A rock and a hard place

[misssherlock59]

This just gets worse & worse. Sold two items, both in different states. Wrong tracking number with correct name and address, received by the one in Vic. Buyer from WA whose parcel went to the Vic buyer, drew my attention to the fact that his parcel showed as being delivered to the Vic buyer. At all times the WA buyer has been courteous and cordial, showing patience & understanding. However, the Vic buyer appeared to be that way at first, she did not have the other parcel, only her own had arrived. Apparently she had been out, & her son had taken delivery of the WA parcel, removed it from the satchel then put it in the rubbish bin. She said she wanted $15 for the cost of postage to WA & did I want more wrapping etc. I said yes please, & I will put the $15 in her PayPal a/c, which I did but it did not do me any favours. She said she had twins who had a disability, she would have to go to the bank in five days & ask for her PayPal payment. When I volunteered to make payment to her a/c she said she would not give her details to anybody, her twins are sick, and that is all I have to chew over at the moment. Now, I must wait for five days to see if she comes good, her family's health situation improves, tell the nice buyer from WA, I need five days for his parcel to be posted from Vic - sorry folks I smell a rat.

[shoppingbag*]

I presume you came here for advice, so I will tell you what I do.

Firstly, I only ever pack and label one parcel at a time. Then, when taking them to the Post Office, I hand them over one at a time, and get a separate receipt for each. If I had been faced with your problem, two parcels went to Victoria, and the buyer contacted and "offered" to help, I would have asked them AT THEIR CONVENIENCE, if they wouldn't mind marking the one that didn't belong to them, as "Not known at this address, return to sender" and pop it in a Post Box, or Post Office, next time they were passing one. THEN, if I did receive this parcel back, I would go and give a GENEROUS full or part refund on their purchase, by way of a thank you.

In the meantime, I would contact the WA buyer, and explain that their parcel had been mistakenly sent somewhere else, cancel and refund their sale, and tell them that if you can manage to retrieve it, you will relist it and let them know in case they still want to purchase it.

Since the parcel was opened and put in VIC's rubbish bin, I would not be asking, expecting, or demanding that the Vic buyer rewrap, readdress and post to the WA buyer in YOUR expected time frame, not theirs. What if it arrives smelling like garbage, or with garbage attached? Could you even know if it has been damaged from being thrown in the bin?  I would not want something that had been in someone's garbage bin, so why would you think this is ok ? or that this is acceptable to you WA buyer??? Your Vic buyer is not expected to fix your mistakes, it was your responsibility to post to the right address, I would NEVER EVER ask a buyer to do this.

As the situation stands now, I would tell VIC buyer to keep the said item, and if they happen to volunteer to refund what you have given them for posting, then good, but I wouldn't ask for it. Consider it compensation for the trouble you have caused them, and if they did return it, I would still give them a generous discount on their purchase and an apology.

You started out with one disgruntled buyer, but by your own actions have ended up with two, think yourself lucky if you don't end up with two negatives.