Buyer says they have not got item I sent. Have had email from ebay - What do i do now then? It does not say what I have to do!!?

[LadyOfTheCauliFlowers]

I sent a pair of shoes to France, standard Airmail in 3rd December or somewhen. I have proff of posting, but can't put my hand on it right this second.
They say they have not had the shoes. They paid £50 via paypal for them, as they were only sent standard, I will only be able to claim back £32 for them.
Ebay have sent me an email saying some buyers don't realise how long it can take blah, blah, blah and nothing else on what I now have to do.
The person emailed me a while ago to say theyhad not had them so i checked RM website and it says for sending to France you have to wait 20 odd days or something before they consider it lost, at the time, this timescale had not yet elapsed. I told them so and they said okay, will wait the specified number of days then message you. Okay says I.
Log into my email just now to see that rather than message me as arranged, they have opened a dispute.
I have £1.41 inmy PP account and don't have £50 in my bank account.
What is gonna happen now? Is paypal going to pay them back anyway when I have done all I said.
My postinf rules say if you want extra cover, tell me and I will charge you for it. They didn't.

Please help me, if just to say they will not go ahead and give them money back willy nilly.

if the parcel doesn't turn up after the specified amount of time, you will need to refund them, yes

if you can only recover part of the cost from royal mail I am afraid that is your loss - you need to cover this yourself no matter what your 'posting rules' say. You're responsible for getting the item to the seller and if that doesn't happen, you need to refund in full.

If they paid via paypal, they can do a chargeback & you will have no choice in the matter

If you have proof of postage then it shouldn't be too much hassle should it? It's not your fault, it's the postal companies. If you can prove you sent it, then it's out of your hands. The postal company would need to cough up as it's been their mistake. I'd find the proof of postage asap.

But is Ladyofthe responsible for them arriving safely? I wouldn't say so - she's responsible for posting them, and has proof of that, but whatever happens to them beyond that point isn't her responsibility. The buyer should pay extra for recorded (or equivalent for overseas) - if they don't do this it's their loss IMO. Harsh but fair.

i agree. there is no way would i refund their money if i had posted them, did the parcel require a signature on delivery? if not they could easily be chancing their luck. you cant take responsibility for something you have no control over (royal mail)

but you really should look for that proof of posting!

This is why I always type:

'Once I have posted the item I CANNOT take responsibility for it. I do always keep proof of postage........' on my listings. Too many people looking to get a free ridy at your expense. Though, I have generally always had pleasant enough transactions on ebay. Some poor people do get badly screwed though.

I think franny is spot on

those are paypal rules IIRC

but regardless, legally, I am pretty sure that the onus is on you to make sure that the item actually turns up.

and if those are paypal/ebay rules, no amount of disclaimers on a listing will help, btw. The paypal/ebay rules will be the ones by which the contract is judged.

Its about a year since I last sold on ebay but I'm sure that that was the situation.

mumtocharlottemay - be careful about putting disclaimers like that on your listings. They actually mean nothing and should someone file for a refund due to an item getting lost or damaged in the post you will find out that you are in fact totally responsible and a refund WILL be issued.

Keeping proof of postage, emails, messages etc means nothing. the only thing that can prevent a refund is proof it arrived at its destination - ie a tracking number.

having a disclaimer such as this can put people off from bidding, and much more worrying, it can attract bidders who are out to prove how wrong your disclaimer is.

Sixlostmonkeys I've never had any problems so far but thanks

But a lot of people don't send via recorded delivery. Most of the time the postman just drops it off at the door without needing a signature. The rules around that seem very slack, most people could deny their items had come. Would they then seriously be able to get a refund?

yes they would, bascially

paypal WILL refund if someone claims an item has not been sent

its not fair, I agree, but that is how it works

if you bought something from a mail order company, amazon or similar, and your parcel did not turn up, would you be happy if they said "ah well we DID post it?" Of course not, you would be livid! The responsibility is with the seller to make sure the item arrives safely. You can put what disclaimers you want on your auctions but it only makes you look untrustworthy tbh.

So unless i actually drove the item to France myself, there is no way I can definately got it there. I paid Royal Mail to do a service for me, and just by way of a change, they have mucked up.
Then again, RM may have not lost it, maybe the french mail service did.

I DO have the proof of posting, here in my hand.

The last I heard from the buyer, they wanted me to send THEM the proof, to which I obv. said no as then I would have no proof. Have not heard back since refusing to send the receipt to them.

I agree with frannyandzooey - disclaimers do make the seller appear untrustworthy - it's like they are saying "I'll take your money but once I've posted the item I'm washing my hands of the whole thing" I think the attitude mixed with the lack of knowledge would equal a nightmare should anything go wrong. I always avoid sellers with such disclaimers.

ladycauli - there are trackable ways of sending overseas. I'd say when selling, have a cut off amount at which you always send trackable/insured. It's one of the biggest scams - buy off someone who doesn't send trackable and simply get a refund.
Always cover yourself for amounts you can't afford to write off

yes you paid the mail people to get it there, and they didn't - so you refund your buyer, and claim the money back from the mail people

you don't just say "oh dear not my fault" and leave your buyer out of pocket