Special Delivery with £1000 insurance

[uel_cards]

Hi All

Earlier this week I posted a high value Pokemon item and paid for the appropriate level of compensation via Royal Mail Special Delivery. The following day my parcel was successfully delivered and an image of the parcel including GPS coordinates were shown on the Royal Mail website tracking link. Later that day the buyer then raised a case with EBay saying he hadn’t received the item, even though the tracking said otherwise. 

does anyone have advise on what the next steps should be? I’ve raised a complaint with Royal Mail and the buyer has raised a “not received” case.

It’s times like this I honestly wonder if it’s worth selling at all on the platform

[**peaseblossom**]

Do you put the correct tracking number into ebay?   At View Order Details > Postage > Track Package > dropdown arrow.   If so ebay will go by that and refuse the buyer's case.

[thepillenwerfer]

If the tracking show Delivered you should be OK.

[uel_cards]

Yes all the correct tracking information was displayed and when you click this you go through to the RM tracking page that shows the item delivered including GPS. Honestly it’s driving me insane

[4_bathrooms]

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@uel_cards wrote:

Yes all the correct tracking information was displayed and when you click this you go through to the RM tracking page that shows the item delivered including GPS. Honestly it’s driving me insane

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Was a signature captured on delivery?

[dancewithadingo]

Good Morning Uel

As others have said at this stage you should be ok. eBay will see the tracking details and find in your favour.

Your problems may arise further down the line if the buyer does a 'chargeback' with his card provider. You are a brave person selling these very high value items on eBay and sooner or later this was (and still is) a situation waiting to happen. 

While you are waiting to hear back from eBay and The Royal Mail do some research on your buyer ie check the feedback with particular reference to what he has left for other sellers.

When selling on eBay you are basically sending items out on approval ie the item could be refused and returned for various spurious reasons and you could also be subject to false claims of non delivery etc.

In your position I would take any high value cards to a specialist auction house and let them sell them for you.

I hope for your sake that this is a blip in Royal Mail's system or that your buyer finds the missing card.

Good luck.

[uel_cards]

Thank you so much - yes it’s very frustrating especially when the item is showing delivered, an image and GPS coordinates of the location.

it was sent via Royal Mail Special Delivery and I made sure I paid the extra to cover the appropriate value levels 

Have you ever had experience of claiming against RM?

[uel_cards]

Yes a signature and the buyers first name

[dancewithadingo]

Good Morning Again Uel

Fortunately I have not had any experience of claiming against Royal Mail.  Just be full and honest in your claim.

I would imagine that once they look into it they will reject it, as quite rightly, according to them they fulfilled their side of the contract and delivered your item.

You may want to tell your buyer that you have informed Royal Mail of his claim of non delivery and that they are conducting an investigation.  You may wish to add that they may want to interview him and take a statement. 

If your buyer is lying and has received the card then hopefully the threat of a visit from Royal Mail's Investigation Team will put the fear of god into him and he may just discover the missing item.

You will just have to let it play out. If you added all of the correct details to the case then eBay will find in your favour.  That said as I mentioned previously the buyer will probably raise a Charge Back Case with his card provider and this could prove very uncomfortable for you.

Good luck

PS I take my hat off to your bravery as you are currently selling three cards with a combined value of £2200. Don't you think that maybe you should suspend these sales until you resolved this problem? It maybe wise to do so, just in case you find yourself in the same position.

[4_bathrooms]

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@uel_cards wrote:

Yes a signature and the buyers first name

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Then you should have everything you need to defend an "item not received" claim:

You just need to ensure you upload the tracking number to the case if eBay have not done so automatically.

[14061994]

Just to confirm what others have said, I had a similar case last year. Special Delivery signed as received and with correct GPS co-ordinates. Ebay found in my favour. The buyer then tried a chargeback through Paypal. Ebay contacted me to inform me that this was happening and confirmed that even if the chargeback was successful I wouldn't be impacted as the transaction was covered by seller protection. In the event that wasn't necessary as Paypal immediately rejected the chargeback.

Hope this helps and good luck.

[department28]

Is the buyer saying they didn't receive the parcel at all, or that they got the parcel, but the card wasn't in it?

Unfortunately, a dishonest buyer can claim they were sent an empty package, and a dishonest seller can send an empty package - both of these scams are difficult to prove, which is why these cards are very risky items to buy or sell online.

[uel_cards]

No he’s never received the parcel at all…

[department28]

So the buyer is saying that the signature is not theirs, even though the tracking etc shows it was delivered to the correct address? Have you had a look at the property on Google street view? Wondered if it was flats, where someone else might have signed for the parcel & kept it?

It is not knowing what really happened, that makes this sort of thing so frustrating...

Hope it will be quickly resolved. Let us know how things proceed.