Who's responsibility is it to investigate

GrahamLM52

Hi EBay experts. I'd like some advice regarding lost or mis-delivered packages.

Who's responsibility is it to investigate the whereabouts of missing items, the Sender or the Buyer?

i recently purchased something that was posted by Royal Mail Tracked. I got a message saying it had been delivered, but it had not arrived at my address.

The Seller said it was down to me as the buyer to find the item and washed their hands of the situation. Ebay simply said "the seller has provided evidence of delivery to your address" (they hadn't provided proof of delivery to MY address, they provided proof that it had been delivered, but not WHERE it had been delivered to).

Initially when I called Royal Mail they said it was the Seller who was supposed to speak to them to track down missing parcels. When I explained the situation they agreed to help and quickly found that the item had been delivered to a house several streets away (they use GPS to track exact delivery locations).

It took a week, but my item was eventually recovered and delivered to me.

So, back to my initial question.... Who's responsibility is it to investigate the whereabouts of missing items, the Sender or the Buyer?

FlorayG

The responsibility is definitely on the sender, but if they refuse to bother there's not much you can do. Most delivery companies will not deal with the recipient

Vitor

If the seller had proof of delivery they might reasonably conclude a buyer was working an angle to keep the item and cadge a refund

GadgetGuru

The contract is between the sender and courier, hence couriers will typically only deal with the sender. The issue in your case is the item is showing as delivered, so the sender has washed his hands of it. As far as he's concerned his part of the deal is done and eBay will side with him due to the proof of delivery. 
You were lucky enough to get the item in the end, but it should have been the sender chasing.....

horsewithnoname

Vitor said:

If the seller had proof of delivery they might reasonably conclude a buyer was working an angle to keep the item and cadge a refund

The seller might reasonably conclude that the person was telling the truth, and follow up with the delivery company like the buyer did in this case. Depends on how your mind works I suppose. 

MR1988

In an ideal situation, both parties should work together to deal with such an issue. It is seller's responsibility to have the item delivered to your door, but having been that the item shows as delivered, seller could also be concerned that you as the buyer could be fishing for a refund while keeping the item.

My understanding from dealing with this in the past, is that you as the buyer would have to request from the courier (In your case, Royal Mail) a letter of non-delivery that will aid in chasing down a refund and seller being able to claim for item not delivered even though it shows as delivered.

Murphybear

Vitor said:

If the seller had proof of delivery they might reasonably conclude a buyer was working an angle to keep the item and cadge a refund

I buy loads of things from Amazon, eBay and Etsy and have had very few problem.  Until recently I had few issues with Evri but they said I had a parcel delivered and I got the aerial details of the property, unfortunately it was in a different street.  I got a quick refund.  

2 weeks ago Evri said they had delivered 2 parcels which I didn’t receive.  Evri are normally quite good and email me when they will be delivered.  I’d had no emails and no one had rang the doorbell.     I contacted eBay and the sender to let them investigate but heard nothing.  Then 10 days later both parcels arrived, separately.  Not sure what happened here.  Unfortunately as buyers we rarely have any say in which carrier is used 

rollingmoon

Vitor said:

If the seller had proof of delivery they might reasonably conclude a buyer was working an angle to keep the item and cadge a refund

Depends what you call proof... a photo of a parcel dumped on a doorstep is not proof of delivery.

Vitor

rollingmoon said:

Vitor said:

If the seller had proof of delivery they might reasonably conclude a buyer was working an angle to keep the item and cadge a refund

Depends what you call proof... a photo of a parcel dumped on a doorstep is not proof of delivery.

It as as far as Ebay is concerned

GrahamLM52

Thanks all. You have confirmed what I thought.

Things do go awry (I have experienced lost and mis-delivered parcels both as a buyer and a seller).

However, what got my back up was the sellers attitude. There was no "sorry to hear that, let me look into it". The response was "The courier says they delivered it to you so that's an end to it" When I pressed them for proof of delivery (photo ideally) they got quite rude. I looked back at their feedback and there were lots of people complaining about the supplier and his rude and unhelpful attitude when things go wrong.

Still, lesson learnt - avoid sellers with poor feedback.

rollingmoon

Vitor said:

rollingmoon said:

Vitor said:

If the seller had proof of delivery they might reasonably conclude a buyer was working an angle to keep the item and cadge a refund

Depends what you call proof... a photo of a parcel dumped on a doorstep is not proof of delivery.

It as as far as Ebay is concerned

If it was then I wouldn't have won either of the two cases where stuff has been stolen after couriers left it on my doorstep.