Dispute with seller over a failed delivery

baggymp

This is a bit complicated but I'd be grateful if experienced ebayers could give me their advice. This is my problem:

1. I purchased a number of kids musical instruments from a long established ebay company. One of the instruments arrived direct from the factory, another 5 were being sent seperately.
2. The carrier called twice in 24 hours when were away.
3. I rang the carrier and arranged for the goods to be delivered on a Monday. The goods never arrived that day, despite working from home to sign for them.
4. On returning from work on the Tuesday, a failed delivery card was posted through the door. Stick with me on this...
5. I drove to the depot to collect the goods. When I got there they'd been sent back to the company as they only try and deliver three times etc. etc.
6. I called the seller, a little irrate but still courteous, expecting the guy at the end of the phone to sort it out. To say he was obstinate is being kind. After a number of phone calls he agreed a refund on the items but witheld the sum for the carrier (despite me already paying for the cost of two deliveries, one of which had arrived).
7. He said that the ad clearly stated a 3 strikes and the goods go back policy (it didn't). He said that the carrier had told him I hadn't called until the Monday.I have an itemised bill to prove that I rang the carrier on a Friday.
10 Basically he can't be bothered to sort it out and is witholding my hard earned cash. Its not a lot of money but its a very big principle. He's an ebay power seller with 14,500 sales to his name with 22 negative and 9 mutually withdrawn feedback ratings.

What can I do to get justice? Will ebay back me up or will they support a regular supplier who must be making them a fair few quid each week? How do I go about raising it with ebay?

bleugh

............tough luck!

if you knew you were expecting a parcel, you should have made arrangements.

actually stay in and wait for it............

or

stick a big sheet of a4 paper on your door asking "mr delivery guy to leave with number xxx, they're in, and theres a quid there for you for a cup of coffee as thanks"



fair enough, the carrier messed you around a little, but rarely do they try twice in 24 hours, its a good thing that they did try twice, most dont bother
- presumably once while you were in work, then in the evening, when you would usually be back

pay for return postage back to you, it's NOT his fault that you were not in, why should he be out of pocket for your mistake?

next time you buy an item mail order/ebay, consider getting it delivered to an address where someone will be there to sign for it (work, etc)

jockettuk

bleugh wrote:

............tough luck!

if you knew you were expecting a parcel, you should have made arrangements.

actually stay in and wait for it............

or

stick a big sheet of a4 paper on your door asking "mr delivery guy to leave with number xxx, they're in, and theres a quid there for you for a cup of coffee as thanks"



fair enough, the carrier messed you around a little, but rarely do they try twice in 24 hours, its a good thing that they did try twice, most dont bother
- presumably once while you were in work, then in the evening, when you would usually be back

pay for return postage back to you, it's NOT his fault that you were not in, why should he be out of pocket for your mistake?

next time you buy an item mail order/ebay, consider getting it delivered to an address where someone will be there to sign for it (work, etc)

tough luck thats a bit harsh.. ive known ive been expecting parcels and waited in and not come .. waited in again not come gone to the shops the next day and its come when ive been out for 10 mins.. if the op has contacted the couriers and they messed around then the seller should be picking it up with the couriers.. and as for getting it sent to another address ive seen loads of threads abt people asking if its wise to do this and a lot of people have said no ..

Cat72

Hi

I send 95% off my items by courier. The courier did try and deliver first off all and you were not in - so this was your fault. However it was wrong of the courier not to call back on the Monday as you requested.It is standard for courier companies to send the items back to the sender within 3 attempts.

After a number of phone calls he agreed a refund on the items but witheld the sum for the carrier (despite me already paying for the cost of two deliveries, one of which had arrived).
7. He said that the ad clearly stated a 3 strikes and the goods go back policy (it didn't). He said that the carrier had told him I hadn't called until the Monday.I have an itemised bill to prove that I rang the carrier on a Friday.
10 Basically he can't be bothered to sort it out and is witholding my hard earned cash. Its not a lot of money but its a very big principle. He's an ebay power seller with 14,500 sales to his name with 22 negative and 9 mutually withdrawn feedback ratings.

Now you probably are a bit irrate but the seller is not profiting from this as even if an item is non delivered the sender still has to pay and the company will recharge to redeliver.Now to be fair to the seller he probably has countless people never being in for deliverys and making excuses so although what you are saying about the Monday delivery may be true, he will be taking the couriers side as they are the one that he knows better.
If you look at it in the cold light of day both you and the courier are at fault. The seller has done nothing at all wrong and has fairily offered to refund you for the item less the costs he will most definately have to pay to the courier. So you should probably best just pay for re-delivery and arrange directly with the seller a certain day.Or take his refund less the postage.

Twopints

bleugh wrote:

if you knew you were expecting a parcel, you should have made arrangements.

actually stay in and wait for it

Cat72 wrote:

Hi

I send 95% off my items by courier. The courier did try and deliver first off all and you were not in - so this was your fault. However it was wrong of the courier not to call back on the Monday as you requested.It is standard for courier companies to send the items back to the sender within 3 attempts.

I may have misunderstood the process here. Are you saying that if I buy something on e-bay I have to stay in my house until it has been successfully delievered or otherwise non-delivery is my fault ??

Clearly the fault is with the courier for not properly attempting to deliver the item at an agreed time when there would somebody in. Who is the courier working for ? Not the buyer. So why shouln't the seller take up the failure of his agent, the courier, to carry out the job they have been paid for ? They should not unfairly penalise the buyer for this.

bleugh

lets spin this

you buy something from a catalogue
dont you normally ASK when are you to expect delivery
they tell you, you wait in that day, it arrives (or often not arrives)

point being here
I buy a very large item on monday, pay on tuesday
...............
........
.......(at no point do i ask when delivery will be)
.......
.....
the following tuesday i'm not in, it arrives, I get angry, is this reasonable?
.......
.....
....
don't you think it's reasonable to ASK when to expect delivery?
if he chased the seller, and got no reply, then both parties are at fault here for lack of communication.
..
..
on the matter of the company not turning up when asked, if you have proof, great, put a claim in against the company, you can ask the seller to help you chase the claim if that helps

the buyer should NOT expect a postage refund, at very best the seller may offer a small discount on the second posting as a goodwill gesture.

the seller should take it up with the courier company also as 3 strikes in two days would be taking the pee a bit





the reason this 'narks' me, in work last year, we had a major customer try to claim a large amount of compensation twice for non delivery of items.................it turned out that the customer had given instructions to the delivery bloke, if no-one's in, leave the boxes 'round the back'. the expensive boxes got stolen, is my company to blame for an arrangement made with my shippers and my customer without my consent or knowledge?
nope

Twopints

bleugh wrote:

the reason this 'narks' me, in work last year, we had a major customer try to claim a large amount of compensation twice for non delivery of items.................it turned out that the customer had given instructions to the delivery bloke, if no-one's in, leave the boxes 'round the back'. the expensive boxes got stolen, is my company to blame for an arrangement made with my shippers and my customer without my consent or knowledge?
nope

Agreed. The problem the OP has had is that the courier seems to have made no attempt to "arrange" the delivery just turned up twice while the OP was out. Then, once an arrangement was made, the courier failed to complete. The OP stayed at home on the day they agreed (Monday) then the delivery was made on the TUESDAY.

That is non-performance by the courier and should be sorted out at their expense, not that of the buyer or seller.

Altarf

I hate companies that use courier firms rather than the Royal Mail, as all (without exception) courier firms are rubbish.

They are setup to deliver to businesses who are there to receive the package during normal office hours. Each courier firm has its own rules on the number of attempts at delivery, whether you can collect from their depot (which will either be in Lands End or John o'Groats anyway), whether it can be left with a neighbour, etc. All of which are never set out by the supplier (until it all goes wrong).

For those who are not at home during the day and cannot accept packages at work, the Royal Mail is hard to beat. Card through the door, pop round the local sorting office, job done.

Cat72

For those who are not at home during the day and cannot accept packages at work, the Royal Mail is hard to beat. Card through the door, pop round the local sorting office, job done.

Sorry I have to disagree with you there.I have far more problems sending items with royal mail than I do with courier.
Usual complaints - Recorded deliveries signed by postie and put through door ( sometimes wrong door ) ,
no cards left at all so customer does not know item is at sorting office,
items missing in post
.Items been returned then went missing because no card was left.
Items put through the wrong doors.
Items deliverd damaged .
All these problems have happened on several occasions to me as a seller and also as a buyer.
My courier is excellent ,and I have guaranted next day delivery ( even at xmas time ). Delivering to other address and not getting signatures is foolish and leaves the seller open to paypal chargebacks and false non delivery claims.So by sending by courier I require a signature. This keeps everyone right. I put on all my listings that items are delivered by courier and most of my items are too big for royal mail .However I also email them with a rough delivery time and a definate date- saying if this does not suit to contact - and yip they still " pop out to visit auntie josie and get a loaf " .

baggymp

Well, thanks all (well most of you) for your helpful advice. After I provided the seller with the proof that I made the call, he called his courier back. They investigated the matter thoroughly. They admitted to him that I had, in fact, called them on Friday, not the Monday. He then said that they'd messed up once to often, sacked them and has moved his considerable number of deliveries to parcelforce.

My point was that a; my contract was with him not the courier and b;I had acted reasonably throughout the process, making attempts to arrange the for the delivery to be made. I had to threaten going to law to get it investigated but when he realised I was serious, he offered a full refund. Hurray.

And thanks again to you all for being so nice on one of my first posts.

Altarf

Cat72 wrote:

- and yip they still " pop out to visit auntie josie and get a loaf " .

My point exactly, with all these rubbish courier services you have to be a prisoner in your house. If you leave for a moment you face a trek to Mars to collect your package (if they will actualy let you and they have not sent it back to the sender already).