Small business - purchase hasn't turned up

[Plump82]

On the 27th November I made a purchase from a small business. It took ages for dispatch and I was advised by the owner it would be posted on the 6th December.

Its never turned up and despite numerous emails to the company I haven't had a reply since the one saying it would be posted. I left till Christmas and New Year were over and emailed again on Tuesday and still no reply.

I feel bad chasing it up as its a small business and I'm assuming they can't really afford to send replacements as much as a bigger business would but my purchase wasn't that cheap for me to just write it off.

I paid via PayPal, would you start a dispute on there for it? I think id be more understanding if she'd actually replied but she's ignoring me now. If I did raise a dispute and get a refund, does it come from her?

Yes it does.

I have a small business and shit happens. Sometimes something gets lost in the post and you just have to suck it up.

Low value items are not worth sending tracked unless the customer pays extra but this does mean that sometimes you have to resend. It's important to give good customer service and you don't do that by ignoring customers when they have a problem.

Dispute it. Don't worry about her. She had ample opportunity to sort this out for you and chose not to.

Ah does it? That's crap.

I'll give her till next Tuesday to see if she replies and then dispute it.

I would message her today and say if I don't get a response by Monday evening a dispute will be lodged Tuesday morning.

If I did raise a dispute and get a refund, does it come from her?

Who do you think it should come from? Should everyone else’s PayPal costs go up because some businesses do badly?

She’s taken your money but not provided service. Even if she’s actually sent it out (and I don’t think that’s a given if she isn’t responding) she needs to respond when there are issues. There are profits to be made in business, but there are risks to it too. She the one making the decisions about which carriers to use, she’s the one that needs to calculate the risks, the costs and the way to pass that on to customers and bear the brunt of those decisions.

@NumberTheory

If I did raise a dispute and get a refund, does it come from her?

Who do you think it should come from? Should everyone else’s PayPal costs go up because some businesses do badly?

She’s taken your money but not provided service. Even if she’s actually sent it out (and I don’t think that’s a given if she isn’t responding) she needs to respond when there are issues. There are profits to be made in business, but there are risks to it too. She the one making the decisions about which carriers to use, she’s the one that needs to calculate the risks, the costs and the way to pass that on to customers and bear the brunt of those decisions.

Well i didn't want to assume there wasn't some sort of insurance businesses may have, or if they are able to claim from whoever she posted it with that it was lost so they could recoupe the loss.

Well i didn't want to assume there wasn't some sort of insurance businesses may have, or if they are able to claim from whoever she posted it with that it was lost so they could recoupe the loss.

She may have something like that, she may have bought insurance when she posted it. But whether she does or not is up to her. And if she does, it still “comes from her” because she’s the one paying for the insurance. Whether she pays by swallowing the cost of an individual loss or by swallowing the smaller but more frequent costs of insuring is up to her. You shouldn’t be worrying about it. You don’t run her business.

I have a small business and stuff doesn’t turn up from time to time. especially at the moment with LOTS of royal mail delays (if it was sent RM). However, it is unacceptable for the seller to ignore you. I’ve been emailing daily someone who raised a complaint on Wednesday about something I posted on 31 Dec. It arrived today but otherwise I would either have sent a replacement and hopefully claimed from RM if the original never arrived, or it it were a higher value item (and I couldnt risk the original turning up and therefore no RM refund), I would advise the buyer of the RM refund policy.

I would absolutely email one more time and then raise a paypal dispute if you don’t get a response.

PS on the offchance you bought it via Etsy there are various other things you can do.

@Rrrob

PS on the offchance you bought it via Etsy there are various other things you can do.

It unfortunately wasn't Etsy. I'll see what happens come next week and if not I'll definitely raise a dispute. I just feel bad as it's a small business. But her customer service is what's more of an issue just now.