INR case with tracking showing delivered

[claresdesigns]

So I had a customer who wanted a large wedding invitation order. I gave a good discount and spent best part of a day making them. Sent last Thursday via Royal Mail Tracked 48 and the parcel was delivered Saturday.

On Monday the customer told me the parcel was left in a 'safe place' but she couldn't find it.

The tracking showed a photo of the parcel under a car, and the gps co ordinates as her driveway. She says the parcel was not under her car. I asked her to check if a neighbour has it but no answer to that.

INR case was opened on Monday - I uploaded tracking and on Tuesday contacted Royal Mail who say they will investigate where the parcel is and gave me a reference number. They have still not got back to me. 

Today ebay has held my funds.

Buyer wants a full refund. Buyer also has a string of negs and complaints left for other sellers

Where do I go from here?

[**peaseblossom**]

eBay should go by the tracking and find in your favour.   All you can do is wait and see.   I wouldn't refund until you have to .... if you have to, hopefully not.

[claresdesigns]

Thank you - I'd be happy to do the order again if Royal Mail accepted responsibility and reimbursed the costs but I don't know if they will yet.

And the buyer is insisting on a refund anyway.

[papso22]

As a business seller the courier is your agent and you are responsible for safe delivery to the buyer.

While ebay may be content with the tracking, legally it's not the end of the story.  Unless the buyer specified under a car as a safe place,  the item was not properly delivered to the buyer.

[sheba-knows-best]

I would request a callback from ebay and try and make sure that the buyer can't escalate an Item Not Received case. 

In my opinion, the buyer is responsible for whether or not a postie can leave items in a safe place. 

Whilst on the call to ebay try and ascertain - they wont be able to tell you outright - if their is any pattern of behaviour on the account. You mention lots of negs/complaints - are they about delivery?

I had a recent issue with a buyer claiming a parcel had been refused delivery (which is what tracking showed) and it was on its way back to me. They said no one in their house had refused the delivery so they wanted a refund. I said I would not refund until the parcel arrived back with me. I rang ebay and asked that the buyer not be allowed to escalate any INR case. CS said even if the buyer did open a case, they would not be refunded given there had been an attempted delivery. The parcel was suddenly delivered. All very strange. All I can confirm is that ebay should not refund if the items shows delivery or attempted delivery.

[custom-giftsuk]

If tracking shows as delivered, eBay should side with yourself.
Make sure the tracking is uploaded to the case as well as on the order, if it isnt already

If the buyer is disputing this (which they are), say politely that the tracking shows as delivered and if they wish to dispute the delivery, then they should contact the courier in person to dispute the delivery.
Go speak to eBay Customer Support in question. Make sure it's a voice call and let them know that the situation stating the item has been delivered, there is a picture of the item being delivered and that is all ebay should require to rule accordingly. If the "buyer" has a bad history, also make ebay CS aware of this on the phone call. It may amount to nothing but the ebay CS person you speak to will probably take the buyer's history into account and pass that account to the relevant team to deal with.

You did, according to your comments above, everything right and you shouldnt have to make it up to  such a buyer. 

[claresdesigns]

Thank you everyone for your very helpful replies.

It's now been resolved - the buyer asked ebay to step in (as I am still waiting for Royal Mails response) and then on Saturday I got a message from ebay to say the case has been closed. The buyer has been refunded with no impact on me - so ebay refunded the buyer directly. Fair play!

I'm not sure why, and whether ebay could see a history of INRs from the buyer, or if they just decided that neither buyer or seller was at fault and they can claim back from Royal Mail. 

But I'm happy with the result 😊

[4_bathrooms]

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@sheba-knows-best wrote:

In my opinion, the buyer is responsible for whether or not a postie can leave items in a safe place. 

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That isn't the case where a business is concerned due to Regulation 43 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations.

As I understand it Royal Mail recently changed "SafePlace" so the postie can no longer decide for themself whether an item can be left somewhere "safe" or not. There now has to be a specific instruction from the recipient nominating a "SafePlace" but the safe place must be somewhere secure, safe for the postie to access and protected from the weather. As per Royal Mail:

"As an example, places we wouldn’t consider safe are bins, including recycling bins, doorsteps and underneath parked cars."  

The postie clearly screwed up in this case.

[4_bathrooms]

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@claresdesigns wrote:

The buyer has been refunded with no impact on me - so ebay refunded the buyer directly. Fair play!

I'm not sure why, and whether ebay could see a history of INRs from the buyer, or if they just decided that neither buyer or seller was at fault and they can claim back from Royal Mail. 

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You were protected by eBay as you had an online delivery confirmation; that is all eBay requires as evidence an item was delivered for items under £450 in value. Courtesy refunds (where business sellers are concerned) are fairly rare and often indicate eBay knows something about the buyer that the seller doesn't.

The good news is your buyer can't now file a dispute (chargeback) with their payment instrument provider. At least, if they do you are automatically protected again as eBay issued them with a full refund.

[custom-giftsuk]

eBay will often issue a refund at their own expense in an effort to save any hassle or grief. I disagree completely with it, as it 1 - teaches bad buyers to expect refunds, so therefor they keep the same behaviour and 2 - those kind of buyers tell their friends that they can get away with the same kind of behaviour and it multiplies. 

[sml192]

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@4_bathrooms wrote:

As I understand it Royal Mail recently changed "SafePlace" so the postie can no longer decide for themself whether an item can be left somewhere "safe" or not. There now has to be a specific instruction from the recipient nominating a "SafePlace" but the safe place must be somewhere secure, safe for the postie to access and protected from the weather. As per Royal Mail:

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The Royal Mail 'UK Parcel services User Guide (October 2025)' still seems to imply otherwise, unless I am completely misreading it:

'We automatically deliver to Safeplace or neighbours when recipients aren't at home but you can also pass on your customer's suggested safe place to leave items if they're not in.  Receiving customers can now also use the Royal Mail App to set a delivery preference which can include a nominated Safeplace'

and also in the small print:

'Additionally, for non-signature items such as Tracked, Royal Mail 24/48, or 1st/2nd class, we may attempt to leave the parcel in a Safeplace (provided the item is suitable for Safeplace, see the exceptions above).  Where possible, we may take a photograph of the item in the Safeplace as evidence of the delivery.'

https://www.royalmail.com/sites/royalmail.com/files/2025-10/royal-mail-parcels-user-guide-october-20...

[4_bathrooms]

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@sml192 wrote:

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@4_bathrooms wrote:

As I understand it Royal Mail recently changed "SafePlace" so the postie can no longer decide for themself whether an item can be left somewhere "safe" or not. There now has to be a specific instruction from the recipient nominating a "SafePlace" but the safe place must be somewhere secure, safe for the postie to access and protected from the weather. As per Royal Mail:

---

The Royal Mail 'UK Parcel services User Guide (October 2025)' still seems to imply otherwise, unless I am completely misreading it:

'We automatically deliver to Safeplace or neighbours when recipients aren't at home but you can also pass on your customer's suggested safe place to leave items if they're not in.  Receiving customers can now also use the Royal Mail App to set a delivery preference which can include a nominated Safeplace'

and also in the small print:

'Additionally, for non-signature items such as Tracked, Royal Mail 24/48, or 1st/2nd class, we may attempt to leave the parcel in a Safeplace (provided the item is suitable for Safeplace, see the exceptions above).  Where possible, we may take a photograph of the item in the Safeplace as evidence of the delivery.'

https://www.royalmail.com/sites/royalmail.com/files/2025-10/royal-mail-parcels-user-guide-october-20...

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Reading it further they mention "safe place" (2 words) and "Safeplace" (1 word capitalised). As I'm reading it "Safeplace" is defined as:

"This is an additional delivery option available with Royal Mail Tracked 24®, Royal Mail
Tracked 48® and barcoded2 Royal Mail 24®, Royal Mail 48® standard products only, allowing
your customers to nominate a safe place for us to leave their items when they aren’t at home."

There was an announcement - that I'm trying to find - where posties were instructed to no longer decide for themselves if somewhere was a suitable "safe place" for the purposes of "Safeplace". Unless the customer had previously nominated a "Safeplace" the postie was to either leave the package with a neighbour and/or put a "Something for you" card through the letterbox.

[maarsy]

i think if it is the case where the parcel is stolen from the customer's property that they should at least make a case with the police for the theft . 

i had a case where the buyer lost a package even though it said it was delivered . it was to an apartment block with a secured entrance and clearly showing it to be at the right door so it could only have been taken by someone in the building . while i did not want to sound unhelpfull i urged the buyer to report it to the police after which they turned rude and gave me the - its not my fault it is yours i don't want to do anything - blaming it on the seller . ebay ruled in my favour .

[claresdesigns]

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Courtesy refunds (where business sellers are concerned) are fairly rare and often indicate eBay knows something about the buyer that the seller doesn't.

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Yes, something felt a bit off with this one. The buyer had more negative feedback left for others than positive. Lots of quite damaging comments. Also she said in the case that she "didn't want this happening again". I've been on here a while and it's fairly rare for a tracked package to just go missing. 

It does seem that the postie was definitely in the wrong for leaving a parcel under a car, but I'm reading that they are under huge pressure to get parcels out and don't want to have to carry loads back with them to the depot. Hence they are deciding to leave in unsuitable 'safe spaces'. If buyers are wise to this they can claim undelivered whenever they find something on their doorstep/under car/behind wheelie bin etc.

Years ago I remember there was an option to be able to block any buyers with a high percentage of negative feedback left for others. It was good for minimising this sort of risk. Don't think it's available any more? 

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[nutrafituk]

Just had another one this morning with the tracking information showing item being delivered - still decided in buyer'a favour. Looked into by a human being. Funds taken out of our pocket, followed by u-turn upon our appeal. Utterly unprofessional service, you cannot trust ebay these days when it comes to their agents.

[kyanyama]

Just have to block bad buyers as and when they darken your virtual door.  Must admit when I get a sale I check each buyer's feedback left for others.  If they don't leave feedback I add a note to the sale (Doesn't Leave Feedback).  After I have checked delivery I archive the sale.  But if they leave a lot of neuts or negs then I also make a note "Leaves lots neuts / negs" so I know I may be in for a bumpy ride.

Glad you didn't lose out.  Postie should not have left a parcel under a car.  Should have left a card for the recipient to collect it from the delivery office or arrange re-delivery when someone would be at home.

I watch too many cop shows.  Seen a few ring doorbell captures of delivery folk leaving parcels and passers-by or even neighbours stealing the parcel.

During Covid lockdown I had a parcel removed from my vestibule in daylight.  I was at home at the time but didn't see it being taken.  It was really heavy (small bag of cement) in a brown box.  I reported it to the Cops.  A few days later late one evening there was a commotion outside and later I found the parcel had been dumped over the wall into my garden.  Guess they didn't want to do any DIY!  I followed them down the street then disappear into some flats.

Every day is a school day!