I sent a tracked item to a buyer, item was delivered and signed for, buyer claims not received

[flumphead1402]

I sent a tracked parcel to a buyer, the item was delivered and signed for by someone using the buyers name (this is what the buyer claims) but she claims she has not received it. I have made all the attempts to locate the delivery address and am told it was the buyers address, have seen a signature (which in all honesty could be a drawing by a 4 year old). I have made a complaint to Royal Mail and am waiting to hear back from them.

The buyer is demanding a refund, claiming I can get my money back, but I can't because the post office deems the item deliverd and signed for.

Am I in the right or do I give her a refund, losing the payment for the trainers and the trainers themselves?

[m25jet]

If the tracking shows that the item has been successfully delivered to the address provided on the PayPal notification of payment e-mail and you have a signature to prove delivery of the item then there is no way that the buyer will be able to win an Item Not Received case.  If she has already opened a case then ask her to escalate the case for eBay to step in and make a decision upon, but before you do that make sure that you've already added the tracking number next to the item in your Sold Items section on your All Selling page.  eBay will need to be able to see the tracking number so that they can put a trace on it and determine for themselves whether the item has been delivered or not.

Once the matter is escalated to eBay and they see that the tracking proves successful delivery of the item to the address provided on the PayPal confirmation of payment e-mail the Item Not Received case will be closed in your favour, in which case you will not be required to refund the buyer, either in part or in full, and the buyer will not be able to leave you any feedback in relation to the transaction.

If the buyer does end up escalating the case to eBay but leaves you negative feedback prior to the case being decided in your favour then get onto eBay Customer Services as quickly as possible after the case has been closed and ask them to remove the buyer's negative feedback, emphasising the fact that eBay decided the Item Not Received case in your favour.  If you do that then any negative feedback left by the buyer prior to the case being decided in your favour will be removed by eBay and it will not have any damaging effects upon your account.

[**peaseblossom**]

She wouldn't win a "not received" case with ebay.   Tell her to ask her neighbours.

[flumphead1402]

peaseblossom, thank you, that's what I am hoping the outcome will be, I have suggested going to her neighbours, contacting her local post sorting depot to see if they can identify post person delivering on that day, she doesn't think she should have to do any of that.

[**peaseblossom**]

You have no way of knowing if she's telling the truth and that's how eBay and Royal Mail would view it. They will go by the tracking. You've done all you can.

[ile136yz]

Make sure you have entered the Tracking Number into ebay's sytem if you did not buy the postage on-line.

Then wait for her to open a case.

[flumphead1402]

Thank you to everyone who has advised and commented, I am really grateful for all your support, unfortunately I have had many abusive messages off this buyer and will be really glad when (hopefully) Ebay find in my favour and the case is closed. Once again many thanks to everyone. xxx

[ile136yz]

Do not answer any abusive messages, it is only trying to wear your down. Let ebay do their job

[1956glyn]

flumphead1402 may i give you a little bit of constructive advice? You can turn your photos round before you load them on Ebay 🙂

[m25jet]

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@flumphead1402 wrote:

Thank you to everyone who has advised and commented, I am really grateful for all your support, unfortunately I have had many abusive messages off this buyer and will be really glad when (hopefully) Ebay find in my favour and the case is closed. Once again many thanks to everyone. xxx

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To stop the buyer causing you any further aggravation add the buyer's User ID to your Blocked Bidders List by clicking on this link https://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/ebay/isapi.dll?bidderblocklogin.  Add the buyer's User ID to the white box that appears on the screen, then click on the Save box below it.  That way the buyer will not be able to purchase anything else from you in the future and cause you any further problems.

In addition to the above, if you have not already activated the option go back to your Seller Preferences and tick the box at the bottom of the page next to the sentence that says "Don't Allow Blocked Buyers To Contact Me."  Unfortunately given the fact that you have recently been in a transaction with this buyer the blocks will take longer to kick in than they would have done otherwise, but once they do this buyer will not be able to send you any further abusive messages.

To make sure that you don't end up receiving any abusive messages from the buyer via the Community Forums, click on the buyer's User ID and you should see two options, both displayed on blue boxes.  The first option is to add the user to friends, whereas the second option is to block that user.  Select the second option and once you have done that the buyer in question will not be able to contact you via Private Messages on the eBay Community Forums either.  Once it becomes clear that the messages are not getting through to you the buyer will no doubt stop sending them.

Finally, eBay will definitely decide the case in your favour if you have uploaded the tracking number and it proves successful delivery of the item to the address provided on the PayPal confirmation of payment e-mail.  It's about the only instance whereby a seller can actually win an Item Not Received case, so you really have nothing to worry about with regards to the Item Not Received case being decided in the buyer's favour.  Once eBay see that the tracking proves successful delivery of the item to the buyer's address eBay will automatically close the case in your favour.  If the buyer were to open an Item Not Received case via PayPal then PayPal would also come to the same conclusion, the end result being that it won't be possilbe for the buyer to win an Item Not Received case against you in light of the evidence that proves that the item was successfully delivered and received.