Ebay policy on Porch Pirates?

[m.j.rodgers]

Surprisingly in all my years of ebaying and many thousands of items sent out I have not had to deal with this one before. 

I sent an item out to a customer. I have a photo of it left on the doorstep and a decent GPS tag that implies it was delivered to the right house. 

Now the customer is claiming it wasn't received and assuming the customer isn't being a nob then it's been stolen from outside their house. 

Does ebay make me pay a refund to the customer? Or can I tell the customer effectively this is a them problem not a me problem? 

Thanks in advance. 

[papso22]

Ebay will initially side with you.

What might happen if the buyer appeals is another matter, but you would probably still win.

If you used Simple Delivery the problem is entirely Ebay's. 

[temperate_porcine]

Ask the buyer to open a 'not received' case, add tracking info and ebay should close the case in your favour.  However, I should point out that the buyer could seek help from their payment provider, again as long as an ebay case was found in your favour, you should be protected.

[custom-giftsuk]

If you have tracking showing the item as delivered, that is it. Done deal. eBay will side you with you and after the relevant time, you can ask for the case to be closed in your favour, or after a set time it will automatically be closed in your favour.

However as mentioned, if the buyer contacts their payment provider and opens a payment dispute, it will probably be found in the buyers favour, but eBay will probably cover you under seller protection. 

All eBay really care about, from a technical standpoint is, that the item is tracked and the courier has delivered the item and marked as delivered. After that... well that's not on eBay's mind. They may sympathise with the buyer, they may ask you to "do the right thing" but when it comes down to it, the system says that if its tracked and courier marked as delivered, its over.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I have actually had this happen to me.  Evri left several parcels outside my workplace literally on the street.

Surprisingly, they weren't there when I got in.

I got my money back for the orders as the courier could not prove that they were actually delivered.
A picture of the items on the road, is not proof of delivery.
I don't know how similar this is, but it is basically the same thing.

I would suggest that you first contact the courier and make a claim/complaint about it.

Irrespective of the courier, unless the customer has made an arrangement with them to leave in a specific space, they cannot just leave parcel outside the front door.

But don't automatically disbelieve your customer, it is quite possible that it has happened.
And if that is indeed the case and Ebay side with you, you are virtually guaranteed to get a chargeback over it, unless your only talking a couple of pound.
Be sympathetic and let them know what you are doing to find out more from the courier.

[defendapack]

We get this occasionally when a courier thinks he is doing you & your buyer a favour. You will never know if it was stolen, or if your buyer is trying it on - all you can do is look at their buying history if they have bought off you before - and make an informed decision. Either way - depending on the courier contract you have, we have a signature required contract, (Only overridden if the customer selects a leave safe - but then that is their responsibility) then we just put a claim in for the cost value and shipping charge with them, and re-ship the item.