When a buyer claims item not delivered

[CrotchetyQuaver]

Can anyone experienced help me out here please?

I sold an item buyer paid just over £5 with postage, I sent item 1st class signed for.

The tracking number indicates Royal Mail attempted delivery but no one seemed to be in. That was 27/3. Buyer opened a dispute today saying items hasn't arrived and they want a refund. I've replied repeating the tracking number (which i has already put down when I marked it as despatched) and the Royal Mail update.

Am I going to be forced to refund her money or am I safe because I have a tracking number and evidence delivery was attempted?

Is this a scam?

Depends on how much you value your feedback.

I would refund it for the sake of a fiver if it was going to take any longer than ten minutes to sort out and if there was a chance of a dispute.

Might be worth ringing royal mail to find out where it is and asking them to reattempt delivery.

If the buyer leaves negative feedback or raises a dispute, use the proof of postage to counter their argument.

Thanks, she's raised a dispute. It know it's their choice, but I would have expected her to send a message first before going straight to the dispute.

You can arrange re-delivery on the Royal Mail site, however if you can get through to anyone that is not offhand and rude and are able to speak to someone phone and ask if it has been delivered yet.

Do not refund straight away as yes, there is a scam where they claim non delivery and when the refund is made they then go and collect the item from the sorting office.

Try to hold off refunding until the item is on the way back to you or has been signed for, I am not sure how long RM hold them for before returning to sender, but I had one returned a while back and it seemed to be quite fast.

BTW if you have proof that the item was not collected of delivery re-arranged and you get a negative you should be able to get it removed if you ask very nicely and explain very carefully to Ebay support, also ensure that all mails are in your Ebay messages so that you can point them out.

Thanks for that. I've asked her to collect from the PO or rearrange delivery for when it's convenient to her and explained about taking ID (handy when my DH is a postie and there are a couple of those we tried to deliver cards on his bedside table telling to what to do). The way the dates work (18 calendar days) she has until Sunday to either collect it herself or have redelivered to her home. So plenty of time! I've just got this bad feeling it's a scam...

Unfortunately if it doesn’t get delivered (whether the buyers fault or not), you will have to refund. Did you put your address as a return address on the parcel? If so you will get it back, at least.

It might be worth pointing out to the buyer that they can re arrange a delivery online, for a day that suits them, so someone will definitely be home to accept it.

I use parcel2go for my eBay selling find them very good price and there tracking is very good.

You can arrange redelivery yourself on Royal Mail website by putting in the tracking number. I've had to do this a few times due to buyers not bothering.

If it hasn't been delivered then it should come back to you and yes you have to refund
It's always best to open a dispute as soon as you have an issue with a purchase as the clock starts counting down for eBay to intervene as soon as you do.

I know sellers get defects on their accounts if Ebay intervene and issue a refund, for wrong item sent or not delivered if no tracking. But I'm not sure with this. Ring Ebay on the help page, they will be able to advise. Or google the problem. I normally do this if I'm unsure and you come across lots of threads in the past on different websites.

I have also arranged a re delivery for someone when they raised a query.

Delivery had been attempted on a Saturday to an office address, and supposedly no card had been left. Buyer queried whether the item had been posted, and correspondence revealed what had happened. I completed the online re-delivery, and also sent and e.mail to RM querying why no card had been left. The reply was that the item had gone missing.

I refunded the buyer and received a reply that the item had just been delivered, so was paid again. For some reason was marked down on delivery time even though delivery had been attempted a couple of days after posting. You can't win.

It is worth arranging it for a Saturday. It is also worth contacting the buyers sorting office and asking where the parcel is. One more thing is to tell the buyer that you will flag it with Royal Mail as there seems to be a problem with missing items at their address. It might turn up then.