Item not delivered despite tracking saying it was, ebay siding with the seller

[dave757]

This experience has dented my confidence in ebay totally. I bought an item which was sent by Royal Mail, not using a signed-for service. Royal Mail tracking says it was delivered which is definitely not true. I have contacted Royal Mail, they replied today saying as far as they are concerned, it was delivered, so that's that. ebay say they won't do anything because of that. I contacted the seller at the time, he never replied. I also left the seller a negative feedback simply saying I did not receive the item and the seller did not respond. This feedback was not permitted by ebay, it never appeared. So now it seems you can buy an item, not receive it, lose your money and not even be able to leave feedback. What is going on here? 

It isn't much money thankfully, but it's the principle. I have sold lots of items on ebay over the years, a small number of which haven't arrived or have but damaged, and as soon as I've seen the message from the buyer informing me, I have refunded them (in the case of the damaged item, I let them keep it too). 

I can't blame the seller for the incompetence or dishonesty of the postman, but I can blame them for failure to even respond to my polite message. And so much for ebay's much vaunted buyer protection. What if someone buys an expensive item and the seller delivers a box of fresh air? It gets tracked as delivered so ebay sides with the seller? I feel I cannot use ebay any more after this.

I am minded to initiate a credit card chargeback for this on principle, is that likely to succeed and would there be any downsides? 

[jckl1957]

Your payment provider would look at the tracking.  As the item is shown as delivered, and the carrier, Royal Mail, confirm it was delivered, such a claim might well fail.

The other point you made, about a seller sending 'a box of fresh air' would be covered by the Ebay Money Back Guarantee.  You would need to open a return case stating that you received the wrong item.  The seller might ask you to return the empty box but you would be likely to get a refund.

[heysey1987]

How strange. Exactly the same thing happened to me just a couple of days ago but I was a seller. Royal Mail tracking says it was delivered on Saturday. Buyer told me there was no postman attending their area on Saturday, not at all! Maybe it is some kind of Royal Mail system failure recently?

[dave757]

When I contacted Royal Mail the tracking had GPS info which supposedly, they said, proved the postman was at my location when he claimed it was delivered. Do postmen carry around GPS trackers now? All it would prove in any case is that he was in the vicinity. He might have delivered it to a neighbour in error, or simply scanned it as delivered and then kept it. I assume both these things happen from time to time and evidently there isn't much the poor customer can do about it because Royal Mail don't seem to care when you inform them, they just shrug and say deal with it. 

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

Could be the item was left with a neighbour ?

I had a item turn up a week late opened from a neighbour.

I have seen items hanging out of my letterbox for anyone to steal.

[dave757]

It's been over three weeks now so if it has, they've stolen it. I'm not going to go around knocking on everyone's door in the street on the off chance, that would be ridiculous. Anyone who genuinely received someone else's mail would put it in the intended recipient's letterbox or return it to sender in a postbox. Anyone who decided instead to open and keep it, is not going to give it back to me just because I come round asking. 

If it was stolen because it wasn't put all the way through my letterbox (highly unlikely but theoretically possible), the ebay seller still bears ultimate responsibililty for his chosen carrier not fulfilling their duty to deliver it properly.