Buyer says they have not received item - tracking shows delivered

[mysterious_cities_of_mold]

I have received a message from a buyer saying the parcel I sent them is marked as delivered on Ebay but they have not received it. I tracked the parcel on the Royal Mail website and it has been delivered. The buyer says they were out all day and no note was left by Royal Mail and no sign of the parcel. They have checked with their neighbours and the parcel was not delivered there.

They believe the parcel could have been stolen by the postman as one of their neighbours told them the same thing had happened to 2 of their parcels recently. They said the signature for the parcel was just a scribble. To me, it looks like the postman probably signed it themselves, but I have had postmen do this during the Coronavirus situation when they leave a parcel in your porch and they are still doing it now, it does not mean they are stealing them.

The buyer is asking me to look into the situation but I am not sure what else I can do from this end. They say "the complaints must come from the sender" but I thought it would be up to them to contact the Post Office from their end and maybe even the police if they think it has been stolen. I had uploaded the tracking number and it show as delivered so I doubt I myself could claim anything from the Post Office.

Any advice on how to proceed with this would be appreciated.

[elitegiftsltd]

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@angelix907 wrote:

I am afraid  you keep missing the point...

is the seller responsability  to deliver what the buyer has paid IN ADVANCE including SHIPPING and if the buyer states they did not get the goods then the SELLER needs to find out   WHAT HAPPENED.

it is a matter of some common courtesy, common sense and always of pure customer service.

Most vendors will go the extramile, some like in my case will behave like crooks despite  the 20K+ feedbacks , unfortunately my negative feedback won't impact their performance so they don't care.

Ebay wont do much  about it because ... why should ebay do something about? if the transaction is cancelled they loose their fees

Happy days.

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I get the point. There's just nothing requiring the seller to do that. Except you persuading them. 

Ebay will act as I have said. Seller may well act as I said too - you get enough scammers and you can spot one at a distance. Despite some of those that look exactly like scammers not being scammers.

The seller will look at the evidence - the tracking showing delivered. There isn't any evidence the buyer can provide to show non delivery. Ebay will back the seller up - that's good enough for many sellers.

Common courtesy? Common sense? Think you are applying your own issues there. Common sense says the item is delivered when tracking shows its delivered. 

Some of us will go the extra mile - then buyer opens a claim and we don't have anything else. Ebay then rule in favour of the seller (based on the evidence), the seller gets the blame from the buyer! 

If seller has 20k+ feedback the odds are they aren't going to be a crook. The odds are they have experienced your problem hundreds of times - and see those who look like scammers as scammers. 

Ebay do something about it. Just that something is not in your favour - its in favour of the seller based on the evidence.

For many years ebay wouldn't even bother with evidence a lot of the time. Now they give a small amount of seller protection.

OK so ebay backs the seller. What do you want to do now? If you approach your card company or paypal (if you used them) then a decision can be made by someone else. Banks and credit card companies tend to be less supportive of sellers than ebay is. However not all decisions by them are in favour of their customer. 

[cgo_ca_z6tcyivgiq]

I  had problems with a car radio I ordered from an E Bay seller who clearly states returns accepted. Item briefly worked then stopped. Notified seller and received a badly wriiten reply using the term "bru" to address me. Said radio only worked on 12volts and my car system was faulty qnd take car to garage. I replied  that I have been  an auto mechanics instructor for over 40 years not withstanding the radio decal stated 14.4 v input. Placed it in E Bay hands. Seller then offered partial refund  (roughly 40%). I declined.  Seller the wrote email to EBay saying  I had never returned item, he couldn't track it and never received it. I had downloaded E Bay return label, posted back well within 30 period. E Bay confirmed it had been delivered.  Return of my funds transaction halted  and investigation  to be completed  in 15 days. Talked to very pleasant E Bay rep who assured me not to worry so we shall see. Have been a long time customer over the years and this is the first problem I have ever had. 

[r.soles_sneakers]

I'm in the same situation - same story almost to the 'T' ... 

the buyer has high feedback too and asking me to call Royal Mail etc .

im saying there's nothing I can do and will just ignore it now. Even eBay has told me to say for them to chase it up with the postal service themselves. 
it's obviously a scam - these people know how to play the system. 
Next I predict a charge back when they do not get their own way - there's zero chance I'm refunding. EBay have already told me not to worry as the case, if one gets opened will go my way as I fulfilled my end. I also took photos of my item packed and took photos of the address I stuck on the parcel as I do not trust anyone these days and I have screen shot all the tracking info that shows it was delivered and signed for.

 Waiting to see what it's going to happen moving forward ...

 it's becoming extremely risky now to sell on eBay - were as sellers need to take extra precaution and it's always an anxious period waiting for buyers to see whether they are going to try and con you or not.

[bits_n_bobs_heaven]

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@mysterious_cities_of_mold wrote:

I have received a message from a buyer saying the parcel I sent them is marked as delivered on Ebay but they have not received it. I tracked the parcel on the Royal Mail website and it has been delivered. The buyer says they were out all day and no note was left by Royal Mail and no sign of the parcel. They have checked with their neighbours and the parcel was not delivered there.

They believe the parcel could have been stolen by the postman as one of their neighbours told them the same thing had happened to 2 of their parcels recently. They said the signature for the parcel was just a scribble. To me, it looks like the postman probably signed it themselves, but I have had postmen do this during the Coronavirus situation when they leave a parcel in your porch and they are still doing it now, it does not mean they are stealing them.

The buyer is asking me to look into the situation but I am not sure what else I can do from this end. They say "the complaints must come from the sender" but I thought it would be up to them to contact the Post Office from their end and maybe even the police if they think it has been stolen. I had uploaded the tracking number and it show as delivered so I doubt I myself could claim anything from the Post Office.

Any advice on how to proceed with this would be appreciated.

---

It sounds to me that the postman signed for it and has left it somewhere safe for you - NOT stolen it!

Just because your neighbours have had problems doesn't mean the postman has stolen it!

Anyone could have taken a parcel from a doorstep, including those same neighbours!

Have you checked around and bushes / large plants and even the bin? I would also still contact your local sorting office and ask if the postie has put your parcel somewhere safe:-)

[kempseykate]

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@bits_n_bobs_heaven wrote:

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@mysterious_cities_of_mold wrote:

I have received a message from a buyer saying the parcel I sent them is marked as delivered on Ebay but they have not received it. I tracked the parcel on the Royal Mail website and it has been delivered. The buyer says they were out all day and no note was left by Royal Mail and no sign of the parcel. They have checked with their neighbours and the parcel was not delivered there.

They believe the parcel could have been stolen by the postman as one of their neighbours told them the same thing had happened to 2 of their parcels recently. They said the signature for the parcel was just a scribble. To me, it looks like the postman probably signed it themselves, but I have had postmen do this during the Coronavirus situation when they leave a parcel in your porch and they are still doing it now, it does not mean they are stealing them.

The buyer is asking me to look into the situation but I am not sure what else I can do from this end. They say "the complaints must come from the sender" but I thought it would be up to them to contact the Post Office from their end and maybe even the police if they think it has been stolen. I had uploaded the tracking number and it show as delivered so I doubt I myself could claim anything from the Post Office.

Any advice on how to proceed with this would be appreciated.

---

It sounds to me that the postman signed for it and has left it somewhere safe for you - NOT stolen it!

Just because your neighbours have had problems doesn't mean the postman has stolen it!

Anyone could have taken a parcel from a doorstep, including those same neighbours!

Have you checked around and bushes / large plants and even the bin? I would also still contact your local sorting office and ask if the postie has put your parcel somewhere safe:-)

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Given that the OP posted nearly 2 years ago, I think the bin may have been emptied since then!

[ojewellery]

I think the tracking says delievered buyer hasn't received is something worth having a predrafted standard response to.  Sumarise all the transaction details, request they take reasonable meassures, inform of actions you'll take.  I think of this as a bit of a case summary should it get escalated.

Mine goes roughly like this:

Thank you for your £x purchase of y on z date.   It was posted promptly using service ... by courier ...  Tracking uploaded to eBay ... 

I have double checked the tracking and the correct number has been uploaded against your order.

The tracking shows delivered on ... date - screenshot attached.

The GPS map for delivery is attached.  Please could you confirm that the location shown is your property - very ocassionally items get delivered to similar address and postcode for example Riverside rather than Riverside Close.

.... courier ask that before an enquiry is opened receipients check with anyone else at their address, safe places at their property and near neighbours.

This is a very frustrating  situation but as tracking shows delivered the parcel is outside of my delivery insurance.  The next step I can take is to open a case with the courier company.  These typically take around 6 weeks to investigate and may involve the courier company needing to contacting you - are you happy for them to do this, me to pass on your details for the investigation?

If they say lots go missing I usually suggest they report to the police.  I sometimes also state they could try phoning their local delivery office as person to person communication can result in faster resolution.

The form with royal mail for item not received if this link works is: https://business.help.royalmail.com/app/webforms/contact/c/310

I've had a high amount of success with 'oh you'll never guess its turned up' from this form.  My postman told me about it letting off steam after knocking on someone elses door - when they get one on their round they sometimes  get hauled in by bosses to be asked about it.  He goes and knocks on the door looks the recipient in the eye and they tend to suddenly remember they have received it.

Second thing I try to remember to do is use the report buyer to eBay.  If they're a scammer they'll have done it before and do it again - others may not have the tracking back up.  Slightly frustrating that this feels a bit like a busy task as you don't here back on each report but if we all did it, everytime, there would be a great scatter graph of reports that would be far easier for eBay to pick of the seriel offenders.  They do pick them off because I block them and my blocked buyer list has a fair few deleted@ names in it.  Hence, add them to your blocked buyer list

You can leave follow up feedback as a bread crumb trail for other sellers checking out the buyer when they get a similar claim.  Think of how it reflects to other customers- remain neutral, polite and factual

Mostly try to just do something to show you've made reasonable steps and move on.  This type of buyer whilst time consuming does only represent a tiny percentage of buyers.  There are many good buyers around still, don't let the noisy ones ruin your day.

[amo2007uk]

It doesn't necessarily have to be the post man if it was stolen. Just the other day the post man decided to put corner of my parcel in letter box so was just hanging out my door. My door is on ground floor and can be seen by every passer by on the road. As we pulled up and started parking a bunch school lads were at end of my block laughing and joking. One of them walked up to my door put his foot on wall tied his lace and looked around. Saw us staring at him, and he laughed and walked bavk over to side block with rest of the boys. Now this wall goes all way along my "landing bit" he had absolutely no reason to walk all way down to my door stop at my door in middle of landing, do his lace on wall and walk all way back down landing. He was clearly trying to steal the parcel, if we hadn't of pulled up when we did parcel would be gone. I've also had parcels say delivered before got home and nowhere to be seen. But a nieghbour who lives in house opposite my block, so window looks directly at my door. And he said he see parcel up againt my door a lil while ago, so obv someone stole it. The annoying thing is, if they put it opposite my door against the wall, no passersby would see it, accept the ppl who come on my landing which tend to just be my nieghbours either side. So alot less likely to be stolen but they never think and put in clear view of every passer by on an estate in South East London, like come on, ur just asking for it to be stolen. 

[wales8615]

Not all buyers are criminals,I have recently had an item marked as delivered but I have not received and none of my neighbours,we and neighyhave video door bells and there have been no deliveries.the problem is there people they use to deliver, couldn't care less and leave parcels anywhere 

[carlto_63]

this happened to me, turned out the postman gave it to a neighbour and didn't put a card through to let customer know, Luckly it was resolved by the honest neighbour 

[a-carpy-connection]

When ever i have a "Not Delivered" issue, i just refund the buyer and claim it back from royal mail. It a ball ache but its the bestw way to do things and avoid negative feedback. I also do not repost items to buyers that have not arrived. i always refund. 

[excellence-audio]

Refunding the buyer ? 

yes that is fine if we assume that the buyer never received the item, that is  the right thing to do, however    you cannot get the money  back from couriers or royalmail unless you show them a purchase invoice for the "actual" item you sold and posted.

If it is something  second hand you dont have a proof of purchase or,  even worse,  if you are manufacturing  the items you sell , then the carriers  will never refund  , not even if you send them the infvoices for the  "materials" you have used.  I tried  and Royal Mail always  rejected the refund, I only got back the postage and the couriers are more or less the same, some are worse than others and  in a couple of occasions  they  did not even refund the postage as in their system showed it "delivered" (customers received an empty box, opened and re-taped in transit)

[a-carpy-connection]

I have never had an issue claiming back from royal mail. I just use the online claim form on the royal mail website. Upload a screen shot of the proof of postage from my royal mail account and a screen shot of the ebay page showing the refund to the buyer. 

A week later a cheque turns up with the cost of the item plus postage. 

As sellers we always have to assume the buyer never recieved the item. I have spoken about this before. The major thing i see wrong is ebay showing an item not delivered on the sold page. It shows dispatched but not delivered unless you send with a tracking number. This gives buyers the ammo to say the item has not arrived. I send most of my stuff large letter which now gets scanned by the postman (80% of the time) so shows delivered on my royal mail account. If the postman does not scan the item, it shows as not delivered which in turn is proof to royal mail that it has got lost. 

[insidethe93]

You make a good point.

I'd like to add a warning from my own recent experience: to return a faulty item (bought from another online shop, let's call it "A") A required me to box it up and label it and book a Royal Mail collection (I wasn't given the option of taking it to a post office). Postman duly came, took parcel, said he'd scan it later, that rang alarm bells for me so I asked him if he could scan it now, luckily no argument and he did so. That meant I had proof it was collected (and A duly refunded me.) Hubby said I'd done the right thing because he said that (hopefully not with that postman whom we've always thought was honest) taking a parcel to "scan it later" could be a thieving postman's way of stealing a parcel, as it wouldn't be scanned later and the customer couldn't prove they'd handed it over.

[victbru64]

I have had a similar case this week , Royal mail first class signed for with tracking. The delivery actually clearly shows the buyer's name as a signature re still stating the item has not arrived. I called eBay last night and they are on my side and said if it clearly shows the signature as the purchaser and GPS to coordinate with the purchase address I have nothing to worry about. The purchaser is becoming to be a bit of a pain. He has contacted  me today asking any news I've told him if he carries on I will simply go to the police as mentioned, I have reported the buyer to eBay and submitted the evidence.

[janecampbel_4]

Hi, You say that Royal Mail should be knee deep in undelivered parcels - yet they aren't.  The only reason they aren't knee deep in parcels is that any that are undeliverable, get checked for a return address and if they don't have that they get held for a while.  They then send the parcels to auction and sell them, there would be 1000's of parcels sold this way every month.  If they didn't sell or dispose of them then they would have them coming out of the chimneys.

Jim

[r.soles_sneakers]

Yeah, always put a returns address and sellotape it right down , put two if you can and have photo evidence of it for extra back up. I have had parcels missing and never have I had them returned to me .

 I get anxiety when I ship items off now lol

[iren_camer]

i am a buyer. I have sent 8 messages to sellar as my bed has not arrived. Now a a few days after the delivery was expected the seller said the bed was delivered. Well we are not able to get out and so we would have the bed if it was delivered.... 

[a-carpy-connection]

All of my post has a return addess printed on the label. I have never had a lost item returned. 

[iren_camer]

i am the buyer and a bed did not get to me. Never had bother with small items   

[designerhart]

I get that all the time. My nextdoor neighbour often receives my parcels. They seem to get confused with 15 and 17. I suspect they are blindly reliying on GPS without looking at the big sign says 15 or 17.