The Wholesale Forums

[paulstanden]

Hi guys i sold a dress about 6 weeks ago now and had an email about 3 weeks ago stating they had not received the dress asking for a refund. this ebay member was brand new to ebay at the time and i asked her kindly to wait to see what happened if i made a claim to royal mail. today i was relieved to see a letter by royal mail and opened it to check. guess what i got a pack of 12 stamps and they won't refund the item costs as they can't see any problems in the system at that time.

so now i have a buyer, who i am convinced is sat there typing these messages demanding a refund, in the dress she bought with a big grin on her face!

do i make a refund or wait and see what happens? i have not heard from her for 2 weeks now though.

[Discount Etail]

Did you send the item recorded mail?

If not, you have no proof they actually received the item so you have no choice but to refund in full and move on!

[Acetech]

I take it from the claim that you did not send it recorded or tracked, if not and the buyer decides to open a paypal dispute you will lose, no doubt about it. They may have recieved it but if you have no way of proving that then they have to be given the benefit of the doubt I'm afraid. You say they haven't contacted for a couple of weeks, is this only because they are awaiting the outcome of the claim with RM? If so, it seems as if they are being pretty patient and alot of buyers would not do that. My advice: refund and take it on the chin and send signed for in future as you are leaving yourself wide open to scammers (though some may be genuine).

[Robin]

If you didn't send as recorded, did you get a proof of postage ??

Not sure why you should assume the buyer has got the dress?

[paulstanden]

i went to the post office that day and was sending 3 exactly same products. i asked for signed for delivery but when leaving the post office i realised that only 1 had been sent recorded my luck it was one of the one's that hadn't been sent recorded that went "missing" as for the question of why i should assume that the buyer has got the dress is the fact that they A - have been so patient. B - it was there very first purchase on eBay and C - they waited 4 weeks before telling me the dress had not turned up in the first place?? very strange if you ask me. do i tell them to make a claim from royal mail? as they are entitled to do this and would more than likely get there money back if the dress really hasn't been delivered.

on a plus note made my first sale of my xbl codes through my website today made more profit than i would through ebay selling 5!!!!

[Acetech]

A - they may just be patient people
B - Everybody made a first purchace once
C - they may just be patient people

Admittedly, they MAY have it, but the issue here is you have no evidence whether they have or not, in the result of a paypal dispute you will lose on that basis. The responsibility is actually on the seller to ensure delivery, not only postage so is responsible for the item until the buyer recieves it, so ALL ebay seller that say they are not responsible for items lost in the post are actually breaching this fact, regardless of whether they send recorded or not, it is un-necessary to purchace extra insurance when offered by a seller to ensure a refund based on lost in post products, as again it is the sellers responsibility to ensure delivery, not the buyers.

The same applies for postal claims, that is the responsibility of the buyer AFTER refunding the item, which as you say you have already attempted and recieved stamps, or are you suggesting they try to claim on the same item that you already have? Which again, will not work as they will now consider this "claim" settled. Though again, sellers that say they will provide a postage reciept to the buyer to make a claim are actually breaching the facts and should never be the case.

As previously advised, you would be better off just giving the refund, settling for your stamps (or disputing that with RM yourself) and making sure that all items are sent recorded to prevent the same from happening in future.

[PT]

If you're selling as a business you HAVE to refund her by law.

Whether her claim is genuine or not, it's part and parcel of running a mail order business. Luckily, the percentage of orders 'lost in the post' is very small, so take it on the chin and move on.

Alternatively, offer to send a replacement free of charge, if you're working on a good margin you shouldn't be too much out of pocket, if at all.

[paulstanden]

Thanks for the feedback guys i think i am going to log in to paypal now and issue the refund. well i think i might give the buyer a quick ring first to let them know. who knows they might have received it now. it wasn't a big profit margin item i sold it for £18 after paying £11 per item. id send another but i had already sold them all on before she informed me that she had not received her item. i suppose if i look at it as a loss of the profit alone it's not to bad its only £7 just means a little set back in building up a decent amount of stock. £100 changed to £300 in just 14 days ain't bad at all

[Acetech]

No, that's pretty good going and a pretty good place to start, there will be setbacks, and after all it could have been a much more expensive lesson, just pick yourself up and move on (recorded all the way), it's not going to make all that much difference and good luck with continuing to grow.

[paulstanden]

Well i will just got a huge payday loan to payback of £250 quid on the 20th so hopefully i can make this success by making my 300 into 600 in the next two weeks then i should be able to build it up worry free