Royal Mail left my parcel "with a neighbour"

[INXS]

Ok - slightly rambling background here.

I now live outside the UK, but ordered a few baby items on ebay from a single seller.

Because of the combined postage, the seller (who seems very genuine) and I couldn't make it work (ebay kept trying to charge me for 4x postage when it added them all together) so I suggested I just pay directly via paypal. (I know - mistake.)

I arranged for the parcel to go to my PIL, who are still in the UK.

Paid, parcel sent... but not received. I waited 2 weeks then checked in with the seller. They sent me a screenshot of the tracking info - status "Delivered to your address or a neighbour".

My PIL have very kindly checked with their immediate neighbours, but I can't have them knocking in every door on the street! What do I do? I've let the seller know, but it's not their problem either.

Can Royal Mail really do this - leave parcels with any old person and not give details of whom?

Firstly, try to track the parcel down - Your best bet is to ask you PIL to speak to your postman and see where he delivered it to. You can also ask for proof of delivery on the RM website and thee should be a signature and the name of who signed for it.

If you don't get anywhere then you need to speak to the seller, be nice, as they are under no obligation to help you here (and this would still be the case even if you had completed the purchase through eBay, as they have "proof of delivery").

Royal Mail won't engage with you formally as their contract is not with you, but the seller. You need to ask the seller to contact RM and clearly state that despite the tracking, the parcel has not been received by your PIL's or by any neighbours. If the RM can't locate your parcel then they SHOULD compensate the seller which he can pass on to you, but this is obviously just if the seller is willing to play ball.

Ah thank you - excellent advice. Will start with the postman idea! So simple!

... too simple. Apparently they don't have that sort of postman, always arrive at random times, never the same one.

So I guess my next step is to get back in touch with the seller? :( They didn't reply to my last email.

Boo.

Unfortunately yes, keep trying with the seller and as I said, you catch more flies with honey.

If you don't hear anything I'd open a non receipt case with eBay. Normally they won't refund when there is a PoD but a few years ago I sent some concert tickets which were showing as delivered. The buyer claimed not to have received them so I advised her to open a case. I uploaded the tracking details and she was awarded a "non fault" refund by eBay (I didn't have to cover it), so it's worth a shot?

PS did you check the signature and name of who signed for it online? Maybe one of your neighbours will recognise the surname and point you in the right direction?

The thing is I did it off Ebay - god knows why - it was getting confusing so I just thought "let's just do it privately".

So Ebay won't help.

Thanks so much for replying. The Royalmail website it weird - I don't think there is a signature - in fact I just asked for second class postage, so I'm surprised there was any record at all.

Oh okay , sorry I forgot that part. It prob won't make you feel any better, but eBay would have most likely found in the buyers favour anyway as they have online tracking which shows it as delivered.

If there is tracking, there will be a signature and typed in surname of who signed for it. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and it should be there. If It isn't obvious but there will be a small hyperlink somewhere on the page which shows it as "delivered" once you enter the tracking details.

I've attached a screenshot for you, it's a bit blurry, but you can get the gist of it.

PS If you paid via PayPal, what kind of payment was it? Friends and family, or for goods and services?

PS If you want to PM me the tracking number that shows it as "delivered to a neighbour" I can have a look for you

You're amazing - let me have a look! Thank you x