Rude Buyer

[munchkin83munchkin]

In all my time, I've not come across such a rude buyer.  I understand that he was upset because his parcel arrived with Aust Post with them telling him he had to pay $13.70 as there was no postage on the parcel.  But surely logic would tell you that something must have gone wrong, as how would it be possible for me to take a parcel to the post office and say "Here you are, please send this parcel for me to Tasmania and by the way I'm not going to pay for it"

No....I got an extremely rude message accusing me of being sneaky and deceitful for sending him his parcel and not paying for the postage.

I calmly wrote back and expalined that I had paid postage and if you give me a few minutes I will send you a copy of the receipt.

To that he responded that I was a liar and there was no way that I even took it to a post office because if I had I would have provided the tracking number and demanding the postage he paid back.

I told him I did add the tracking number once I had it and I gave it to him again as I wanted him to go to the AP website so he could see that it was lodged, went to Sydney and the last tracking showed it was in Transit to Tasmania.

No....again I was just a rotten liar and a thief

I asked him to send me a picture of the parcel and the receipt for the extra payment he had made to AP.  And to my shock, the original label that had been put on the box at my post office was gone!  And AP had put another label on the parcel with no payment....so somehow the original label had come off the box.  I've been selling for years and have never experienced this.

So being the rotten, thieving scoundrel that I am, I call AP helpline, sat in a queue for 25 minutes and then explained to them what the situation was.  They were as shocked as I was and agreed that the only explanation was that somehow the label had come off the box.  They said that to refund the receiver he would have to call them himself and give them his banking information, so we agreed that it would be easier to send it to me and for me to refund it to him to his paypal account.

But I said I wanted an email sent to me explaining the whole situation so I could send it to the buyer, as I know that if I just reimbursed him he would still not believe me.

He has now been reimbursed and I've sent him copy of original receipt with tracking number and a copy of the email from AP admitting fault......and guess what......no apology!

Oh well....that's my rant and now I feel better.

P.S. Has anyone else had this experience with an AP parcel?

[davewil1964]

No, to your actual question.

I always ensure the label is securely affixed to the parcel.

As for the rest, if I was a buyer being charged for postage, I would be  less than happy. And all the 'proof' I was provided wouldn't count for anything unless and until I was refunded. At which point I would be unlikely to congratulate the seller for the angst I had gone through.

Secure your labels.

[digital*ghost]

Just some questions... 

To start with - how did they figure out where to deliver the parcel if your label was completely gone? (i.e. if no info from a label, then the only other thing they could have done is open the package to access an invoice with the delivery name & address on it, so a subsequent question would be did the buyer indicate the package was opened and resealed - if that didn't happen, AP had access to more than enough info to know A) where to deliver it, and B) that postage had already been paid, since that would mean they accessed their own records, and could see in the tracking history that the package had been lodged and therefore accepted for delivery. They have it in their T&Cs that if a package is accepted for lodgement, it will be treated as fully paid regardless of whether it was undercharged or not).

Re: the buyer, with these situations is best to just ignore the anger and address the issue as best you can. In my experience, people are typically averse to apologising if they've made assumptions and ranted / raged at a seller about something, those kinds of people are more likely to equate satisfaction with justification for the less than desirable elements of their behaviour, so better for your own mental health to just deal with them swiftly and move on. 

[kopenhagen5]

Had you affixed the label or was it the post office putting the label on ?

Those stickers the PO uses (which only has the cost) have very strong adhesive and I can't imagine them ever coming off.

[countessalmirena]

I agree that in dealing with an angry or upset buyer, the best thing to do is to de-jalapeño the situation. (Take the heat out of it.) Look solely at the issue, not the mode of expression.

To avoid the same situation from happening again, I agree that you might want to be looking at ways that you can be sure the label won't come off. When a buyer received a parcel where there's apparently no postage paid, and he/she is required by AP to fork out the postage amount (again), it creates a situation wherein the buyer is already feeling outraged and put on the spot. In that mood, the buyer is almost certainly going to assume that the seller's made an error (or done it deliberately) at their expense. From there, your immediate option should be apology-mode and initiating the process of recompense to avoid inflaming the situation any further.

Spoiler

Of course, by "initiating the process", I don't mean issuing a refund immediately without investigating what has happened. That would be foolish; it would make you an easy mark for an automatic refund to any buyer who complains.

[munchkin83munchkin]

Australia Post put the labels on.

Sorry, but I wouldn't carry on like a total spud, especially when the explanation was given and proof of payment and I was told that myself and Aust Post were in the process of working it out.

[munchkin83munchkin]

I hand write the address clearly with black marker on the parcel and I take it to my local post office where they weigh and measure it and put the appropriate label on the parcel to show that it has been paid for.  Not sure if I am doing it different to other sellers.  I've never got into printing postage labels via ebay, etc.

I had the parcel sealed with masking tape and I think the girl at the post office may have put the label ontop of the masking tape rather than the actual cardboard box....so maybe it doesn't stick to masking tape as well?  I will be sure to avoid that situation again.

It stayed on from my Wollongong suburb as far as to Sydney where the tracking showed that it was in transit to Tasmania so must have come off somewhere along that route.

Yes, they were extremely irate which I can understand...but it was the outright rudeness that got to me.  There is a way to deal with things appropriately and not call someone a liar and a cheat.  I could even cop that on the chin with the initial message, as I would have been shocked by that situation if it had happened to me, but when it is explained to you and proof shown and then you get 3 more messages again calling you a liar and a cheat and several other offensive things.....that is uncalled for in my book

[munchkin83munchkin]

I know....tell me about it.  I know how strong the adhesive is. Even the people at Aust Post helpline couldn't understand how it happened and I had to be transferred to a manager to sort it out.  I had taken 6 parcels and wondered if they missed putting label on that parcel, but if that were the case it wouldn't have shown tracking to Sydney.  I've not ever had this happen in years and years of selling

[munchkin83munchkin]

P.S. Sorry, no I didn't affix the label Aust Post did and as you said it was the really sticky one with the postage price

[danieh_6]

I have a questions how did AP know where to deliver without the label? Idk this whole post seems a bit "off"

Secondly digighost said they could open in and find the invoice, - thats incorrect, the item needs to be "lost" for 60 days before opening, its illegal to open a parcel without legal authority.