Buyer saying item hasn't arrived

[crunchtimes]

My Dh posted the parcel for me last Monday, 1st Class (but he didn't get tracking or proof of postage).
The buyer is saying it hasn't arrive, the box would be too big for most people's letterboxes, so I asked the buyer to check with the post office, if its not there, does anyone know what do I do next?

Your DH is an idiot, you'll probably have to refund if no proof of postage

Even a proof of postage from the post office has a reference number that you can use to check if the item has been delivered or not.

Did your DH get a receipt? POP is usually on that.

Ask the buyer to open a not received case with eBay and if it doesn’t show up by next Monday (I will accept items are lost if they don’t show up after a week) then refund the buyer.

Something similar happened to me years ago when l sold something on ebay. Buyer was insisting they hadn't received it, so l refunded them. About three weeks later it came back to me, with a sorting office sticker on it, so l can only assume they didn't put a card through the buyers door to inform them they were holding the parcel. Fortunately l always get proof of posting now!

not all receipts from the Post Office have tracking numbers on... Only if it's been posted tracked and/or signed for. Unless it's been sent tracked or signed for then you can't track it as there's no reference number. If the buyer opens a claim and you can't prove they've received it ( which you can't ) then it will go in the buyers favour and the money will be taken out your account to refund them.

I've sold a lot of stuff on Ebay/Depop where the buyer has claimed it hasn't turned up just to get their money back and have the item for free but have always managed to prove it so they might have the item but obviously nothing you can do. When did it get posted?

lucy the majority of post offices now send parcels with a system that offers a proof of delivery. There is a reference number on the proof of postage and if you enter it on the track and trace section on the Royal Mail website, it tells you if the item has been delivered.

This has been the case for over six months now, and I have used it to win a few not received cases with eBay.

19lottie82 yeah that's what I was saying, if you post a parcel just 1st class there will be no reference number but if you send something using " tracked " or " signed for " which is a bit more money then you can track it

He didn't get a receipt (or lost it) either so pigs might be right.
To be fair it was only a £20 item, which was something I got given to me for free over 10 years ago, so no big loss.
Just annoying because the buyer seems to a bit dodgy looking at the feedback, but I don't think there's anything I can do.

lucy no, I’m talking about items that are just sent regular first or second class, not signed for. You can still get proof of delivery from the reference number on proof of postage.

Just make sure they open a not received case before you refund. This puts a lot of would be scammers off as it alerts eBay to their claims if they are doing it on a regular basis.

Great, thanks lottie .
It might just be the post, I just received a letter today dated 16th Jan telling me my water supply might be turned off last Monday!

the royal mail website says you can get proof of delivery and a tracking number when you send something " signed for ". hope it gets sorted OP

lucy yes......... but you ALSO get it with items sent normal first or second class. You didn’t used do but you do now, it’s a relatively new thing.

As an eBay seller this is great for me because it removes the expense of having to send everything signed for but gives me a Protection against scammers who claim not have to have received their item.

You can still get proof of delivery from the reference number on proof of postage.

But often not. I'm looking at a couple of proofs of postage right now and neither have a reference number.

This is the reason I stopped selling on eBay. Hadn't really sold much before then had a bit of a clear out and sold a few items. In hindsight I should have tracked the items, but I didn't. Two people insisted their items didn't arrive, so PayPal refunded them. Now I've posted lots of presents etc to friends and family over the years and never once has anything gone missing in the post. Yes I could have sold things again and tracked delivery to cover myself, but I just couldn't be bothered if that's the sort of people that are buying items. Seems to be a well known scam.

If I don't use tracking (low value items) I'd say between 5 to 10% of ebay items I send to buyers are "lost in the post".

If I think about normal (non-ebay) post, in the past X decades I've had two things (that I know about) disappear. And one of those was a company "losing" a letter I sent them which they didn't want to deal with.

Lottie is correct. Proof of postage costs no more than normal postage but has a reference number which tells you the item has been delivered. Tracked and signed is also proof of delivery with the added bonus of showing where the item is in the delivery process. Proof of postage ref number can now be added to ebay like a regular tracking number. As far as I recall speaking to Post Office staff all parcel receipts will automatically have this reference number even if you didn't specifically request a POP certificate. It is useful for low value items and I too have proved delivery using this number. I always send tracked if item is worth anything over £10-£15
If you have not got or lost the receipt then you will have to suck it up and refund I'm afraid. Lesson learned, don't worry about it, move on.

I had an item not arrive. I found the sorting office at the receiving end and arranged re-delivery via Royal Mail. I did not use Recorded delivery, the item was delivered in the end.

It was a case of either no card being left, or card being muddled in with the mail for the entire building, never found out which. I just took a chance that it was at the sorting office and it was.

I recently had someone claim item not received and opened a case against me. It wasn’t an expensive item (around £10) so I’d just used proof of postage knowing that easily covered the cost of the item. I checked the reference number and showed as having been delivered the day after I posted it. Contacted the post office who said “to avoid fraud the intended recipient needs to confirm, in writing, that the item was not received”. I told the buyer this and suddenly the case was closed “as item now received”. Chancer? I think so... blocked bidder now.