I am a Seller, buyer wants to take me to small claims court over item I have proof of delivery?

[conniesparris93]

Hello,

I sold a pair on girls boots for £20 on eBay with £3 delivery using Royal Mail on 17th June.

On 27th June, I got a buyers request opened saying they hadn't received their item. 

I emailed the buyer 3 pictures of receipts with all tracking information and asked her to wait a full 2 weeks to see if it would turn up as possibly delays with coronacrisis and everything. I immediately call Royal Mail asking what to do and they declared that it wouldn't be till the 3rd July I could do anything as it wasn't classified as delayed or lost yet so they wouldn't pass me onto any further teams. 

I asked the buyer to just hold on and as the week progressed I made 3/4 calls to eBay about what to do, they said I was doing to right thing by keeping an open dialogue with the buyer, calling Royal Mail and generally making a lot of effort to resolve this. 

This is where it gets frustrating, so I go on the Royal Mail website, enter the tracking information and find out the the item has been delivered by her local post office. It even says the town she is in as having delivered it. I relay this information back and she says that there is a house in the town next to her with the exact same road name, exact address par a digit on the postcode, and the Royal Mail confuses the address and she gets their mail and they get hers.  So she's now saying the item is at the address of the other house and that I need to do something about it. 

I double checked the address I put on my package (it was an online postage label so I was able to check) and i definitely wrote her address. Now due to the proof of delivery being tracked with Royal Mail, eBay closed the case in my favour. 

I don't know what I can do, she knows where the item is but won't get it, I'm in England and she's in Northern Ireland so it's not like it's local to me to retrieve it. The case got closed this morning in my favour and she has now emailed me saying unless I refund her immediately then she will take me to the small claims court? 

I don't understand, she hasn't herself done one thing to try resolve this? She refuses to call her local Royal Mail to sort the issue, she refuses to assist me in getting a compensation claim from Royal Mail, she's refusing to go get the parcel she knows where it is and now saying she'll take me to court, 

I understand she's frustrated but I've rang eBay and Royal Mail so many times asking for assistance and both saying there's nothing I can do as i've done my part. 

can she take me to court?! Have i not done everything required as a seller?!   I'm so frustrated and sad about this all

[95ardenfield]

She's just trying to call your bluff..case decided in your favour,item delivered..end of! issue and block her..cost more to take you to court..she hasn't got a leg to stand on!

[conniesparris93]

I hope so.
If she’s genuine I do feel for her, but her threatening with me court while I’ve been in her corner the whole way is so frustrating. She hasn’t even once called Royal Mail herself, she hasn’t checked with neighbours, she’s got no intention of going up the road to attempt to see if her parcel is there. If she won’t work with me why should I work with her sort of thing?!

[95ardenfield]

You've done your part so don't dwell on it..the item shows as delivered on tracking..end of story

[95ardenfield]

I've had one seller who's barraged me with at least 30 abusive messages today..i only enquired about his bike..i've reported him to ebay twice so far in the past few hours

[conniesparris93]

Oh my god I didn’t know people could be that bad on this. 😞 i am going to see if I can get Royal Mail compensation and give her all of that.

She’s annoyed me, because in the email she stated that not only were her and this other address getting each others mail, she said it last happened quite recently with the last parcel she ordered as well. ...So if she knew that parcels were getting mixed between her and the other local address, she could have messaged me and told me to write on the parcel something like “house with red door’ or “detached house with blue car on drive” any personal identifying mark or sight for her address that could have assisted the postman. She’s buying things knowing Royal Mail are making mistakes but then blaming me instead, won’t even call Royal Mail herself. I would have sent with Hermes or ups if it made a difference for her!

[Anonymous]

You've done your part

[haidabear1]

I have a situation with a buyer who has signed for their item however have claimed they haven't received it and opened a case against me yet I have proof from the royal mail the item has been signed for yet ebay are having none of it, they're backing the buyer despite the evidence - unbelieveable

[tobiasd4]

@ haidabear1
Please start your own question, as advice may be different to OP's.

[tsmgmd]

You appear to have done everything possible. 

Now she has made a statement saying she will go to small claims court I would ignore any further communication from her. 

[conniesparris93]

Thank you for responding, I do feel I’ve done so much and her threatening court just makes me want to not try help her anymore.
She also hasn’t Checked with neighbours or questioned the possibility it was stolen off the doorstep

[*just*good*stuff*]

`She also hasn’t Checked with neighbours or questioned the possibility it was stolen off the doorstep`

probably because she knows damn well she has it and is trying it on, so don`t lose a second of sleep, if she opens a not received dispute, simply enter the tracking number and it will close in your favour.
Small claims is hot air, just trying to intimidate you, which with alot of people probably works 🙂

[rusticrye]

No, she can't take you to court, lol! If tracking shows delivery to the address she provided at checkout, ie. the address on the PayPal payment confirmation email, your job is done.

The Post Office doesn't deliver mail, by the way - Royal Mail does. So not sure what you mean by tracking showing that her local Post Office made her delivery...? That simply doesn't happen.

Your buyer will have to lodge a claim with Royal Mail herself. If Royal Mail really have misdelivered (which is very rare) and can't retrieve the package, they, Royal Mail will have to compensate her. She can pick up a claim form from any Post Office, or download one from royalmail.com.

Send her one more message politely telling her this, then ignore any further ridiculous messages from her and get on with your life. And add her Ebay ID to your Blocked Bidders List so she can't buy from you again.

Any less than positive feedback left by her will be fully removeable on request.

@conniesparris93 

[conniesparris93]

Sorry I didn’t mean post office I mean her local Royal Mail team in Londonderry where she is. I’ve taken your advice and done that, I emailed her saying let’s keep it civil and communication open, I’ve said I will call RM again to try to solve this and that she should to to explain it on her end.

She has everything from online postage screenshots to proof of postage receipt and proof of delivery so she has everything herself to start a claim against Royal Mail. I’ve just got to wait and see. I might ring eBay again tomorrow morning to update them on any advice as well.

[tobiasd4]

To add to other good advice.

Keep POP for 13 months, as this is how long she can put a chargeback claim in to paypal,

all you need to to defend this is POP with buyers postcode.

[conniesparris93]

Thank you this is good advice, appreciate it 🙂

[red_magpie]

All transactions on eBay are governed by eBay's user agreement, which both parties have accepted. And also agreed to accept eBay's decisions on refunds.

EBay's policy is that unless the tracking record confirms delivery to the buyer's address, the seller will be required to refund them. If it does confirm delivery to her address, eBay will find in the buyer's favour. You both agreed to this in accepting the user agreement.

It was eBay who decided against her claim, if she wants to contest this decision it's eBay she will need to take to the small claims court!

It would be a good thing to note EXACTLY what the tracking record stated about the address. It's too complicated to go into now, but there can be some ambiguity about what eBay accepts as "the buyer's address". In some cases, it appears that they may accept proof of delivery anywhere in the buyer's postcode area (or even the same town?) as sufficient.

Read eBay's full policy, and you will see what I mean: http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/money-back-guarantee.html

Unfortunately, erroneous tracking records or doorstep theft of parcels after delivery are very common. It's one of the risks of buying on eBay.

[conniesparris93]

The tracking says the item, with ref no, delivered to her address at 10:43am, on 22nd June by Londonderry DO.

That’s the thing, while I feel bad, but we can’t rule out it wasn’t a doorstep theft, and she won’t even check with next door neighbours as she now believes it’s at the other address. She even said in the email that this has happened to other parcels recently.

I feel like if she knew parcels were getting mixed up, she could have pre warned me and told me to write on the label instructions for the postman like ‘Bright red door’ or ‘detached house with blue car on drive’ like any identifying sights to assist in the delivery. It’s like being set up to fail lol

[tobiasd4]

As buyer knows that parcel could have gone to the other town, then she should check with RM.
However, if RM know address is an issue, then postie should check the addressee's name on parcel,
if regular postie, they would know their customers.

[conniesparris93]

Yeah that’s true the postman would know the customers, when I spoke to the post office the customer service lady said there was delays in her area so I’m thinking maybe there wasn’t the regular postman and maybe staffing problems? I think my next step is to try claim compensation from Royal Mail and give that to her.

[john1297576]

Empty threat, you have done all that is required in fact more.

Rather than make meaningless threats she should take it up with her local Delivery Office, the sooner the better while te Postman may still remember te delivery.

As said Blocked Bidders List is appropriate and mark to Block messages as well.

[conniesparris93]

Hope it’s an empty threat! I was just trying to declutter mine and my daughters wardrobe and now I’m in this mess!

She hasn’t made any attempt herself to contact her local delivery office or check neighbours or help with anything. Frustrating as with her help this could probably be solved a lot quicker!!

[papso22]

Royal mail will be able to tell you whether they delivered to the address on the parcel, they have GPS on their PDAs and the postie should take a photo of the package if they left it in a safe place, so they can check that.

They can't tell you where they left it if it wasn't the right address.  This will confirm whether they made an error, and should compensate you, and you regund the buyer,  or whether it was delivered correctly.

You need that information as it will also do away with the ridiculous small claims threat. 

[conniesparris93]

Thank you I will contact Royal Mail on Monday morning to see what they can check with regards to that. X