Ebay items not delivered

thermionic

I bought a couple of items from reputable-looking business sellers on ebay, both allegedly sent by Royal Mail two weeks ago but neither have turned up. One was sent by 24 hr so should have arrived the next day, the other by 48hr Signed For. The tracking for the signed for one says it was delivered at 8:55 am on whatever day it was. I’ve been working from home every day for almost a year, and when I know I’m expecting a delivery I keep an eye out for the van anyway. Royal Mail always leave a card if nobody’s in and usually take it back to the sorting office rather than leave it with a neighbour (unlike most other couriers). But that’s irrelevant - I was in, they weren’t delivered, and I haven’t been informed of an attempted delivery

I contacted both sellers to let them know, one replied but didn’t do anything, the other didn’t reply, so I reported both as missing items. Both are now trying to fob me off with asking me to chase it up with Royal Mail. This will be a waste of time with no record of an attempted delivery, and they’ll just say that the tracked one was delivered anyway. Now I have to wait five days before ebay will offer me a next step, whatever that is. 

BahHumbug

I would’ve thought that it’s up to the sellers to chase with RM.  it’s them who have the contract, not you.  Sounds like a serious fob off.

menamestom

You need to open a buyer not received claim.  It's them who need to prove delivery.  The signed one, do you have the tracking number so you can check the Royal Mail Website?

You have 30 days and Ebay will side with you but you will be in Limbo for a while.

I have had the opposite happen.  Sold a phone, sent it recorded delivery within 2 days then 25 days later the buyer said he didn't think he had received it and opened a case against me.  I found proof of delivery and the item had been signed for by somebody at the address he gave with the same 2nd name, but 2 weeks on they have not replied to any of my messages and ebay are still holding my funds.

I checked the IMEI and the phone is now being used. But main point is Ebay seem to side with the buyer.

If you paid by paypal you can always just request a refund direct from them, you have 60 days for that.

thermionic

That’s what I thought, and why I contacted the sellers to chase it up. Absolutely pointless me trying to chase it up with no record of attempted delivery. Pain in the arse to have to wait weeks though!

thermionic

BTW the tracking number for the signed for says it was delivered at a time I was definitely in. Who knows where it is?!

menamestom

BahHumbug said:

I would’ve thought that it’s up to the sellers to chase with RM.  it’s them who have the contract, not you.  Sounds like a serious fob off.

This 100%.  They need to provide tracking.

DB1

I had a couple of these issues lately, from both sides of the fence.

I sold a little amp to a chap - I'm a bit gregarious and like to get on well with the people I'm selling to, giving them lots of communication, etc. Anyway, I sent it by Parcelforce 24. A week later, I messaged the chap asking him if everything was OK (perhaps a bit naive, I suppose) and that it had turned up safe and sound. A couple of days later, I received the message - 'no, didn't arrive, no attempt at delivery, no card left' etc.

Perhaps he didn't realise that it had a tracking number, and I was only doing what I thought was a helpful and courteous follow up.

Anyway, he was adamant that it hadn't turned up, so in the end got hold of the Post Office manager at the collection branch (where it had been picked up) about 250 miles away. He confirmed that it was the required ID etc, and offered to look at CCTV, etc. I told the chap this, and within 15 minutes, he messaged me to say that it was there after all, but they'd forgotten to tell him. In that 15 minutes, he'd messaged me, gone three miles to the post office, collected it, got back home and took the time to message me again. Yeah, OK. This was after I suggested that we involve the fraud team as 'the only other explanation seemed to be that one of the staff had pinched it'.

I was thinking 'that will teach me to try and be nice', but it won't. If he'd have succeeded, he'd have had a free amp, but would always be a miserable low-life scammer. Feck it, I'd prefer to carry on being decent.

The other one annoyed me though - I ordered about £60 worth of stuff via eBay, and it didn't turn up. I gave it a couple of weeks extra due to Christmas, and Covid related delays, then guessed that it wasn't going to turn up. I sent a friendly message to the seller - the response was  'Amazon reported parcel handed to resident'. That was it.

I messaged back politely again and said that it definitely hadn't been delivered - I was the only one there on the day of the claimed delivery, and I would have remembered a) receiving the goods and b) being handed a parcel by an Amazon driver. I didn't want a refund - just the goods that I had ordered.

I asked if they had any proof of delivery as, with all due respect, it's easy to say that a delivery driver had reported handing it over and if that was  the info that they had from Amazon, it was easy enough for a delivery driver to report it as being delivered even if it hadn't.

I also said that if they had any evidence at all that it HAD been delivered, then I would obviously apologise as my memory would have failed me and that I would make another payment of £60 to them (no goods required) as an apology.

At that point, they sent it to eBay for a case to be opened. To be fair, eBay responded the next day, found in my favour and refunded me. If the seller had treated me a bit more courteously (I'd dealt with them before with no problem) I'd have been happy to go halves with them (for example) as I didn't doubt that they'd sent it.

ICBM

DB1 said:

... I told the chap this, and within 15 minutes, he messaged me to say that it was there after all, but they'd forgotten to tell him. In that 15 minutes, he'd messaged me, gone three miles to the post office, collected it, got back home and took the time to message me again. Yeah, OK.

That slightly reminds me of when I bought a cheap pedal on Ebay, described as 'not working - spares or repairs only', which suited me perfectly as I had a very good idea what might be wrong with it and that it would be simple to fix. After two weeks it hadn't turned up so I messaged the seller, who claimed to have sent it, that it must have got lost in the post, but that he would send me another identical one he had...

I resisted the temptation to ask whether he was stupid enough to think I believed that, rather than that he'd simply forgotten to post it.

When it turned up, I was amazed - not only had he had two of the same cheap 90s pedal, both broken, but they both had exactly the same distinctive scratches on the casing! I checked the original listing pics and the replacement pedal he'd sent was indeed absolutely identical .

And I was right about what was wrong with it too, it just had a broken solder joint on the power jack. (Because they all do...)

Kittyfrisk

^  See, a perfectly straightforward answer. He had two.
People are so quick to think the worst... 

thermionic

It’s really annoying how ebay are responding with an optimistic “The seller has offered another solution” when the “solution” is “We sent it, sort it out yourself”.

thermionic

Jeez... neighbour just knocked on my door “we’ve got a couple of parcels for you... had them for about three weeks”. She thought she’d seen the postie fill out a card but I said if I’d got the card I would have taken them off your hands straight away. Didn’t think I was around because my car wasn’t parked right in front of the house (neighbours both sides seem to think they have a private parking space, if there’s no space I’m not precious about it and I’ll leave it further up the road. As I work from home now it could stay parked there for two weeks.) Pretty easy to determine if your neighbour is in when you live in a terrace though!

Ebay have already refunded me for one and the other seller has possibly sent out a replacement. I’ll send it back if it arrives.

The big problem here is the failure of the postie to leave a card. Even when I enquired at Royal Mail they told me that the signed for package had been delivered to an address that wasn’t mine but couldn’t tell me where.