Ebayer refunded buyer my rights?

bluemoonrising

Hi All,
I need some advice please. I sold two CDs mid April snd sent them both through same post box same packaging same postage different customers. One arrived and one the buyer claimed didn’t. They said their post is really bad. I said definitely posted. They contacted me next day to say shall I open a case. I offered to send another one and the buyer said don’t do that as I have bought one from HMV. I said fine could you send me a receipt. They refused. I know they received my item. Ebay still upheld and deducted my account and refunded the buyer. I know 99% the buyer is lying and received the item. I am now £10.99 out of pocket. Ebay said why didn’t I track it and I said have you ever been to s post office at a busy time to get a tracking number in my local post office can take 30 minutes. I am so angry especially given I offered to resolve and eBay can see all the message exchanges between myself and the buyer. They rule in the buyers favour even though they claim they don’t want two CDs now. The CD from HMV cost 14.99 my replacement was 10.99. Ebay were rude when you finally speak to someone. They are a terrible company. I wish to make a claim to the small claims court any advice? 

TIA 

Browntoa

Let it go 

You will lose

HampshireH

Smalls claims is £35 fee I believe for anything under £300.

Is it really worth it for £10.99? Especially when you cannot prove it was received because you have no tracking details. The whole point of eBay having a section to upload tracking is to support/help sellers if claims are made for non receipt

If you choose to then you can do it online via gov.uk.

GrumpyDil

It's a long time since I sold on Ebay but if you had got a proof of posting, which is free, you would have been able to claim against RM for the item going missing. 

And as other said let the idea of small claims go - for this amount it is simply not practical. 

GadgetGuru

Agree with above comments - you won't win this one, so be thankful it was only a cheap item and let it go. I've had the same issue with items costing several hundred pounds, although fortunately I used a tracked service with insurance covering the cost!

When posting I always use a tracked or signed for service for anything of value. Whether the buyer purchased a replacement from a local store or not is none of your concern, so the buyer does not have to prove anything or show you any receipt. The fact is you have no evidence to show the buyer received the item - this is up to you to prove and not the buyer to faff about with receipts trying to prove otherwise. Proof of postage is also not enough, it needs to be tracked or signed for to show the item was delivered to the buyer, otherwise eBay will always side with the buyer no matter what the circumstances. 

Also note, even though you posted two items together and one arrived, there is nothing to say the second didn't actually get lost. Separate delivery addresses, separate delivery offices, etc - too many differing variables so you cant compare one to the other when both packages took different routes through the postal system. 

eBay have done what they usually do in this situation so you have no course of action. Unless you can explicitly prove the buyer physically received the item, then small claims would be an even bigger waste of money.

Unfortunately you'll have to write this one off - I know how it feels - its not the cost, its the principle of the thing! The fact the buyer gets away with a free item and you're out of pocket! Its super annoying, but nothing you can do , so don't stress over it.

tightauldgit

Despite your clairvoyance I don't think any court in the land will accept 'I know he's telling lies' as evidence, so the question is what evidence do you have that the parcel was delivered? And the answer is none. You could have protected yourself by using any kind of delivery service that provides a proof of delivery but chose not to. Royal Mail even offer free collections so there's no reason not to.

Ebay have acted in line with the terms you signed up to when you sold the item. Lesson learned for next time. Always get proof. 

Rantband

How can you call Ebay a terrible company when YOU did not follow their rules which would have enabled them to find in your favour ?

JetpackVelociraptor

For £10.99 it isn't worth your time or the headache. But, if you're absolutely certain that the buyer is scamming you and his postie didn't, for example, chuck his parcel into a hedge, or the local kids didn't steal it from his letterbox, or it isn't lost at the sorting office - which for the record would all be your responsibility because as the seller everything is your problem until the buyer has the item in their hands - then you can send a letter. Keep it factual, polite and to the point, use one of the many online templates for a "letter before action". You're basically informing the buyer that if they don't pay you the £10.99 they owe you or return the CD then you'll take them to court. They can and possibly will ignore the letter and it definitely won't be worth your time or money to take them to court over it, but there's a slight possibility they may suddenly "find" the CD somewhere.

If you're going to sell anything that goes in the post you need to either send it tracked, or be prepared to let it go if someone reports it as not arriving. You don't need 24 hour guaranteed delivery or anything, a simple "signed for" service will tell you if the item was delivered.

Spoonie_Turtle

bluemoonrising said:

Ebay said why didn’t I track it and I said have you ever been to s post office at a busy time to get a tracking number in my local post office can take 30 minutes.

Would have been quicker than the time you've spent on the matter so far, and probably much less stressful.

Advice?  Understand and follow eBay's rules.  Next time get proof of postage and send it via a service that at least shows whether delivery was attempted (standard parcel, or Signed For if it's letter/large letter) OR be prepared to absorb the loss for low value items.  Life is too short to cause yourself such unnecessary stress.

soolin

I don’t even bother using tracked for my large letters. I do though always get POP which means in the unlikely event something doesn’t arrive I just reclaim from RM.

OP as above though you can’t win this, you have no proof buyer has it nor can you insist on seeing receipts or anything for replacements. If you had refunded within the case timeframe you would have got your FVFs back. If you didn’t refund and eBay forced the refund then you lost your FVFs plus you now have a rather serious ‘defect’ on your account. 

Money_Grabber13579

Rantband said:

How can you call Ebay a terrible company when YOU did not follow their rules which would have enabled them to find in your favour ?

Because IF the buyer is dishonest, they would likely have claimed the item wasn’t as described rather than it didn’t arrive if a tracked service had been used. So using a tracked service wouldn’t necessarily have helped but getting proof of posting would have at least allowed a claim to be made from Royal Mail.