Item not arrived, took 41 days to tell me. WWYD?

[sppp]

I sold an item on 4th December which was paid for and dispatched immediately. No contact whatsoever from buyer until today. Now I've had an email to say it hasn't arrived so can I please chase with the Post Office.

Is it a bit off to wait so long before contacting me? I can't believe I cleared out my paperwork at the weekend and threw all my Post Office receipts away (a lesson learned but I never imagined someone would wait this long). It was only £4 and £2 postage so I don't want to cause a big issue over it, but what would you say to the buyer?

This is a tricky one because I guess due to the timing of christmas and new year the buyer possibly waited a bit longer before contacting you. Did you send it recorded? and if so did you input the tracking details - although looking at postage you probably didn't

you will just have to refund and claim for the lost item sadly. Not much else you can do. Quite a while for them to contact you though.

Thanks for the replies. Much appreciated. I guess I need to just bear the brunt of it. You wouldn't suggest they check with their local delivery office?

Well, if you've thrown out the Proof of Posting you can't claim. I would ask them to check with their delivery office in case a card wasn't left, but they only keep things for 18 calendar days before returning to the sender. I think you'll just have to refund, and keep your paperwork for longer next time!

I just had one who claimed item not received on Day 45! It was only about £4 also. I just refunded.

I find it hard to believe it got lost in the post as both buyer' s address and my address were on and in the packet twice.

All a bit odd.

I must admit I have had such a low percentage of feedback left for items I sold in the run up to Christmas, that I am a bit nervous that this will happen to me as well!

(Low percentage of feedback as in small numbers of people leaving feedback, not bad feedback!)

Linerunner - glad its not just me it happened to. My parcel went to Oxfordshire. Like you I had my return address very clearly on it.

Purplefrog - lots of people haven't left me feedback for my pre-Xmas clearout but I hate chasing for feedback as some people seem to see it as nagging if you send a polite response and I'd rather have genuinely pleased feedback than a grudgingly OK one.

I guess I'll just refund them. If an item sells for considerably more than I expected I always pay for recorded delivery at my own expense to avoid this sort of thing. Lesson learned about keeping receipts until the 60 day feedback limit is up. Hope nothing else has gone astray.

a buyer only has 45 days to open a not received case, not 60.

Lots of people never leave feedback tbh.

I know lots of people don't leave feedback, but the amount of feedback left for the last 6 weeks before Christmas was easily half of the rate I got for the rest of the year! I guess people were so intent on buying quickly they didn't care about the rest of the process. And it wasn't as if I sold anything BNIB that wouldn't have been opened until Christmas Day.

At least if people leave feedback you know they've received the item. After around 30 days has elapsed I leave feedback for them - sometimes that spurs them into reciprocating. I don't chase for feedback, but I am inching closer to my next star and it is really annoying that the feedback isn't forthcoming.

well you should send recorded or suchlike to prove an item has been delivered - that is part of the paypal agreement.

feedback is purely voluntary and nobody has to leave it - it is not integral to the transaction.

you need to send tracked for seller protection in case of non delivery, with paypal/ebay if no tracking any claim for non delivery will be in buyers favour, seller protection only works if they claim not delivered and a signature proves that it was, it will not provide protection if buyer chooses not to collect from PO item will be returned to you eventually and you will still technically have to refund buyer

there is no obligation to send anything tracked on paypal, it suggests that you do but it is not a requirement of paypal it is a requirement of seller protection with paypal a subtle difference

you will notice that most seller using paypal do not use tracked postage

feedback as fergoose says is voluntary

i find for the very small number of missing parcels it makes more economic / profit sense to bear loss than to send everything tracked

I agree, it makes better financial sense to lose the occasional £4 item than to send everything tracked.

I only send tracked for items over £10 value. Not cost effective.
NOTHING sent to me ever gets lost. NOTHING.

It's a lessons learned, OP, I think buyer was trying to be nice about not bothering you. I just threw out some posting receipts for 2011, I think that was just about safe. At least it's only £6.

we have only ever had one item go missing by courier it was eventually tracked down it arrived 5 weeks later, and one completely lost which has DD birthday present sent by my sister

we have sold well over 1400 items and have only ever had 3 parcels go missing never heard off again, 2 in UK london, one in china, had a 5-6 been very late ie 4 weeks instead of 3 days, I sell mostly china so unfortunately the odd item breaks and I refund but tracking does not cover that anyhow,

people when looking for stuff go on overall price so whether it is £5 with £2.50 ( standard second) postage or £4 with 3..50 ( 2nd tracked) postage means nothing to them as it is all 7.50 in total but as a seller you will make much more profit by selling at £5

i worked out on average sending tracked to be economically sensible would only apply if 1 in 8 parcels went missing

I send tracked over about £25, to asia central and south america and possibly if a newbie buyer

well you should send recorded or suchlike to prove an item has been delivered - that is part of the paypal agreement.

Hmm - I sent an item recorded on the 9th of January. When I check the Royal Mail website it still says:

Item AGB was posted at on 09/01/13 and is being progressed through our network for delivery.

So great proof of delivery! Sigh! At least I haven't heard from the buyer... yet!