the buyer or blame the seller and I'd also feel sorry for the seller in this case if he was made to refund me! 

This should be blame the courier! All I wanted ebay to do was insist on the photo which is Yodels policy. If Ebay put pressure on them as the big man in the room, perhaps they wouldn't be so blasé. Little me they don't seem to care for and just ignore.

I'll raise a formal complaint.

Keswick1uk

So there's no email or postal address to complain to

Can call or use webchat and they then control the narrative. Webchat today says there's no address and they will ask for photo already sent to me on 2nd January will be resent in 24 hours. 

The email on 2nd January did not attach a photo and just said, in standard text, it was delivered to a safe place and to ask neighbours.

(Done all.of that at the time)

My money is on getting this same standard reply and no photo in the 24 hour reply.

I suspect I'm.now blacklisted with Yodel! Not that I'll ever choose to use them given the option.

pinkshoes

All you can do is leave a neg for the seller stating that the item was delivered to a wrong address by Yodel and the seller wasn't interested in helping locate it so you now have no item nor a refund. 

You can also try phoning eBay to state that the item was delivered to your house and the seller is refusing to help locate it. Sometimes they will then refund.

baser999

Our safe place is with a neighbour three doors along who WFH and this is the default on all delivery firms we’ve expected. Despite that we’ve come home to find items behind the bins or sitting on the doorstep. The address labels in every case clearly show the neighbour as being the safe drop. 

Keswick1uk

Thanks

Ebay got involved under buyer protection because I hadnt received it. Ebay "investigated" and closed the case on the side of the seller because it was tracked and shown as delivered.

Of course "safe place" isn't delivered at all! It's often left out in the open close to the buyers property in the hope the buyer sees it before anyone with suspect intentions.

Its probably rare for things to go missing. Certainly for us it is. I've been buying from ebay for years and apart from the odd purchase from abroad that never arrives this is the first problem.

The fact we were in all day, received other packages and normally hear vehicles also arouses speculation but I've not argued that as I have no.proof they didn't come and they insist it was tracked to our location (although the delivered email came in at 6.30, not close to 2
30 when it was dropped at the safe place).

I know I should let it go.... I'm.just pleased it's only a fiver.

I'll not leave poor feedback as it was a 99p item and I'm.more annoyed with Ebay for not being prepare to  bringYodel to account than anything else.

tightauldgit

eBay have nothing to do with Yodel though. The only relationship with Yodel is the seller. eBay's terms seem to be that if the seller can show a proof of delivery then that's good enough for them. So I wouldn't expect eBay to do anything more than they have done. 

The fault here lies with Yodel and the seller for not being willing to help you. If I was the seller i'd be asking yodel for the photo. 

soolin

pinkshoes said:

All you can do is leave a neg for the seller stating that the item was delivered to a wrong address by Yodel and the seller wasn't interested in helping locate it so you now have no item nor a refund. 

You can also try phoning eBay to state that the item was delivered to your house and the seller is refusing to help locate it. Sometimes they will then refund.

If a buyer loses any claim then they can no longer leave feedback.

Keswick1uk

The seller communicated ok but once it said delivered he made me ask for the photo. I suspect he knew ebay would side with him, so why waste energy. He encouraged me to open a case with ebay too. Maybe he knew he would win and close my chances of feedback?

Who knows - sort of can't blame him for 99p!


It shows up a big black hole of accountability.

 Basically if an item goes missing from a "safe place", if the seller or courier wants to weasel out of it they can and the buyer has no way of arguing their case. We are reliant on good people and good companies. Thank goodness most are.

tightauldgit

Keswick1uk said:

The seller communicated ok but once it said delivered he made me ask for the photo. I suspect he knew ebay would side with him, so why waste energy. He encouraged me to open a case with ebay too. Maybe he knew he would win and close my chances of feedback?

Who knows - sort of can't blame him for 99p!


It shows up a big black hole of accountability.

 Basically if an item goes missing from a "safe place", if the seller or courier wants to weasel out of it they can and the buyer has no way of arguing their case. We are reliant on good people and good companies. Thank goodness most are.

While that might be Ebay's policy, I don't think that's necessarily the law. So you should at least in theory have a claim against the seller in the small claims court. And equally they'd probably have a claim against the courier for non-delivery. 

Of course it's not worth it for 99p but i think there is accountability on sellers to actually get the item in to your hands. 

It's happened to me once in the past I think, not an ebay item but a set of curtains that were claimed to be delivered that never arrived. Claimed to have been left in a safe space outside (a bin or somesuch) but weren't there when i looked. I raised an issue with the seller and they refunded me. They did their own investigations and presumably claimed back against the courier. 

It's a bit harder with selling on Ebay I guess as there are no doubt loads of people who claim not to have received stuff when they have. I'm not a fan of this trend of stuff just getting dumped on stairs, in bins, left at the back door etc without permission. But it seems to be the accepted practice nowadays. And if it sits in the rain for two days and gets destroyed then I would very much expect the seller/courier to be compensating for that. It's not my property/I don't accept the risk on something until it's in my hands.