claiming compensation from Royal Mail

[miea5303]

I am a small business seller trading items from bulk purchases.

Recently a few items have gone astray with Royal Mail and despite having Proof of Postage and supposed £20 compensation , they only offer me postage refund as i cannot prove what i paid for the said item.

e.g a £5 sale to me was gained from splitting a £300 bulk purchased at auction into many and various priced listings.

Is it viable and within Ebay regulations to pass the onus on to the Buyer to claim their lost money back from Royal Mail as I can them provide Proof of Postage?  

This may not be well received by a customer but it seems unfair for me to be penalised.

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

"Is it viable and within Ebay regulations to pass the onus on to the Buyer"

No,buyer has to open a not received claim via the MBG,you refund in full and claim off RM.

[thesmokingrunner]

Just a thought but could you not provide Royal Mail with, using your example, both proof of the original cost of the bulk purchase and the apportioned cost of the item for which you are claiming?

Granted I don't know if RM would accept the above as proof of original item cost but unless you have an invoice showing each individual item's cost as part of the bulk purchase I don't think you'll be able to jump through RM's compensation hoops.

As for a buyer claiming from RM for the loss of an item, RM will only deal with the sender as it is the sender with whom the contract is created when purchasing postage. Not want you want to hear, I know, but that is part of RM's Ts&Cs.

[style_wise]

I find Royal Mail to be quite reliable, so haven't had to claim in awhile, but in a similar situation my proof of value is the eBay invoice page. Royal Mail accepts the sale cost as the value of an item.

[555njp]

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@style_wise wrote:

“Royal Mail accepts the sale cost as the value of an item.”

Used to be the case but now that only applies if you are registered as a private seller.

RM uniquely have a policy for business sellers of only paying compensation for the

purchased value of a lost item (which you have to prove) plus the original postage paid. It’s in their Ts & Cs.

It doesn’t matter what you sold it for or even if you paid extra for insurance to higher value, all you get back is the proven purchase price (receipted). No comp for added value (refurbishment costs) or even packaging.
The policy was brought in several years ago to help turn around RM losses and is a real con.

In my experience, as a business it’s better to just write off the occasional loss yourself as RM are by far the hardest courier to get any compensation from and it can take months.
If you’re lucky they’ll send you a book of stamps.

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