Sendle lost my parcel won't reimburse me ..buyer wants their money

[grace070315]

I used Sendle to ship my ebay sale.. the buyer had paid $71 including post for this item. Sendle picked it up from my house scanned it into their system and then it disappeared. Three weeks later after my buyer complained, Sendle says the parcel is lost. What's worse is they are refusing to reimburse me the cost if the lost parcel. My ebay buyer is obviously expecting a refund. But why should I be out of pocket $71 because of Sendle's negligence. what can I do?

[clarry100]

Hopefully it will work out for you.

As long as your tracking number shows that it was lodged with the carrier and it can be linked into the buyer's paypal shipping address you should be OK with PayPal.

Please stop back in and let us know how you go with it.

[clarry100]

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@grace070315 wrote:
Ok thankyou I will get the buyer to start a PayPal claim in that case

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Once they open the case make sure that you upload the tracking number onto the case.

Even if you already loaded it against the original order on ebay do it again on the PayPal case. This just makes 100% sure they can see it.

Once that is done I would be on the phone to discuss the case with PayPal personally. Do not escalate the case at any time.

I have found their CSR's to be quite understanding and helpful.

Given that you have proof of postage, try to persuade them (gently) to see in your favour and close the case in your favour.

Then any refund to the buyer should come from PayPal not you.

Then the buyer could re-buy the item (if you have a repeat of it) and try again if they still have the confidence to further deal with you.

To me this should be the cleanest outcome.

I think if your buyer chooses to raise the case via ebay MBG the outcome is going to be quite different.

I think they would likely refund from your funds as the tracking number does not show delivered, and likely never will since it is lost.

Then you would need to pursue other avenues to recover your lost funds.

[grace070315]

Now my buyer is saying they don't have time to go through the PayPal resolution system and just want a refund.. wondering if I can initiate the claim as the seller. Will have to check it out. Thanks for the suggestions. Still waiting for Sendle to get back to me. Such a debacle

[lyndal1838]

If the buyer will not go through a dispute it sounds very suspicious.

Don't refund yet....at the very least wait till Sendle gets back to you.

[davewil1964]

What Lyndal said.

The buyer has avenues to protect them. If they choose not to use them it sounds a bit suss.

The ball is in their court. If they want reimbursement, they have the tools. I would not be facilitating what could potentially be fraud, as it seems possible the buyer might have actually received the item. I would keep on hassling sendle/the courier, I'd go sendle, but I would not be refunding the buyer until that avenue was exhausted.

[clarry100]

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@grace070315 wrote:
Now my buyer is saying they don't have time to go through the PayPal resolution system and just want a refund.. wondering if I can initiate the claim as the seller. Will have to check it out. Thanks for the suggestions. Still waiting for Sendle to get back to me. Such a debacle

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It takes but a couple of minutes for the buyer to initiate a PayPal claim.

As others have said this seems a little suspect if the buyer is pushing back on it as they may not want it on their official buying record for some reason. Certainly do not refund them just yet.

I don't believe you would be able to initiate an INR claim in this case as its not you who is missing the parcel. You are the seller not the buyer.

I think I would be inclined to call PayPal and discuss your concerns so far. As I said before their CSR's seem to have a better understanding of these matters than ebay's and tend to be a little more supportive of the seller, especially if you have a clean seller track record and its clear you have done everything you reasonably could in this case.

They may be able to give you good advice on how best to proceed.

[digital*ghost]

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@grace070315 wrote:
Now my buyer is saying they don't have time to go through the PayPal resolution system and just want a refund.. wondering if I can initiate the claim as the seller. 

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Just so you know, the chance of the buyer's claim actually being successful is not very high.

You have proof of postage so you definitely won't lose a PP claim, which actually means the claim will be found in your favour and any refund to the buyer would be 100% discretionary on PayPal's behalf (there is a clause in the PP Buyer Protection policy that essentuially states the buyer is not eligible for protection if the seller provides proof of postage, and further on it clarifies that the case can be found in favour of the seller and no refund provided, even if the buyer doesn't receive their items).

If they open an eBay request, the opposite will happen, basically, so you really need Sendle to take some liability for this (very poor form / practice if they won't. I received a parcel sent through them earlier in the year no probs, and it was significantly cheaper than the alternatives, but things like this would make me think twice about using them again as a sender or receiver - how any business can get away with trying to say they're not liable for things like this is beyond me 😞 ). 

[lukekfreeman]

I had success with the PayPal resolution a couple of years back. It makes sense that the buyer has to initiate the process because there is definitely an issue of buyer fraud that I've personally known people being affected by.

Also, whether it's health insurance gap or your car insurance, insurance pretty much always has excess. Often the administration costs aren't even covered by the excess amount therefore insurers have excess to the policy to avoid such minor claims. Also insurers charge excess’s is to try and avoid fraud. Insurance companies are taken for millions annually due to fraudulent claims, therefore they enforce an excess to try an avoid such claims. Often this is the terms of the insurer and the company using them often cannot choose to dictate the terms (unless they're a huge company).

In some cases you can pay extra to reduce or get rid of excess but that option isn't always available. Looking at Sendle's T's and C's it looks like the insurance you got was free anyway (a bargain compared to Auspost).

Personally I'm not happy with paying for other peoples fraudulent claims by paying extra for no exess so I accept that there's always risks in life and on balance a reasonble excess makes sense. Also, claims for less than $100 aren't worth MY time claiming. As a buyer the PayPal resolution was easy compared to any claim I've ever made for anything else – for something less than $100 I'd go down that route.

[zzrmags]

We just had the same thing happen with Sendle.

Package is lost and they wipe their hands off it.

Value is under $100 so tough luck, no insurance payment.

Wondering if VCAT is an option seeing as nowhere during the booking process does it state anything about the $100 excess.

[clubesquire]

....and here I was, just about to open an account with Sendle after a good word about them just recently. NOT NOW!!

I wonder how many 'potential' as well as 'current' customers they lose, or are prepared to lose, $100 excess or otherwise?

Wishing you luck.

Melina.