buyer says item not received - tracking says delivered - buyer seems genuine - what now? thanks

[thecrimsonlizard]

hi.

i sold an item on sept 14th- tracking says delivered on 16th sept. Message from buyer says its not been received, has checked at post office etc, asked local postie who apparantly shrugged and said he must have delivered it just not to the correct person!  Whats the usual solution in these cases?  Thank you

[arkwebus]

The difficulty for the buyer is that what @m25jet says is absolutely correct in that all tracking proves is that it was delivered "somewhere".  

I have difficulty with the concept that it's somewhere else.  If someone delivered something for someone else to my address I'd either give it back to postie, deliver it to correct address if nearby or put it back in postbox.  Who wants random misdelivered items ...

If the item was delivered carelessly by postie then I would make one hell of a fuss at the delivery office, contact customer service - Royal Mail - at Plymouth or even try to get Royal Mail Investigation involved. 

@thecrimsonlizard