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I recently sold an item on eBay. I packed it up, trotted down to the post office and posted it. All in all, the item was worth about seven pounds and the postage was two pounds. So, that's the end of it, I thought. I'd made a very slight profit (after eBay fees and PayPal fees) but at least it was better than nothing.
Then I got a message from the buyer, that he hadn't received the goods. I think this is the message that every seller dreads. So, I thought, well, that's OK, I made sure I got a proof of postage certificate and had hung on to it. So, I asked the buyer to wait one more week and then let me know. Quite often the post is slow and things do eventually turn up.
No luck though and this was after three weeks. The buyer wanted a refund. I checked with eBay and apparently my certificate of postage meant nothing and only I had a few days to refund or they would 'escalate the claim'. SO I had to refund all the cost of the goods and the postage.
eBay seller victim of fraud - is recorded delivery / registered mail the only way?
It seems to me that the buyers have far more rights than sellers do these days. I've since realised just how easy it would be for someone to say they had not received the package. That way they keeps the goods AND get a refund.
eBay graciously say that they will refund the listing fee and PayPal fees. Very good of them, I must say!
Now my only recourse is to get a refund from Royal Mail which could take quite a while and there's the inconvenience. Also, they'll presumably have to contact my seller to check with them that they didn't receive anything.
A proof of postage certificate as evidence...
Why doesn't eBay accept a proof of postage certificate as evidence that you've sent something to the buyer? I can understand proof of delivery (recorded delivery and registered mail) for high value items, but for items worth a few pounds shouldn't a proof of postage certificate be enough?
By: Disgruntled eBayer
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Sounds like a buyer I had who opened a case against me because the blouse I listed as having three quarter length sleeves came down to her wrists and she thought it should have been 'long sleeved'. Can I help it if she has got short arms? Really ridiculous, any excuse will do, it seems. Only a £2.50 top - not really worth selling, I've decided. From now on, all my stuff will go to charity shops. At least they say thank you and don't complain about the clothes.
18/07/13 BettyS
-6
Yep, I know all about that. I've argued the toss with difficult buyers over whether a garment is cream or ivory (as I put in the listing). For goodness sake, it's a 99p top! I've stopped selling low value items as it really wasn't worth the hassle. Some sellers are SO annoying - they remind me of people in charity shops haggling over clothes and trying to get a discount....
26/06/13 Oh please....
-9
I agree that buyers have more rights than sellers. A couple of months ago, I was surprised to check my emails and see that a buyer had opened a case against me without any warning at all. Apparently, the item I sold wasn't really what he was looking for, although my description was correct. There was a lot of fabricated nonsense about it being a different size and so on. So, I had to give a refund. I don't mind about that - it's just the rudeness of opening a case without any warning when I had done absolutely nothing wrong. EBay, of course, will always back the buyer, who can do no wrong in their eyes. You feel that you have to bend over backwards to please finicky and silly buyers otherwise you'll get negative feedback. And to be quite honest, by the time you have paid all the EBay and Paypal fees and tottered down to the post office (if you can find one) and waited in the queue for ages, you wonder if it is all worth the hassle.
20/06/13 New to Ebay
-7
PLEASE JUST DONOT USE THE POST OFFICE MAIL SERVICE! Remember we pay taxes to royal mail! I sent something recorded delivery that I sent in post. It was worth £300 and they would not give me a claim for the basic £49.99 I think it is. Even when I had receipt of goods and posting. I later contacted an ombudsman after three letters. Who escalated it. I wrote three letters again and never had a reply...2 months later I got a letter saying. "There was not sufficient evidence to support your claim." HAHA the thing is I scanned the evidence and sent it to Royal mail again according to their claims procedure...again... and hey presto sent it to them again. Same letter copied and pasted. "There was not sufficient evidence to support your claim."
I think they work with RYAN AIR! LOL. Someone needs to be fired and something needs to change. I always use Hermes or another Courier. Never had a problem!
13/02/13 Honest Buyer and Seller
I think they work with RYAN AIR! LOL. Someone needs to be fired and something needs to change. I always use Hermes or another Courier. Never had a problem!
-9
PLEASE JUST DONOT USE THE POST OFFICE MAIL SERIVE! Remember we pay taxes to royal mail! I sent something recorded delivery that I sent in post. It was worth £300 and they would not give me a claim for the basic £49.99 I think it is. Even when I had receipt of goods and posting. I later contacted an ombudsman after three letters. Who escalated it. I wrote three letters again and never had a reply...2 months later I got a letter saying. "There was not sufficient evidence to support your claim." HAHA the thing is I scanned the evidence and sent it to Royal mail again according to their claims procedure...again... and hey presto sent it to them again. Same letter copied and pasted. "There was not sufficient evidence to support your claim."
I think they work with RYAN AIR! LOL. Someone needs to be fired and something needs to change. I always use Hermes or another Courier. Never had a problem!
13/02/13 Honest seller and buyer
I think they work with RYAN AIR! LOL. Someone needs to be fired and something needs to change. I always use Hermes or another Courier. Never had a problem!
-14
i have found the best way to post, stuff post office. they pissed me right off no matter how much i spend on postage they still seem to get it lost. i only use post office to send those tinest thing like letters and large letters. NEVER packets. you know why!!!! coz go to myhermes.co.uk
i take my packet down to my nearest parcelshop (as if your going post office) pay £3 on the website, print the label. and drop it off and i am done. i can if i want add 85p to send it signed for. which is what i used to do, till i realised wether you send it signed for or not. sometimes they still ask customer to sign even though i didnt pay extra charge. PLUS i can track its every step eventhough i am only paying £3. alot cheaper then postoffice. apparently if you want to send 1g but a packet you get charged £3.15 or £3.65 recorded upto 750g. were as myhermes charges you £3 upto 1KG.
should try it. anyone i buy off now, they say they are going to send with royalmail and charge like £13 as its like over 4kg. i ask if they can send with myhermes and reduce the postage price. and i only get charged £5.10
big difference and TRACKED!!!!
hope this helps
07/02/13 sam
i take my packet down to my nearest parcelshop (as if your going post office) pay £3 on the website, print the label. and drop it off and i am done. i can if i want add 85p to send it signed for. which is what i used to do, till i realised wether you send it signed for or not. sometimes they still ask customer to sign even though i didnt pay extra charge. PLUS i can track its every step eventhough i am only paying £3. alot cheaper then postoffice. apparently if you want to send 1g but a packet you get charged £3.15 or £3.65 recorded upto 750g. were as myhermes charges you £3 upto 1KG.
should try it. anyone i buy off now, they say they are going to send with royalmail and charge like £13 as its like over 4kg. i ask if they can send with myhermes and reduce the postage price. and i only get charged £5.10
big difference and TRACKED!!!!
hope this helps
-12
recorded delivery is certainly NOT the way. an avid ebay business seller i send a majority of my items recorded. royal mail still seem to lose them and in the compensation process you have to even give your dna to prove who you are and where the items came from. never mind the fact they lose items when names and return addresses are clearly stated on the parcel. my postmaster told me it was a waste of money doing "recorded" as it only proves you post it as most lazy azzed postmen seem to shove the packet through the door even tho recorded is a signature based item! (i know coz it's happened to me several times!). he then went on to say you should send Special Delivery only - so my item with my 30p profit i have to pay a minimum of £5.65 to ensure it does get there and not "lost". its all a con to screw more money out of us that keep these companies going and they just don't provide the service the contract states they should!
01/02/13 sizkar9
-8
I have had thee parcels from Ebay go missing in the post, all unsigned for or tracked, and one Ebayer accused me of stealing, so it works both ways. My advice is to charge more for signed for and then both are protected.
27/11/12 Litenites
-14
If you have proof of posting you are then able to claim from the Post Office. So you will not lose out in the long run. Maybe in time and effort, but certainly not financially. Also, it might be wiser to opt for recorded, it costs 0.98 more. Charge this in initial postage. Not everyone is as honest as we would like them to be. And yes, as a seller you have to give them the benefit of the doubt, no matter how much it might stick in your gut! There are many opportunistic individuals out there looking to capitalise on such an unrecorded transaction.
I have a question I would like to ask. A seller posted an item to me for £0.76, it was clear on the front of the jiffy bag. I then went to return the item, but I was asked for £2.20 for 2nd class. How is this possible? The item only cost 5.99, so it would not be financially viable to pay out for such a refund. The original item was in a jiffy bag that would not of fitted through that irritating letter box type measurer at the post office. (I know this because I tried prior to returning it, and then opted for proper plastic wrapping far smaller than original jiffy). How are sellers able to post items to buyers for far less than it costs the buyer to return the item? I must admit, the whole royal mail postage cost system is a ploy to extract as much money as they can. Why must Royal Mail have the monopoly on posting letters. Competition is a good thing for the consumer. Look how much choice there is for parcels and courier services.
10/11/12 Honest Online Shopper
I have a question I would like to ask. A seller posted an item to me for £0.76, it was clear on the front of the jiffy bag. I then went to return the item, but I was asked for £2.20 for 2nd class. How is this possible? The item only cost 5.99, so it would not be financially viable to pay out for such a refund. The original item was in a jiffy bag that would not of fitted through that irritating letter box type measurer at the post office. (I know this because I tried prior to returning it, and then opted for proper plastic wrapping far smaller than original jiffy). How are sellers able to post items to buyers for far less than it costs the buyer to return the item? I must admit, the whole royal mail postage cost system is a ploy to extract as much money as they can. Why must Royal Mail have the monopoly on posting letters. Competition is a good thing for the consumer. Look how much choice there is for parcels and courier services.
-7
I am a 'business' seller (second hand stuff) on Ebay and send everything Via Recorded Delivery. Recently 2 items have not been delivered , but trying to claim from Royal Mail is a joke. As I am a 'business' seller I have to provide a receipt for the item I sold - but as I buy from car boot sales etc I only ever can give a written piece of (usually scrap) paper. Royal Mail won't accept this and have only sent me a book of 6 first class stamps - not even enought to cover the £3.65 cost of the postage paid, let along the item I sold! What if someone found a Clarice Cliff tea set at a charity shop for £10 and sold it for £200 - and then Royal Mail lost it - they would only pay £10 - how can this EVER be fair?????? Surely if an item SELLS for an amount, then Rayal Mail LOOSE it, then they should refund the sale price as they ask for the Ebay sale page to be sent with the claim??????? Can this really be legal???
10/10/12 polo-babe
-4
I sold a smartphone on Ebay with all its original accessories and in its original box. I even threw in a silicon case and screen protector. The phone was less than 2 years old and had never been dropped nor scratched. Suffice to say, it would have fetched the highest amount among second hand phones. I sent the item by Special Delivery and packaged very securely. Did ALL I could on my end. Buyer bought it and soft bricked it after a day (he admitted he didn't know what he was doing and now phone doesn't work). I cannot refund him as I would be left with a spoilt phone (I could try and fix it but why should the buyer get away with it scot-free?!). He opened a dispute accusing me of sending a non-working phone, causing him much hassle!! I am still deciding whether or not to just refund him or fight it out (knowing full well I am likely to lose since Ebay automatically refunds buyer). It's not so much the money but knowing he could damage my tip-top phone and get away with it. I would sue him in Small Claims but he lives in Norwich, a tad too far. But not ruling that option out.
04/09/12 Anger
-9
Not so fast there R! I would suggest you do your research before you start calling people morons. Under UK law your proof of postage is sufficient as it exonerates you from the responsibility thereafter. As you cannot control what happens once you have passed the parcel on to a professional delivery service you cannot be held accountable for it.
26/07/12 Freddie
-2
Article writer is a moron. You have to provide proof of DELIVERY. What does proof of postage prove? It is the sellers responsibility to ensure an item arrives safely. Article writer is a poor quality seller who is clueless as to ebay process and seeks to resist rather than adapt.
26/07/12 R
-18
I've just had that problem. eBay refused to answer my messages properly - just standard guff - and they still held onto my cash even after I'd sent proof of sending to the buyer with her post code printed on it - as correct.. In the end eBay told me to escalate the matter up to the resolution centre because the buyer hadn't conceded that they were in the wrong for bidding on an item being sold recorded delivery (non trackable) instead of meeting the higher postal cost of special or registered delivery (proof of delivery and trackable). In the end I got in touch with the buyer and told her I would take her to the small claims court if she didn't resolve this issue and that I would not allow eBay to intervene any further let alone make up their own mind whether I deserved my money back. Of course, I also pointed out that CCJ's could affect her credit rating and possibly choice of career too. This evening she emailed me back and said that she had closed the case and now my money is being released back to me. She still claims she never received the item. More like she realises she has too much to lose by boggaring me about like that.
Well, thanks very much eBay. Don't I just love you treating my own money and bank account as though it is your own.......NOT
No more selling on eBay for me. Strictly a buyer from now on. If I need to flog a few goods, then I'll use more seller friendly portals. There are plenty of them out there. eBid, PreLoved - to name two.
05/12/11 Sue
Well, thanks very much eBay. Don't I just love you treating my own money and bank account as though it is your own.......NOT
No more selling on eBay for me. Strictly a buyer from now on. If I need to flog a few goods, then I'll use more seller friendly portals. There are plenty of them out there. eBid, PreLoved - to name two.
-14
bikeman