Item not delivered ebay policy vs Royal Mail claims policy

[cabezacool]

Hi,

Do any other UK sellers have advice on the following.

When a buyer reports that an item has not been delivered, it gives the seller 3 working days to respond otherwise ebay can be asked to step in and refund the buyer from the sellers fund.

Contrast this with Royal Mails policy of not being able to claim for a lost item until 10 working days after the estimated delivery date and as a seller you could be out of pocket. Not to mention that it might take 2 weeks for Royal Mail to get back to the seller, even longer if it is an international sale.

I spoke to ebay customer service i think 2 weeks ago and was told that it's best to refund the buyer straight away to preserve my seller account, and that it is not guaranteed that i will then get money back if Royal Mail then come back with proof the item was delivered.

I genuinely think ebay are dumping on sellers in this regard, as there should always be a guarantee of money back if the item has subsequently been delivered or a seller has lied about the item not being delivered.

This conflict of policies really bothers me as it really is not supportive of sellers. I don't want buyers to be out of pocket, but nor should a seller who is a small business be out of pocket either.

[jow1995]

Last week buyer opens INR , purchased on the Thursday, opens INR on the following Tuesday, stating wants a refund not the item(£15 engineering tool).

I tried explaining RM delivery can be hit or miss and please wait a few days, if no show will send another.

Tool was sent RM second class, QR CODE was not scanned.

Buyer on the Friday escalated case to Ebay who refund buyer 24hrs latter.

This is the first time i have allowed an INR case to be decided by Ebay, my mistake!

[cabezacool]

That is ridiculous, sorry that has happened. 8 days after purchase and ebay issues refund, that's beyond belief. 

[wellingnorth]

I had something similar happen recently where a tracked 24 item hadn't arrived after a couple of weeks, I refunded the buyer, put in a claim with Royal Mail but then the item arrived a week later. Thankfully in my case the buyer was honest and repaid me straight away, I don't think you really have any alternative though. 

It seems like this is one potential selling point of Simple Delivery if it were to roll out to or be offered to business sellers - in these circumstances I think ebay would handle refunding the buyer at their own cost and deal with any claim with Royal Mail themselves.

[pillarboxred]

Could this be an issue that makes or breaks your relationship with eBay? I'm losing money on eBay "hand over fist", it no longer works for me. The pitiful sales take several hours of work each to mount and fulfil  and don't earn even the "minimum wage". I'm sort of addicted to it.

[cabezacool]

Yeah, perhaps you are right about simple delivery in this regard. I will keep a look out to see if it is rolled out to business sellers and then see what i think.

[cabezacool]

It felt like it could be an issue that breaks my relationship with ebay when i posted this to be honest. I have chilled out a bit now lol 

I'm sorry u are losing money by selling, fortunately i am not in that position and i think if i was, i would just stop as i plan for this to be a boost for my post (early) retirement earnings in about 7 years.