Do you believe buyers who claim their item did not turn up in the post?

[Tryharder]

[sigh]

Have had 3 buyers in as many months all claiming their items did not turn up so I have duly refunded.

However, I am finding it hard to believe that RM are really this crap - I don't sell that much stuff really.

It would be a great scam, really wouldn't it? Get something nice delivered to your door, claim it didn't turn up and then get all your money back...No questions asked.

What really pisses me off is the rude, offensive and largely illiterate emails that these people are sending e.g. WHERE IS MY DRESS IT HAS BEEN A MONTH NOW I DEMAND A FULL REFUND.

I might have to start sending recorded only -didnt want to do this due to the extra cost.

Is there any way of letting other sellers know that buyers have claimed a refund in case they make a habit of it?

No - this happened to me with a buyer who hid her feedback. She was emailing me within 48 hours demanding to know if I'd posted the item yet - and the emails were SHOUTY AND AGGRESSIVE AND POORLY WORDED. Anyway, upshot was that she refused to wait, said she hadn't got the items (this was less than a week after I sent them, and it was the time of the really heavy snow), said she didn't think she was ever going to get the item and escalated a claim - and of course PayPal refunded her the money.

If I ever sell again I'll only post by recorded delivery. Ebay seems to have swung so much in favour of the buyer now, and it puts you off selling anything.

I have sent/received many many items on Ebay and have only once had a buyer claiming she hadn't received a parcel I sent her.

I advised her I sent it by "signed for" by RM (I hadn't said on the advert that I always get items recorded delivery so she could have been trying it on thinking I sent it in normal, untraceable post). She left positive feedback about 3 weeks later.

If you have 3 seperate buyers in as many months then actually, there could be something in it as the buyers are presumably not connected in terms of their delivery locations which suggests something may be going amiss closer to home.

Could you use a different PO instead?

Don't

Sorry, don't know where the rogue "don't" came from!!!

I think the more you use the postal service, the odds are the more likely it will happen that stuff gets lost.

(I've had a couple of items not show up, and I have wondered if the seller has believed me)

I always send recorded delivery but don't advertise it so that if they claim an itme hasn't been recieved i will know they are trying to con me.

the problem with recorded delivery is that postie just shoves item through the letterbox anyway.

this has happened to me a few times and its not on when an extra service has been paid for! did tell seller/s concerned but not sure what can be done about it?

It does sometimes happen. The very first item I bought on eBay didn't turn up. I sent a very polite email to the seller who failed to respond. I sent a second email. Again he failed to respond. I then posted negative feedback about him. Only after I posted the feedback did he refund me but he gave me tit-for-tat negative feedback. Anyone looking at my feedback at that point would have thought me a bad buyer. Thankfully, I've since had lots of good feedback but that one still rankles.

I had something not turn up in the UK ( I'm in Ireland) and I was a bit suspicious at the time but concluded that it had been genuine.

Once something didn't turn up here but it turned out it was sitting in the sorting office and no-one in the post-office had told me!

I always post trackable, even international. Its a big well known scam, if you, as the seller can't prove it was delivered (ie recorded delivery tracking number) the PP will always find the favour of the buyer. I know of a person on eBay who claims regularly that her items haven't been recieved, I have blocked her and refuse to buy from her too

I take it when items are claimed a not being received, you are making claims against RM?

as the seller you have to refund then make a claim yourself from RM.

I make it a blanket rule that you can only have your item by ordinary post if you pay by bank transfer or cheque. If you pay by Paypal I only send recorded tracked delivery, no exceptions.

The good thing is that it seems to encourage people to pay by bank transfer, so I don't have to lose a cut to Paypal or suck up their crappy exchange rate.

I also check bidders' "feedback left for others" and block or cancel bids from people who have left a lot of unreasonable negative feedback for sellers. I think 5% of buyers on eBay cause 90% of the problems, and life's too short to deal with the a-holes.

It happens, unfortunately. I'm currently missing 2 ebay packages (things I've bought) but I am in Italy....(in fact was saying to dp this morning I have to make a trip to the Inferno which is the local PO parcel room- has to be seen to be believed) to have a rummage myself....Bizarrely, when I'm posting to the UK it all seems to turn up, it's the stuff within Italy which is a 'mare. (I only post RD within Italy, but normal outside!)
That said, in 5 years, I've had 1 parcel of mine (sold) not turn up and about 4 that I've bought. I've never though left negative feedback for the seller- as it's obviously not their fault.

I do claim through royal mail who refund me the cost of the postage and winning bid so if Ive sold something for 99p and it cost 1.87 to post, they have refunded me £2.86 in stamps or thereabouts. However, this doesnt account for the fact that an item of mine is missing - albeit a piece of second hand clothing so in the end, I am the loser.

I am going to start sending recorded delivery, dont care if it's expensive. Out of the 3 "missing" items, I only believe one of them; she contacted me straight away and was very apologetic and polite. The other 2 waited 1 - 2 months before putting in a claim and then were ultra-aggressive.

It's pathetic, if you need to lie and go to all the trouble to put in a claim over what is really a couple of quid.

you can claim up to £36 for lost items

I agree with everything said.
I once didn't receive an item, near Christmas. The seller was excellent about it.
I did buy an item which was sold as 1st class recorded delivery but when it arrived was 2nd class standard and I had paid quite a lot for postage.
agree about the RUDE AGGRESSIVE SHOUTY EMAILS too. Would hate to meet these obnoxious people in real life.

I've been selling quite a bit since January and I've had 3 parcels that buyers have 'claimed' have not turned up. I'm not sure whether to believe them or not. I always put my return address on them and funnily enough none have ever come back to me so where oh where did they go?
I've started posting recorded for my most popular items but it's just not worth it for the cheapie things.
The first parcel that went missing I didn't get round to claiming, the second I got a cheque for last week and I've got the form to complete for the third one. I do now say to buyers that claim they haven't received their parcel that I will be claiming from RM and I have to put down all their contact details on the form so that they can expect to hear from them. Don't know if that would put off a scammer or not.
SparklyGothKat do you fancy spilling on your dodgy ebayer so we can all block her?
ninedragons totally agree about the 5% troublemakers!

I now send everything recorded. I ahd someone try it on once, he said the coat which he paid £25 for ahdn't arrived, and put in a claim to paypal. I emailed him and said "Oh I'm surprised you haven't got it, the recorded delivery slip is shoing it has been signed for" (I didn't actually send it recorded) His reply was "Huh, there was no recorded slip on the parcel". SO he was effectively saying he had recieved the coat after all, but paypal, typically, ruled in his favour.
I ams elling some things just now but only becasue it's stuff I am clearing out. After this I think I will finish with ebay, all they care about is the buyer, not the seller

I always just send recorded and add the cost into my postage. I have recently had a parcel not turn upand the seller wanted me to wait for a refund until RM refunded HER! Er, no.

Just say in your ad that you get proof of postage when you post it out and you will supply that to them should the item go AWOL for them to claim back from the post office.

I did have one lady moan that something never arrived - then I e-mailed her a copy of the _signed delivery note before she 'remembered' that she had received the item.

you can't do that I'm afraid wahwahwah - it is the seller's responsibility to claim from RM, not the buyer's

I sold an item recently and was told it had not been received. Thought it might be the bank hols so said to wait a few days. Then I saw the item for sale on a message board, with a link to the original listing. A few days later had an email saying item had not turned up! I messaged back saying I had seen it for sale etc, next day positive feedback was left. Some people will try anything!

I have just had two items that I purchased not show up. I've never had this happen before. One was just an inexpensive pair of pants so I didn't pay for insurance. The other was a vintage ring that I fortunately did insure as it made it partway but then there is no record of it after that. The seller has been very slow to respond to inquiries. He has sent one email with the insurance number, said he would check on it but I finally had to do it myself