eBay advice - item not delivered (but proof of postage)

goldtop

^ Yup, even when the seller has done everything he (we) can, things can still go wrong. But the seller quoted above is wrong, and is hoping that Ebay settles in his favour in any dispute. 

As the seller used and paid for Ebay's postage system, it's not even a simple claim against RM for him.

robgilmo

Royal mail tried to deliver, its in the sorting office, you can either rearrange de;livery or go and collect it, the seller cannot do this for you and I doubt EBay would entertain this as the delivery was attempted with no answer.

steer

robgilmo said:

Royal mail tried to deliver, its in the sorting office, you can either rearrange de;livery or go and collect it, the seller cannot do this for you and I doubt EBay would entertain this as the delivery was attempted with no answer.

OP has tried to arrange redelivery with RM, but without success.  RM have seemingly lost the item.

It's not the seller fault, it's not the buyers fault. But the buyer should open an "item not arrived" request with ebay. 

ryanverbena

Yeah as stated above, I’ve been to the sorting office twice now. They can’t find it.

When I asked them about claiming for a lost item they said they can only deal with the person who posted the item.

Interestingly, the seller is now advising that I pretend to be him and claim on his behalf. He also imagined a scenario that I was somehow rude to the Royal Mail staff when it was perfectly pleasant interaction (????)

LionAquaLooper

ryanverbena said:

Interestingly, the seller is now advising that I pretend to be him and claim on his behalf. He also imagined a scenario that I was somehow rude to the Royal Mail staff when it was perfectly pleasant interaction (????)

Err, fk that.  I'm no expert on mail fraud but that could be considered mail fraud. 
In any case, just open the non-delivery case and be done with it.  Tell the seller to stop being so defensive because you're not even implying he didn't send the item and that you appreciate it's a RM problem, but the only course you have as the buyer is to raise a ticket with eBay.  

TheBigDipper

Earlier this year, I went to the local sorting office two days running to ship two different eBay sales. I show them a QR code for my postage purchase and they print off the label for me. I sent parcel 1 on Monday morning and when I dropped off parcel 2 (different buyer) I showed them the QR code for parcel 1 by mistake - and didn't notice (a bit tired). So that parcel was labelled for the wrong person. Once I noticed, I went back to see if the parcel could be retrieved - about 2 hours later.

To cut a long story short, once it had crossed the counter at the sorting office it was now "in the system". Any attempt to do anything other than deliver it to the labelled recipient was a criminal offence. I had to wait for the recipient to refuse delivery at his front door and then Royal Mail did a free "return to sender" to me. It took about a week. But the important point is no-one can change anything once it crosses the counter or enters the slot of the postbox. I learned that it's "in the system" and protected by law. 

Oddly, I could watch the tracking system and see two parcels with the same tracking number going through. At one point the first parcel had been delivered but was also waiting to be delivered and at the local sorting office at the same time! 

Kittyfrisk

TheBigDipper said:

Earlier this year, I went to the local sorting office two days running to ship two different eBay sales. I show them a QR code for my postage purchase and they print off the label for me. I sent parcel 1 on Monday morning and when I dropped off parcel 2 (different buyer) I showed them the QR code for parcel 1 by mistake - and didn't notice (a bit tired). So that parcel was labelled for the wrong person. Once I noticed, I went back to see if the parcel could be retrieved - about 2 hours later.

To cut a long story short, once it had crossed the counter at the sorting office it was now "in the system". Any attempt to do anything other than deliver it to the labelled recipient was a criminal offence. I had to wait for the recipient to refuse delivery at his front door and then Royal Mail did a free "return to sender" to me. It took about a week. But the important point is no-one can change anything once it crosses the counter or enters the slot of the postbox. I learned that it's "in the system" and protected by law. 

Oddly, I could watch the tracking system and see two parcels with the same tracking number going through. At one point the first parcel had been delivered but was also waiting to be delivered and at the local sorting office at the same time! 

You have to be careful about sending quantum items through the post.

chrisj1602

He’ll soon log a case with Royal Mail when eBay side with you. It’s not even difficult, you fill an online form in.

I understand his frustration as he did follow process, but things can go wrong and rather than trying to help, he’s being an arsehole.

Keiko

Could even be a scam. Ebay won't take his side unless there is proof of actual delivery.

robgilmo

ryanverbena said:

Yeah as stated above, I’ve been to the sorting office twice now. They can’t find it.

When I asked them about claiming for a lost item they said they can only deal with the person who posted the item.

Interestingly, the seller is now advising that I pretend to be him and claim on his behalf. He also imagined a scenario that I was somehow rude to the Royal Mail staff when it was perfectly pleasant interaction (????)

Do you have written proof? Without that all EBay can see it an attempted delivery.

Do not communicate anymore with the seller, he could be setting you up for a fall, get a paper trail from RM, it sounds like the seller isnt trustworthy and is wriggling around looking for an exit.. 

Budgie

Have you tried tracking the item from the Royal Mail website? I’ve just tracked it and it says that delivery of your item was attempted on the 18th March and that nobody was in to accept the parcel. It should still be with RM. You could try calling Royal Mail and getting them to find it. They are usually quite helpful. It was sent by Tracked 48.

Failing that, you will have to open a case with eBay for ‘item not received’. The seller will have to refund you and try (and usually fail) to claim via the insurance. Royal Mail hardly ever agree to pay out to business sellers of secondhand goods unless they have proof of the item’s cost. It’s not really acceptable but it is understandable why the seller is a bit pissed off as the fault is clearly with Royal Mail and they will most likely end up having to lose the item or the money and the postage costs. It sucks as a system for a seller but as a buyer you will get your money back as it’s eBay’s policy and there is no proof of delivery.

ICBM

When I worked for an online retailer, about 1% of orders going missing in the post was just part of the cost of doing business, and we refunded them all no questions asked. (Although we did keep a record of ‘repeatedly unlucky’ customers.) However, nothing less than Special Delivery really guarantees compensation.

Philly_Q

steer said:

It's not the seller fault, it's not the buyers fault. But the buyer should open an "item not arrived" request with ebay. 

Agreed, but do it within the "returns window" for the item, or eBay won't help you.  That happened to me recently, I left it too late and eBay rejected my not-received claim and my appeal against their decision.  I was able to get the money back from my credit card provider, though.

robgilmo

Royal Mail give you from memory a 10 day window to rearrange or collect a parcel, if its not collected or delivered it goes to a warehouse in Belfast , you then have to jump through a few hoops to get it. Could this be what has happened? Was a card left stating an attempted delivery? 

Cols

Yeah, just open an ‘item not received’ case with eBay and you’ll get a refund.  

There’s nothing to be gained by further discussion with the seller - at this point there’s nothing they can do to help you get your item, only to attempt to get themselves compensated by Royal Mail.

Keiko

My sister sells a lot of stuff on Ebay. A common scam she would get is buyers claiming things had not been delivered, and wanting a refund. With some people stupid enough to do this literally the day after it had been posted, making it bleeding obvious what they were upto. So it wouldn't surprise me one bit if some sellers were trying this kind of thing too. Get Ebay involved, go through the motions and you'll win in the end. Ebay know what they are doing (most of the time).

Switch625

Have you tried booking a redelivery?

https://www.royalmail.com/receiving-mail/redelivery/book

Budgie

I just looked again at your tracking number but on the Royal Mail app this time, where there is even more detail. After attempted delivery on the 18th March it ended up at the London Central Mail Centre - which probably isn’t your local delivery hub. Why on Earth Royal Mail don’t have all the info in one place is beyond me.

You may be too late but I’d really recommend contacting RM’ customer service phone number and seeing if they can find it. They often can and with a good outcome. By rights, the seller should have done this.

MrSwanson

I got scammed by something like this in the US and eBay or PayPal didn't cover me. I've since stopped using eBay but PayPal is atm with the convenient pay in 4 and the 0% credit

Offset

Whatever the outcome (hopefully in your favour) the seller sounds a right cock.