I used a collection point, but Royal Mail said delivery refused and return to sender. What can I do?

[scriven76]

I ordered an item that the seller posted via Royal Mail 1pm next day. I know Royal Mail happened to have tracking issues yesterday, but I was surprised when tracking finally came back online that I saw "recipient refused to accept", and that it's being returned to sender.

I've used this collection point once before, and there was no manual address entry on my part (I just selected it as the option).

I know it's not the seller's fault, but they're being a bit unplesasant about it, as if I were the one that refused it!

He's mad and saying I need to pay £11 to send it again.

Can I just ask eBay to cancel it? Even if the guy is willing to send again, I don't really want to be his customer given how quickly he blamed me.

[buffster1963]

It sounds like the seller did not put the ECP code on the parcel. Without this the parcel gets refused. Another reason could be that the item is too large as most collection points only accept parcels up to a certain size and weight. 

only the seller can cancel the order so ask them to do this once they recieve the item back. If they refuse, open a not recieved dispute although i am not sure of the outcome as a delivery was attempted. 

[tommystrezures]

To be honest I think it is the sellers fault, as previously mentioned I would imagine they failed to put the ECP number on the parcel. Argos or the store that you sent the item too can refuse, and as the item was a special delivery it will go back to the seller.

If the cost was £11 for postage, on special delivery then it parcel should have been only upto 2kg and within RM sizing guidelines.

[myriad*seller]

No point opening a case

The refusal will invalidate OPs buyer protection even though they did not refuse it themselves

You will need to work with the seller to get the item as you lost the ability to get a refund when they refused the delivery, even though it isnt your fault 

[technthread]

Any seller could post to a click and collect address, deliberately leave an ECP code off the label and know the buyer lost their protection and their item will eventually make its way back to their return address?

Surely eBay would treat it differently with a click and collect address? Maybe not the automated system but they would step in and help if the buyer rang them and had a person review it?

[myriad*seller]

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@technthread wrote:

Any seller could post to a click and collect address, deliberately leave an ECP code off the label and know the buyer lost their protection and their item will eventually make its way back to their return address?

Surely eBay would treat it differently with a click and collect address? Maybe not the automated system but they would step in and help if the buyer rang them and had a person review it?

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That's the issue, getting a person to review it. Cases are automated. If it shows refused delivery, the buyer won't be refunded. 

[technthread]

Yikes I won't be using click and collect again. 

There is also the possibility with this that the click and collect address are a funny place to deal with. I have one near me that refuse parcels from evri even though they are on the click and collect list but I've seen them accept Royal Mail ones. I've also seen them refuse one because it was too big and they had nowhere to store it. 

[scriven76 · Accepted solution]

Quick update here - the seller refused to refund the item (at all, not even the price minus postage), despite the fact he received it back from RM (and accepted that he had it back).

Instead of waiting until 6th for automatic resolution, I called ebay and a friendly guy there was able to immediately see the issue, and made the refund go through.

[scriven76]

I left a poor (and fair) review for this guy, and somehow he's managed to get it removed!

Totally undermines the review process.

[barry.110]

Did you mention a case or having to get EBay involved in the feedback? I believe that mentioning these things are enough for the seller to be able to get it removed if the seller knows that feedback removal is possible under the right circumstances.

[scriven76]

Yes I did - I mentioned that I had to get eBay to refund because he refused. Oh well.