Package delivered to wrong suburb, buyer wants refund

[nt_toys]

Today a buyer contacted me and said the package that I had posted on last Tuesday had been marked as 'delivered', but they haven't received it. The suburb that it was delivered to in the tracking didn't match the one that I had posted to. It was a suburb in the same area, maybe 15 minutes apart. It was supposed to go to Harris Park NSW, but it went to Strathfield NSW instead. Item was sent via a prepaid satchel with tracking and worth about $170. No SOD.

The buyer wants me to give them a refund as he sees it as my fault the item wasn't delivered. I opened up a case with Australia Post, but is there anything else I can do in the meantime? 

[ringinthedingding]

Double check the address that you posted to .. there should be a record of any label that you have sent to if the label was generated electronically and an audit trail for you to follow showing the address that ebay sent you with the buyers address detail to post to .. if you have done everything "right" then you can make a claim against auspost but unless the item was insured they try and only reimburse you $50 and the process takes approximately 3 weeks at least from the time you lodge a claim/dispute with them if they arer found to be in the wrong, sometimes auspost may be able to "find" the mising item in this period of time .. let your buyer know what is going on and assure them you are working on it and that they will either be reimbursed or receive their item and ask them to assist this process ..

Your buyer may even be required at some point to make a statutory declaration but perhaps do not mention that up front until they are "on-side" .. if it is in fact an auspost problem and they have delivered this to the wrong address then I think you should mention that you will be looking at legal avenues to recover any loss .. also there may be a possibility that a glitch in the ebay system is reinserting old addresses and over-writing up to date current addresses ..  please let us know how this thing progresses ..

[nt_toys]

Thanks for the quick and indepth reply. I didn't generate the label electronically, as I used a 3kg pre-paid postal satchel in this instance due to the weight and size of the package being more suited for that. However I am definitely sure I didn't mislabel it as I didn't have any other packages being sent to that area at the same time. Could this be an issue since I didn't electronically generate the auto label? I am doing everything I can to assist the buyer, I even asked if he could contact the post office near his area to chase it up, and even try to make a claim for the lost package but he refused to assist in any way.

[*tippy*toes*]

3 things.....

It's advisable that anything over about $70 should be insured, otherwise, as mentioned, the best you can hope for is $50 and even then, you have to fight for it. It's a small price to pay if something goes wrong.

The tracking says delivered, so you should win an eBay dispute. I'm pretty sure that if it's delivered to within a 10km radius, eBay consider it delivered. I personally think that rules sucks, but that's eBay for you. Has the buyer opened a dispute? I would be telling them to. When you win that dispute, he will probably open a PayPal dispute. You should win that one too as you can prove postage.

Lastly, if the buyer is unwilling to help locate the parcel, it could mean that he did in fact receive it and is trying to get a freebie. Does his feedback left for others have many entries where a refund is mentioned?

[letscleanupmycupboards]

nt_toys the sender has to go through the claim process for lost mail.

Irrespective of insurance if it’s proven that Aust post delivered incorrectly they should compensate you but sadly what the buyer says is correct, it’s on you until it arrives.

[*tippy*toes*]

The sender goes through the process for mail that is in transit. Once the tracking shows as delivered, it's the receivers responsibility.

OP, if you are on Facebook, put a post up on the AP page (make sure the page has the blue tick so you know it's the genuine site). I have found them to be very responsive if you are polite and courteous.

[nt_toys]

Thanks everyone for the quick reply to this topic. I'll do whatever I can to chase it up on my end via the forms on AP, and if the buyer proves to be uncooperative in assisting on his end I'll just advise him to open an ebay case. I have checked his feedback and it doesn't show anything like this so he's probably telling the truth. Will update on what happens so that it's at least informative to anyone else who is going to experience this issue in the future.

[ringinthedingding]

"he refused to assist in any way."

.. that sounds a little suspicious .. I had a buyer recently behaving suspiciously with a claim not replying to questions etc so can sympathise if it is what I think it is ..

.. if you made a label yourself and not via ebay or auspost website part of your audit trail is missing and that definitely complicates things ... 

[travelsizeme]

@nt_toys - around 9 months ago I made a purchase online from overseas and I was eagerly watching the tracking as it was an expensive purchase. The day it was finally onboard to be delivered, I was refreshing the tracking all day on the app and then was amazed to see that it was “delivered” to a suburb about 20mins drive away from my post office. I immediately rang Aus post customer service and they looked into it while I was on the phone. They called my post office (it was going to my P.O. Box) and the manager there said it had been delivered to P.O. Box. When I asked why the tracking said delivered to the other suburb, they gave me what sounded like a made up excuse that it was the suburb of the depot and that they do that sometimes? Anyway it didn’t make sense but as I had the goods I was happy. So in summary, just because it says delivered to a particular suburb, doesn’t actually mean it was. Your buyer may very well have received the item and are being dodgy because they’ve seen a wrong suburb listed on the tracking.

Did you take a photo of the satchel before you sent it? I always take a photo of any packed/addressed satchel just before I lodge at the PO, in case I ever need to prove that the parcel was addressed properly/what it looked like.

Best of luck with your case, I hope you have a positive outcome!

[nt_toys]

Yes, I did have a few packages that were delivered to the wrong suburb, but the buyer informed me they received it. I was thinking this could be the case as well since AP just flags it as delivered but they put in the wrong suburb. Unfortunately in this instance I didn't take a photo of the package, much to my anger. But here's hoping by lodging the case, AP will be able to track and trace what happened. Hopefully be able to get to the bottom of this soon enough.