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How to appeal this decision by eBay? (Item stuck in postal system)
Summary: mgi1289 shared their experience of selling an item and encountering issues with a buyer who was not home to receive it. The item is now stuck in the postal system, and mgi1289 faced a charge from eBay for not providing proof of delivery, despite showing tracking evidence. papso22 advised refunding and claiming from Royal Mail if the item isn't returned, while tommystrezures explained the handling process for undelivered items at sorting offices. mgi1289 later updated that eBay agreed to refund the £70 after a callback request.
I sold an item a while back for £70 and sent it via Royal Mail Special Delivery. The item arrived, but the seller wasn't at home and they contacted me to ask me to resend it without tracking. I said I wouldn't be prepared to do that, but I would refund them as soon as the item arrived back to me.
A month went by - no item. I suggested visiting the sorting office but the buyer said they couldn't because of work commitments. I told them to open a case with eBay.
I naively thought that I wouldn't have to confirm tracking details because the tracking number would be on eBay's system, right? So I was unpleasantly surprised to find that eBay would be charging me £70 because "we didn't receive proof of delivery from you". This is despite the fact that it's showing up on Royal Mail's tracking page as "pending" and "Sorry, we tried to deliver your parcel on [date] but there didn't seem to be anyone in."
Can I appeal this and if so, how? There doesn't seem to be a suitable place to start on the help page.
john1297576
Mentor2 weeks agoSpecial Delivery would have been up to you to add, or quote when case opened. At best it would have been attempted delivery.
I am assuming that you were not using the ebay system, Simple Delivery, which would have recorded tracking and provided cover.
It would seem it is up to you to try claiming on Roysl Mail
mgi1289
OP2 weeks agoEdit: I requested a call-back and eBay says they're going to refund me the £70. Phew! Thanks to the people that replied to my midnight cry for help lol
tommystrezures
Mentor2 weeks agoItems are held for 18 working days by RM at sorting offices for buyers to collect. Assuming you had your sender details on the package somewhere (did you?) then it should be returned reasonably quickly after that 18 day period. If you didn't have sender details it will end up in the abyss of Belfast, where unidentified parcels (eg no sender details ) end up.
mgi1289
OP2 weeks agoI did enclose a packing slip but going forward, I'll definitely put my address on the back of the package as well.
papso22
Mentor2 weeks agoBut tracking doesn't show delivered so ebay is right. Unless the buyer is excluded from the money back guarantee, which you would need to point out to ebay, you need to refund and claim from RM if you don't get the item back.
mgi1289
OP2 weeks agoTracking does show that RM tried to deliver, but now it's gone back into the bowels of RM's system. It should have been returned to me long ago, but who knows where it is now?