What to do with letters marked Return To Sender?

[spacetomatoes]

Hello 🙂 I sent out an Ebay item last week by large letter and today it came back to me marked RTS.

Do you think I should contact the buyer? Or wait for the buyer to contact me? If I do contact the buyer, what kind of message should I send?

Do I offer a refund? The entire amount or the amount minus postage? Or do I offer to resend it and ask politely if they could send a little extra for shipping? Or send it again for free?

Thank you!

[curraone · Accepted solution]

I would email the buyer and tell them what happened.    Ask them what they want you to do.

I have had this happen before and I enclosed a photo of the returned item (some buyers just can't believe it)

[mbselections00]

I have had it happen twice with Registered Large Letters. Which I think can be the problem - Postie forgets to Card, or customer forgets (or can't be bothered) to collect.

In my cases, two totally different customers.  One was terribly apologetic, had been admitted to hospital unexpectedly and was unable to pick up from PO before it was returned - she was absolutely lovely & offered to pay postage costs again - because she was so nice, I didn't accept her offer.  The other, total opposite, offered no excuse and pretty much demanded I resend at my expense !  I did, just to avoid a neg. but she also made it to my 'Special' list 

[beautbots01 · Accepted solution]

Yes, you need to contact your buyer.  Also check that the address on the envelope matches that on Paypal to make sure the error wasn't due to you sending to the wrong address.  

You should not have to pay for another lot of postage if buyer was at fault (ie not advising change of address).  But having said that as suggested above this can cause a bad reaction from the buyer if they are so inclined.

You will need to wait to see what the buyers' response is to your message.  Make sure all messages are through eBay to avoid any issues.

[digital*ghost · Accepted solution]

I had this happen yesterday on an unregistered large letter. The item was sent very early October, and I hadn't received any enquiries from the buyer all that time. I contacted them yesterday and just asked them to confirm their postage address so I could check it was the same as the one provided on the order details. 

They replied quite quickly and confirmed I had the addresss exactly right, but didn't say anything else, so I have no idea why it was returned, the name was correct as well, so it wasn't something like an unrecognised addressee, could just be they changed their mind and decided to RTS instead of opening and paying for postage back...

In any case, I let them know that in cases where a correctly addressed item is refused or not collected, I can either refund the item price, or resend if the extra postage is paid, and to let me know if they have any questions or concerns. (Haven't had a reply yet - if unresponsive, I would issue the refund). 

[lousbloomingarden]

Ha...just be grateful  it actually came back. Of course you would contact them to  check their address. if they gave you wrong address just ask them to pay the postage again...

[spacetomatoes]

Oh wow, thank you everyone for all the replies and advice!

The item was sent correctly to the address provided however it was a business address...so I guess they may have changed jobs or maybe reception didn't know who they were?

@curraone - I think I will contact the buyer first to gauge their attitude and ask them what they would like to do, and include a picture as you suggested.

@mbselections00 - Thanks for sharing your experiences! I wouldn't mind losing out on the postage as it's not a lot of money but it always easier to take a loss when your buyer is lovely 🙂

@beautbots01 - I will definitely send my messages through Ebay. I do agree that sellers shouldn't have to pay extra postage if the buyer is at fault but this is a unregistered letter with no tracking and you are correct in saying I cannot be sure the buyer will not react negatively.

@digital*ghost - Thank you for your advice! It never occurred to me that maybe the buyer might change their mind and put RTS on it...I hope your RTS situations goes well and I will get in contact with my buyer. Your policy of refunding the item price or asking for the postage sounds good so I may ask my buyer that too, thank you!

@lou - haha, yes, I am very happy I got it back. It is definitely a step up from it being lost. I will ask the buyer to confirm their details then see how it goes.

[curraone · Accepted solution]

And don't open the envelope - all going well, the buyer will re-confirm the address or give you a new one, and you can put a sticker over the RTS and say 'PLEASE FORWARD TO......."    and it won't cost you any more postage.

[dazzledayz]

Actually, if the address is confirmed correct Aus Post will resend it for nix.

(I usually check it in Google maps street view to make sure).

I had a problem with a parcel a while back that went back and forth to Victoria 3 times at initial cost only.

No extra payment was required.

It turned out to be customer error as a redirect was in place but not in her name, only her hubbies.

AP were still very good about it.

Your local postmaster will be able to help you over the counter.

[spacetomatoes]

@curraone - Oops too late since I opened it up to see which order it was haha. That's ok...I'm not too fussed.

Anyway, an update on the situation - I heard back from the buyer and they want me to send it back to the same address but to add the company name to the letter because packages keep getting delivered incorrectly?

That's fine though I wish they had just included that in their Paypal address if this has been an ongoing problem. They have not given any consideration to my added postage costs so I'll probably take the loss this time and not transact with them in the future.

@dazzledayz - That sounds interesting; I've never heard of Australia Post doing that! So next time, if I have an item returned to me, I can take it to the post office counter and ask them to try again?