seeking advice regarding safe drop and delivery

[lm-entertainment]

hi everyone,

just wanted to seek some advice and see if anyone had had a similar situation happen.

i sold an item to a buyer recently which was sent via Express Post (label printed through MyPost Business). 

before even sending the item i got a message from the buyer saying "the item better not arrived damaged" which made me question his motives to begin with. 

the item was sent and delivered two days later via "safe drop." i've never had any problems with safe drop before. buyer contacts me later that day and says that the item wasn't delivered as the tracking states. i contact AP business support and they said that they have a photograph of the item left at the premises but can't provide it to me; only to the buyer. i tell the buyer, buyer contacts them and comes back to me saying "they said tracking number doesn't exist, were rude and hung up on me." i told him politely to try again and make sure the tracking number he provided was correct. 

meanwhile, i contact AP business support again and ask if they can describe the location in the photo so that i can pass it on to the buyer since they can't give me the photo. they provide a decent description of where it was left and i pass it onto the buyer. 

buyer comes back with "still nothing mate." 

so - the question is (sorry for war and peace) - where do i stand with this? AP seem to indemnify themselves against losses via safe drop by saying the buyer authorises it or the sender upon sending (though there is no option not to allow it via the AP business portal). 

do i tell the buyer i've done everything i can and it's been delivered - and to take it up with australia post? i've been as helpful as i can and can't glean any more info from AP. i assume if he puts in a INR request, it'll be found in my favour since the tracking number shows the item as delivered and AP also have a photo and i have the chat records of them saying the location it was left in. 

i assume regardless i'm getting a negative from the buyer - but i'm trying to work out their intentions. is it to get a free item? surely they would know the game is up though seeing as the item is marked as delivered and AP have the photo. 

would appreciate anyone's thoughts on it :] 

[purplemon18]

Not that it will really help anything, but it occurs to me that you could look on google street view and see if you can spot the pot plant. It would at least give you some idea of how 'safe' it was.

If I got a message saying "it better arrive unbroken", I would probably block the buyer and cancel the order if it was not too late. Even if that customer is legitimate, they are too high maintinance.

[clarry100]

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@tazzieterror wrote:

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@clarry100 wrote:

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Keep in mind tho that if they lose an INR claim they can still say it subsequently turned up and then raise an INAD claim.

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Is that definitely correct?  I only ask because the impression I've was under is that you can only open one dispute through eBay, and regardless of the result you're no longer able to open another (different) one.

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As Lyndal says you can go from INR to INAD, as when it turns up and any INR case is then closed, if there is subsequently something wrong with the item once you did receive it then you should be able to open a INAD case if required.

But for obvious reasons you cannot go back the other way.

Another thing to keep in mind is that a buyer can subsequently resort to a PayPal INR or INAD case, assuming they paid using PayPal. They have up to 180 days to do this and can open a case for the same transaction even if one has previously failed at ebay.

PayPal may find differently than ebay did too.

[lm-entertainment]

thanks for the suggestion - i had actually looked into that before i started questioning him about the tall pot. there wasn't one on street view, but as you're probably aware, the photos on there are quite old now and i believe they only update every 1 - 3 years.