Royal Mail cannot deliver a package

[onthepitch81]

Hi.  I posted a package to a buyer over a week ago.  The Royal Mail tracker shows they attempted to deliver twice but were unable to access the property.  I am trying to get in touch with Royal Mail to arrange a redelivery, possibly to a different address.  My question is, is this my problem and would I be under any ebay obligation to provide a refund to the buyer as Royal Mail ahve not been able to access their property to deliver?

Thanks. 

[susapric-68]

 They would leave a red card that would explain what to do next and your buyer has the option to collect from a delivery office or redirect it themselfs. You should be covered as delivery has been attempted

[moldosgifts]

If the package gets returned to you yes you will have to refund the full order inc delivery.

Message the buyer if the postperson left a card they have the option to re arrange or collect,

If reason by royal mail unable to access they may not have left a card.

So definatley worth a message to the buyer.

Explain situation and they can collect from sorting office, otherwise it will be returned to you.

[myriad*seller]

Be aware that Royal Mail now use that excuse if they run out of time to deliver items

Not all parcels are even given to the postie to deliver

Some never even leave the depot on the day of supposed delivery- so they just pretend they could not deliver as the workload was too high - the item will probably be delivered eventually 

[onthepitch81]

Hi, thanks for reply.  I don't believe a red card has been left at the buyer's property, maybe because of the access issues.  I am more interested if I have any responsibility to provide a refund if I have posted as requested and stated, it cannot be my responsibility to ensure access to their property.  Where could I find this ebay policy?

[sml192]

You will be protected from a claim under eBay's Money Back Guarantee as long as the tracking shows 'Delivered' or 'Delivery attempted'.   Whether or not the address being inaccessible counts as an attempted delivery is not specified. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee?id=4...

Evidence of successful delivery
We require all of the following to prove a successful on-time delivery:

• Tracking number that can be validated on the shipping carrier's website and which was uploaded to eBay before the latest estimated delivery date;
• A delivery status of "delivered" or "attempted delivery" (or equivalent in the country to which the item was delivered);
• The date of delivery or attempted delivery;
• The recipient's address, showing at least the city/county or postcode (or international equivalent) that matches the one found on the Order details page; and
• Signature confirmation, on orders with a total cost of £450 or more. Learn more about our signature confirmation requirements.

[m25jet]

In addition to the advice that has already been given in this thread, should you receive the item back again as a result of Royal Mail being unable to deliver it to the buyer, then should you decide to relist the item for sale it would be worth deciding beforehand whether you would be prepared to sell to this buyer again in the event that he/she saw that the item had been relisted and decided to purchase it a second time.

If you don't mind attempting a second delivery to this buyer then perhaps it would be worth sending a message via eBay Messages along the lines of "It has not been possible to deliver the item to the address you supplied at Checkout; however, in the event that you can provide me with an alternative address where the item can be delivered to I will relist the item for you, refund the money from the first sale and leave you to decide if you want to purchase the item again.  Please ensure that you use a different delivery address should you decide to repurchase the item."

Should you decide that you would rather not take the risk of a recurrence of the problem that prompted you to start this thread then add the buyer's User ID to your Blocked Bidders list, making sure that you allow at least forty-eight hours for the blocks to take effect before you relist the item for sale again.  That way the person who bought this item the first time will not be able to purchase it again, in which case you won't have the problem of trying in vain to deliver it to the same buyer whose property was reported as being inaccessable by the Royal Mail.

[myriad*seller]

It's possible that the postie also could not deliver if the buyer had a dog loose in the garden

Where exactly did the postie leave the red card if they were unable to access the property? 

You may find they are just behind with deliveries so have marked it "inaccessible" to prevent them being told off for delivering late 

So many parcels are delivered late now, and some are being  palmed off by Royal mail to third party couriers to deliver....

Make of that what you will but that is what couriers do if they have run out of time, and RM couriers have started to do the same  

[flaghalf]

This happened to me and the parcel was returned. I had to refund buyer incl. postage. Really annoying as she had bought the item then gone on holiday. The buyer is now on my blocked bidders' list!

[rjwilmsi]

It is not the seller's fault if a property is inaccessible.

However, as others have said, Royal Mail do seem to have some intermittent/regionalised issues of being understaffed, so "inaccessible" may not be truthful - it may be a fudge for "too busy today" - though if tracking has had that twice I think it is likely to be true.

I would try to communicate with buyer via eBay and agree with them how a redelivery or collection could be done. Some buyers won't lift a finger to help delivery e.g. by booking a redelivery themselves. Some buyers will ignore any cards left for them.

If tracking said "delivery attempted" then you would win any Item Not Received case. I'm not sure for "inaccessible". If the item is returned to you and their INR doesn't get them a refund, no buyer is going to be happy for you to have payment and item, so you would likely end up with a chargeback. So in practicality my advice is first try to get item delivered by communicating with buyer, otherwise if you get the item back refund the buyer to avoid problems (and get your eBay fees credited). Then block the buyer and relist.