item lost in post, buyer notifying me after a month, what do i do?

soolin

thatsfabulous wrote: »

Can i ask did you put no 'refunds' on your ebay listing? Only other thing i can think of is tell buyer you are going to fill out the form and wait for outcome of it,if you get cheque you can refund him/her and could still have a little money left for you so then you wont be loosing out.

Makes no difference what you put on your listings,the buyer is entitled to a refund. If you mess the buyer around by asking them to wait for weeks all they will do is bung in a paypal chargeback and win that.

It is best to refund with a good heart, through gritted teeth if necessary, and most buyer will leave you a positive for co operation.

thatsfabulous

Well i put that on my listing and the buyer did not ask for a refund, she was very thankfull that i was making the effort to find the parcel or get money off royal mail an so was happy to wait until they got in touch.
That was my experience and my buyer but all are not the same of course.

Avoriaz

What is the buyers feedback like?

A month is a long time to wait without informing you of non receipt.

If he has good feedback and appears to be genuine then refund him and swallow the loss.

If other wise, call his bluff and tell him you sent it recorded delivery and have a signed receipt or some other story.

He may back down if he is lying.

DrFluffy

pgilc1 wrote: »

I had worse than that

-> sold an item for a friend for £60
-> got paid by paypal
-> gave the money to my friend
-> posted it via special delivery
-> after a fortnight i threw out the postage receipt.
-> after the third week got an email 'hi have you dispatched my item yet?' :eek:

Nothing i could do but refund as i had no proof of postage.

Did you not check it had been delivered (using the SD code) before binning the sender tab?

thinkginge

the buyers feedback is 100% with 255 comments left all positives. i refunded, i do say on my listings that i wont, and also that what royal mail does with the parcels i give them is up to them!lol

but i refunded due to my own stupidity of not getting a proof of postage. i wouldn't have if i had a reciept............ ah well, wont do that again

soolin

thinkginge wrote: »

the buyers feedback is 100% with 255 comments left all positives. i refunded, i do say on my listings that i wont, and also that what royal mail does with the parcels i give them is up to them!lol

but i refunded due to my own stupidity of not getting a proof of postage. i wouldn't have if i had a reciept............ ah well, wont do that again

Please understand how ebay /paypal works. It makes no difference to paypal whether you can prove posting or not..it is delivery only that matters. If you can't prove delivery you lose a chargeback so as per my post, it is best to refund with a good heart rather than drag it out and lose a dispute anyway.

We regulars tend to harp on about proof of posting purely because as sellers we need that to reclaim our losses eventually from the Royal Mail, it is nothing at all to do with the buyer.

Please see post number 8 on this thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=598590

motorguy

DrFluffy wrote: »

Did you not check it had been delivered (using the SD code) before binning the sender tab?

Well i was working on the assumption that the buyer would have let me know within a fortnight that he hadnt got it, given people can raise an 'item not received' dispute in half that time.

BUT, as (bad) luck would have it, it was three weeks after he won the item that he did so.

Oh well, you live and learn. Worse things happen at sea. :rolleyes:

goldspanners

I had a buyer before xmas told me they never recieved thier item,after doing a bit of investigating into them they havent been the most honest of ebayers in the past by the look of things,so rather than payout straight away i challenged him,i only sent 1st class as item was under £30,but £30 is £30,if i dont need to pay it i wont,so i asked them to wait a bit longer,a week passed still no item apparently,so i then told them i was going to file a claim with RM and someone from RM will be in touch.
never heard another word from the guy,no feedback left or anything.
i still suspect he was chancing it.
always challenge them.

Jet

I was having a conversation yesterday with someone about this.

They were basically saying that anything bought on ebay (with paypal) should always be sent recorded delivery because anyone can say they didn't receive the item and then get their money back.

A proof of delivery is not enough.

I don't sell much on e-bay, but when I do, it's normally fairly low value items. When I buy from e-bay, nobody ever sends anything recorded delivery. :rolleyes:

So, what do you all do?

Avoriaz

Jet wrote: »

..A proof of delivery is not enough.

I don't sell much on e-bay, but when I do, it's normally fairly low value items. When I buy from e-bay, nobody ever sends anything recorded delivery.

So, what do you all do?

I look at the buyers feedback. If it looks ok I use the cheapest possible postage and take a chance. I calculate that over time the money I save on postage will be more than any loss I might incur.

If the buyer looks dodgy I might use a PayPal approved trackable delivery.

It has worked so far. I have not had a single non delivery claim yet.

I also sell guitars. I encourage free collection but I offer p&p for £20, which is average for a guitar on ebay. It costs me £8.22 for a courier delivery that is not covered by Paypal or about £18 for one that is covered by PayPal.

I use the £8.22 courier. So far everyone has been received intact and the buyers have left me positives.