topic Re: Item left in safe place and buyer says didnt receive it in Selling

Item left in safe place and buyer says didnt receive it

excellentgood — Sat, 22 Dec 2018 15:07:02 GMT

I have tracking showing that a $250 item i sold was left in a safe place at the buyers address. The buyer claims they did not receive it.

What does ebay do here?

Please dont tell me i will have to refund the buyer. Is this the case?

Please tell me ebay/pay pal will refund them with their own insurance policy.

Re: Item left in safe place and buyer says didnt receive it

excellentgood — Sat, 22 Dec 2018 15:16:45 GMT

I had no insurance. Ive never had an item lost. And i assumed as is the case here that if it is delivered and left in a safe place that the buyer would then be responsible. This sucks! Ive never had an issue and i dont insure items around the $100 mark but for this the same buyer bought two items of $100 each and i put them in the same box and didnt pay for insurance. They were rare collectors items. Australia post says it was delieved on their website... please dont tell me if the buyer says they didnt get it then i have lost $250!

Re: Item left in safe place and buyer says didnt receive it

excellentgood — Sat, 22 Dec 2018 19:11:38 GMT

Update: in thinking this through the item was delivered successfully by Aus Post to the buyers address and then stolen. How could ebay possibly make me responsible for a theft that occurred after the item was delivered to the buyers address?

Does anyone know the ebay policy here

Re: Item left in safe place and buyer says didnt receive it

minimum_56 — Sat, 22 Dec 2018 20:33:53 GMT

Contact Aus Post.
They should be able to tell you where the 'safe' place was where they left the item.

Sometimes they leave parcels in the most obscure 'safe' places & the person receiving the parcel has no idea where it is.
They often take photos of the 'safe' place. Good luck!

Re: Item left in safe place and buyer says didnt receive it

everard6920 — Sat, 22 Dec 2018 20:45:35 GMT

If the tracking shows delivered, then I think you are covered by eBay. My understanding is that, sometimes, eBay will refund the buyer ... but if they choose not to, and your buyer is out $250, expect a red dot (and if they're really ticked, perhaps even a credit card chargeback).

The better course of action would've been to insure the package, as then you could obtain a refund from AP and subsequently refund your buyer.

Without insurance, AP will refund a maximum of $50. You need to contact them and get them to open an investigation, but their official line is that they will only refund anything if it was their fault (eg: delivered to the wrong address) and as I said, the maximum refund would be $50.

They do not usually refund for packages stolen, because they argue that the recipient should supply a safe place to leave the package. However, I managed to get them to refund about a month ago for a stolen package, because the package was given to the postie, and he didn't take a photo of where he safe-dropped it.

Re: Item left in safe place and buyer says didnt receive it

everard6920 — Sat, 22 Dec 2018 20:47:56 GMT

@minimum_56 wrote:
Contact Aus Post.
They should be able to tell you where the 'safe' place was where they left the item.

Sometimes they leave parcels in the most obscure 'safe' places & the person receiving the parcel has no idea where it is.
They often take photos of the 'safe' place. Good luck!

Correct - and it was explained to me that these safe places are becoming increasingly obscure in an attempt to thwart thieves. I know someone that found a package in their power box, and I myself have found one tucked between my wheelie bins around the side of my house.

They should have a photo of where they left it, and if they don't, you might be able to squeeze $50 (the maximum for uninsured packages) out of them.

Re: Item left in safe place and buyer says didnt receive it

eol-products — Sat, 22 Dec 2018 22:22:25 GMT

On items that are large or over a certain amount it is worth spending the $2.95 for signature on delivery so parcels are not safe dropped. Insurance does not stop the use of safe drop and not sure if it would help as they still say it is delivered.

Re: Item left in safe place and buyer says didnt receive it

jellybirddesigns — Sun, 23 Dec 2018 00:15:07 GMT

If the buyer opens a case for "Item Not Received", it will close automatically in your favour as the tracking will say delivered (I assume you put the tracking number into the order when you originally shipped).

Just because the carrier has left it in a "safe place" doesn't mean anything.

- The "safe place" could have been the garbage bin (seriously)

- Someone could have seen where the carrier put the item and then stolen it afterwards

- Another family member could have brought it into the house but not told the buyer

- It could have been delivered to the wrong address

- The buyer could be trying to scam you

You don't need signature on delivery with items under $750 and anyway, again it means nothing if the item is delivered to the wrong house and some random person signs for it.

At the end of the day, the item shows as "Delivered" and that is where your responsibility as a seller ends.

Re: Item left in safe place and buyer says didnt receive it

kopenhagen5 — Sun, 23 Dec 2018 05:26:21 GMT

At the end of the day, the item shows as "Delivered" and that is where your responsibility as a seller ends

jellybird, I know the point you are making but when I sell my responsibility goes to giving good customer service and it wouldn't end at tracking showing delivered.

My responsibility would continue to help in finding what happened especially in opening an enquiry with AP.

Re: Item left in safe place and buyer says didnt receive it

joz*garage — Sun, 23 Dec 2018 06:59:58 GMT

I was notified by AP that my item was delivered in a safe place, so i went hunting for it.. **sigh, i found it dumped on the ground in front of the letterbox, cheap item..but still, any passer by could have pick it up and walked off with it.

so i filled out a AP service survey about it, not impressed

Re: Item left in safe place and buyer says didnt receive it

everard6920 — Sun, 23 Dec 2018 08:22:24 GMT

@kopenhagen5 wrote:
At the end of the day, the item shows as "Delivered" and that is where your responsibility as a seller ends

jellybird, I know the point you are making but when I sell my responsibility goes to giving good customer service and it wouldn't end at tracking showing delivered.
My responsibility would continue to help in finding what happened especially in opening an enquiry with AP.

Agreed - officially, the responsibility ends there, but I feel that it's my responsibility as a seller to ensure that the buyer gets what they paid for. Not saying that it's the case here, but I wouldn't like a seller to go, "it shows delivered, so bad luck" if I were the buyer, so therefore I wouldn't do that to any of my buyers.

You don't lose anything by asking AP to open an investigation, and it also shows the buyer that you're making an effort to try and help.

Re: Item left in safe place and buyer says didnt receive it

everard6920 — Sun, 23 Dec 2018 08:31:28 GMT

@joz*garage wrote:
I was notified by AP that my item was delivered in a safe place, so i went hunting for it.. **sigh, i found it dumped on the ground in front of the letterbox, cheap item..but still, any passer by could have pick it up and walked off with it.

so i filled out a AP service survey about it, not impressed

It really does depend on the delivery person. My current delivery guy is great and has never put a foot wrong, but the one at my last address was a nightmare.

It wasn't unusual for us to see him putting a "collect at the PO" card in our mailbox when he hadn't even come to the door. Once, I checked the tracking on an expensive package to find that someone I had never heard of had signed for it. Turns out it was the woman across the road (who I think we spoke to once). She was doing us a favour by collecting it and we appreciated that, but the delivery man really shouldn't have allowed her to.

He also refused to go in my neighbour's yard to give them their parcel, despite their assurances that their small dog was restrained and would not harm him. Before they could open their front gate to get it from him, it was hurled over their colourbond fence into their front yard.

Re: Item left in safe place and buyer says didnt receive it

kayakkingoz — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 03:11:48 GMT

At the end of the day, the item shows as "Delivered" and that is where your responsibility as a seller ends

actually, legally refer to Australian Consumer Law

the ACL states that the seller is responsible to ensure the delivery of the item and it is received by the buyer

theres even examples of this exact scenario and the ACL examples include reference to seller being responsible for items delivered but not received by the buyer.

ebay is just following ACL as they’re legally obliged to do

id suggest sellers always insure unless you can afford to wear a loss. Especially if an item is more than $50 it’s just not worth taking the risk.