I sent a parcel recently and buyer only received empty jiffy bag. No contents

[suedotb]

I sent a parcel recently and buyer only received empty jiffy bag. No contents! Buyer has since claimed from ebay so they're happy.

However, I'm out of pocket. I have no evidence of value of item other than the selling price which happily isn't that much, but it's the principle of the issue.

I completed a claim form from Royal Mail who have just sent me  some 1st class stamps to the value of £4.00. I was actually claiming £20 (limit of 2nd class postage claim). I'm very disappointed.

Any advice gratefully received!!

[geosacha007]

Your buyer says they received an empty jiffy bag.  Had it come open in transit?  If so Royal Mail would have put it in a plastic bag wth a note. 

If there was no sign of tampering then, since RM delivered it, it is suprising you receved any compensation. 

The most you could have got compensated would be the selling price (including postage) assuming that was less than £20.

[suedotb]

The parcel had been opened and contents removed. Therefore the Empty Jiffy bag had been delivered!! Buyer sent me a photo of empty Jiffy bag. I had put the spoons into a small cardboard box inside the Jiffy bag and sealed the bag on top with tape. It had been tampered with but when, where and who ????
I’ve been selling on eBay for 18 years and this is a new one for me. Protection heavily weighted in favour of buyers in my opinion.

[m25jet]

To be honest this sounds a bit fishy to me. As has already been mentioned, if the parcel had been torn in transit it would have been put into a Royal Mail plastic bag with something on the bag to explain that the parcel had been ripped in transit. If there was no evidence in the photos of any Royal Mail bag proving that the parcel had indeed been torn in transit then I would suspect that the item was removed by the buyer upon receipt of the item, then he put in a false claim against you in order to screw you over for a total refund. If the buyer could truthfully say that the parcel had been ripped open in transit then why would he not send a photo of the Royal Mail's notification that the package had been torn in transit in order to back up his claims? There's only one logical explanation as to why the buyer didn't do so - there was never any damage to the parcel in the first place, and these allegations have just been invented by the buyer in order to screw you over for a refund so that he gets to keep the item for free.

Unfortunately it's an extremely sorry state of affairs, made even worse by the fact that eBay appear to have no intention of looking into the matter further to establish the true facts, choosing instead to just refund the buyer. If you have not already done so add the buyer's User ID to your Blocked Bidders List so that he/she cannot buy anything else from you in the future and screw you over again.

[ruby*tuesday]

You have no Recourse with Ebay. You signed up to their Terms and Conditions when you Clicked ACCEPT on the User Agreement.

I doubt that Royal Mail will offer you anymore Compensation. Have you contacted them ?

[suedotb]

Have tried phoning a 0345 number at 9p a minute and after hanging on for 10 minutes decided to hang up. Have emailed them and am hoping to be able to communicate soon !!

[rusticrye]

The value of the item is what it sold for, not what you think it's worth. So Royal Mail will quite naturally only compensate you for that amount, once you've proved that you've refunded that amount to the buyer. They obviously aren't going to send you £20 for an item which sold for less than that if that is what you were expecting.  (If you feel that the item was worth more than it sold for, you should have listed it at a higher BIN or auction starting price.)

If that doesn't answer your query, and the buyer paid more than the compensation amount you received, and you supplied Royal Mail with all the proof required (proof of the sale price, proof of the refund, etc), then I can only assume that one of the following applies:

1. You bought the wrong Royal Mail service. Standard 1st and 2nd Class is only for items valued at up to £20 (note what I said above - an item's value is its sale price). Signed For must be used for items valued at up to £50. Anything over £50 must be sent using Special Delivery Next Day Guaranteed. If you buy the wrong service, Royal Mail (or any carrier) won't pay out a single penny in the event of loss or damage in transit. So if you were expecting to get £20 in compensation for an item valued at more than that, it won't happen. Nor will you get £20 for an item which sells for less than that, obviously, as I said above.

2. The item is on Royal Mail's 'exemption' list, ie. is uninsurable (as many easily-breakable items are).  I see that you're currently selling china, which is one of the things on the list if memory serves. But check it out for yourself at royalmail.com.

@suedotb 

[suedotb]

Hi and thanks for your comments. Item was some coffee spoons. Buyer was a first time buyer. Item sold for £21 plus £3 postage 2nd class. Ebay have refunded the total amount to the buyer.
So the buyer is ok, but what about sellers being protected? I’ve sent eBay proof of sales to RM. plus photos that buyer supplied of empty packet.
I understand that 2nd class parcels are only covered up to £20. So does that mean from now on I have to charge higher prices for postage??

[1902elder]

Between £20 and £50 send by 2nd class signed for, then the compensation limit is £50

[1902elder]

You don't say what the actual selling price was, but if you were claiming £20 from RM and the selling price was more than that, RM are not liable to pay any compensation. if you have not chosen a postage service with adequate compensation, so they have only paid the postage.