buyer says Hermes initiated a "return to sender" not him

[fairisledog]

I sold an item on ebay and used their packlinc service.

The tracking shows the parcel as due out for delivery yesterday between 12 and 2pm. It then shows "Return to sender requested" at 12.45pm yesterday.

Buyer is saying there was some sort of code missing from the label generated by the ebay packlinc system and it's Hermes requesting return to sender not him. Presumably he is expecting me to receive it back and re-send (at my expense).

Is this some sort of scam ? Does anyone have any experience of this ?

"Some sort of code"?

Sorry but this doesn't make any sense - how would the buyer know this? What "code" does he think is missing? An access code for his building?

No either the buyer has refused delivery.
Or the courier can't deliver for some other reason.

You need to get in touch with ebay CS, but be warned - expect many frustrating phonecalls with them and packlink as unfortunately Hermes won't talk to you directly.

I would say that they had rejected it, even if by mistake because they pressed the wrong link while tracking it

But check the delivery address on the eBay order to see if there is some form of code - it may be to a collection point rather than the buyers home address

I had an issue with collection codes once when I bought some items that I needed by midweek to take for an event on a long weekend - I needed to be on the way on the Thursday.
To minimise the risk of late delivery I had them sent to a garage halfway between home and work.
The sender didn’t write the code number in the address, only my name and the garage address. The garage would not accept delivery - against the terms as they could not register receipt. It all went back and forth - even getting back to them at one point they still resent it without the reference

Thanks for the responses.

I've contacted Hermes who sent me a "holding" e-mail telling me they will look into it.

I think the buyer was having it sent to a local shop collection point instead of their home address for some reason. I should have spotted that this was their first ever purchase (zero feedback).

After it was showing in the tracking as there being an issue with delivery, the buyer messaged to ask me to send it to a different address but until Hermes return it to me I'm stuck in the middle of buyer and courier firm.

My fundraising clear-out was going so well too up to this point.

Worked with Hermes for years, the courier regularly marks things as return to sender can be anything from the parcel being a bit damp so not 100% legible or they misscanned it, I wouldn’t be so quick to blame the buyer.

I ordered some clothes from Next a couple of weeks ago that were sent in 2 different parcels with Hermes. One of them was returned to the sender, with no attempt at delivery. The other arrived fine.

Around our area, Hermes are really awful. They can't be bothered to drive out to us as we're a couple of miles out of the nearest town so it's not worth their delivery cost. I try to avoid using Hermes wherever possible. DPD are much better.

I wouldn't necessarily blame the buyer.

The damn thing has arrived back with me and the buyer isn't responding to messages.

I wonder if they're going to request a refund.

I've said that if they amend their e-bay registered address I'll send it to that address if they pay for the re-delivery.