Stolen ebay parcel

se2020

I have sold an item on ebay, the tracking says it has been delivered. 
The photo shows it dumped in the gateway at the end of a long drive.
You can barely see the house in the distance.

Buyer has contacted me to say they have not recived it and they think it has been stolen. 

I used Royal mail tracked 24. I did NOT specify any safe place on the booking so I presume it should have been delivered to a person rather than just an address?

What are my next steps? 
Do I open a claim with royal mail?

Thanks!

tacpot12

Claims Centre

savergrant

Was it ebay simple delivery?
If so the contract is between eBay and royal mail. If not then I doubt ebay would refund the buyer as there is proof of delivery, of sorts...
If you purchased the postage yourself did you buy it through ebay or copy the address details into royal mail?
If the item has been delivered to the address supplied by eBay they are unlikely to make you refund imo.

Presumably the item was too big to fit through a letterbox? Did the buyer receive a card from royalmail to say the parcel had been left in a safe place?(I've had tracked items thrown over my garden gate but a card saying so put through the letterbox.) Has the buyer confirmed that the tracking photo shows delivery to their property? Is it possible the address was entered incorrectly? And did you offer the buyer tracked postage or signed for?

Unfortunately tracked will usually mean delivered to an address rather than a person (which would be a signed for service), although it is against royal mail standards to leave a parcel at high risk of theft.

Can you leave my item in a Safeplace if I haven’t made a specific request?

If you are not at home to accept delivery, we may deliver your item to a Safeplace location at the address without a specific instruction from you. In that case, it will only be if our Postperson deems that location to be within our guidelines (see “What is acceptable as a ‘Safeplace’?).

If our Postperson knows you are a vulnerable customer, they will always try to take this into account when choosing a Safeplace for your item and position it in an easily accessible location for you.

How will I know my item has been left in my Safeplace?

We'll leave a "Something for You" card confirming where we've left your item.

We may also send you an email and/or SMS notification with information about which specific Safeplace location we have delivered your item to, e.g. shed. For some deliveries, we'll also include a photo of the Safeplace.

Are there times you’re unable to leave items in a Safeplace?

Some examples of why we’d be unable to leave an item in a Safeplace are: it would be dangerous for us to access the nominated point; the item would be exposed to bad weather; if the nominated point is clearly insecure (for example, a doorstep or a recycling bin); or your item requires a signature and/or requires an Age or ID verification.

elsien

Yes, except my experience is that post people, some of them, completely ignore the guidance and just dump the parcel anyway in view of the street regardless of the fact that no safe place has been nominated, and where they’ve left  it is in breach of their own policies 

savergrant

Yes, so in this case the claim would be for negligence from the postman. Which is why I would be interested to know whether they left a card through the letterbox.

Mark_d

Royal Mail have stated that the item was delivered and they have provided proof of delivery to the property (even though not to the front door).  Normal advice would be for the buyer to check that no members of the household or their neighbours picked up the parcel.  If they believe it is stolen then they need to make a police report before anything further can be done

savergrant

Mark_d said:

Royal Mail have stated that the item was delivered and they have provided proof of delivery to the property (even though not to the front door).  Normal advice would be for the buyer to check that no members of the household or their neighbours picked up the parcel.  If they believe it is stolen then they need to make a police report before anything further can be done

Proof of delivery to a property...it is yet to be confirmed that the photo is of the addressee's house.
All the buyer has said is that they haven't received it, which of course can't be proven either way.

savergrant

The tracking should give an indication of the time the parcel was delivered, when did the buyer realise the parcel was marked as delivered and raise the alarm?

se2020

It was sent directly from the royal mail website.

Buyer has confirmed the photo is the correct driveway entrance. 

No card was left, I guess if the postman could have been bothered to open the gates and go down to the house for a card they could have just left the parcel there rather than by the road.

Tracking shows delivery at 9:30am, buyer says they were at home, saw the ebay delivery notification at lunchtime, checked the tracking as they didnt have it, walked up the drive but the parcel was not there. 

elsien

I would probably be escalating back to Royal Mail and asking them to explain exactly how dumping it at the entrance to a driveway can be considered in any way a safe place.

savergrant

elsien said:

I would probably be escalating back to Royal Mail and asking them to explain exactly how dumping it at the entrance to a driveway can be considered in any way a safe place.

Clearly the postie has not followed the guidelines. Op said the recipient was at home so there was no need to leave the parcel 'safe' anyway, and the recipient only found out the parcel had been delivered once the tracking updated on eBay, so no card was left. Assuming that there were no access issues/dangers such as a loose dog or locked gate there is no excuse for the postie to make no attempt to deliver the parcel. It should also be clear that an item sent 'tracked' is likely to have value.
What is the value of the item?
I think I would be pressing the recipient to report the theft to the police and provide a copy of the report before refunding, then forward that to royal mail with a copy of their safe place policy and proof of value for compensation.