Buyer has advised Item not recieved? what is the next step?

[lady_and_the_tramp]

Hi, I received an email this morning from a buyer stating that they did not recieve their item which was purchased and sent on the 23rd March ' 15.  The item (child's apron NEW) as a large letter and therefore no tracking was recorded.  This method of postage, and the option to upgrade to tracking was mentioned in my listing. They did not advise they wished to take up this offer, so item was sent as large letter.  Post was from QLD 4211 to Vic 3195. Should the item arrive by now?  What is the process now for me as a selller?  I have advised I will look into it with Aust Post first thing Monday as today is Sat, but what is the chance they will do anything?  Any advice from experience sellers appreciated.

Thanks

[ivak245]

If you send something as a Registered letter or Parcel, you are covered for loss or damage up to a certain amount (I think its $100).
Always lodge parcels and letters at the Post Office, and keep all receipts, etc.. I have had things take up to 2 weeks to be delivered in Australia, so don,t be too worried if a buyer says they haven't received it after a couple of days.

[clarry100]

In the MBG eBay may say the require "proof of delivery" but the fact is that this is outside Australian Consumer Law to do so.

This is a flow-on from the USA where proof of delivery is law. Different rules here.

In the Sales Of Goods Acts (SOGA) in each state of Australia it is very clearly spelled out that once an item is handed to a carrier this is deemed to be delivery to the buyer. Google search for the one in your state.

So all you need to have is acceptable proof of lodgement (and this is deemed delivery) to have full and legal seller protection.

For PayPal, that lodgement must at least show the postcode of the buyer. So with ebay labels and C&S labels you get the buyer's full address against the tracking number, so with this, and coupled with your Australia Post lodgement receipt you cannot, by law, lose any INR case.

If ebay or paypal find otherwise against you then they are in breach of the laws of the land and you will have the case overturned in your favour if you lodge a report with the ACCC or the FOS as appropriate.

They are simply not above the laws of the land although they may think they are and try to bluff sellers into accepting the situation they try to dictate.

[joethenuts]

what about a street postal box , can i put a parcel in a letter ,and put it in a postal box ,is that deemed delivered by law.

and also if i send you ,your parcel in an envelope and get it stamped at a post office ,and you dont get the parcel ,would you be ok with that.    thanks for your 2 answeres in advance

[croydonparktooling]

I might be a little bit of the topic here but about a week ago i purchased a welding helment from Ebay and upon delivery the driver has just knocked on the door and dumped the parcel at the front. Lucky for me i had my son at home as he is on school holidays who opened the door up and took it inside.

I have a front door camera and  this was recorded as my son complained to me  that he heard the knock at the door but there was no one outside.

I believed him as i could visually see this footage.

It just bothers me, lets say if some one would have taken the item away then i would have had to write to the seller saying item not received.

There should be a better system than this.

Someone should be made more accountable here

Because if i genuinely complained to the seller that this hasn’t been delivered then it makes me look bad as if I am trying to scam him.

[joethenuts]

my self i think all parcels should be signed for , or have instructions from the buyer that its ok to leave at the front door,

but if you go by the law which  clary is saying ,that a seller only has to post it and stamped by a post office , and if it gets lost bad luck.

i think the law needs to be changed a little.

[clarry100]

This is not just my opinion Joe its the L-A-W law. You can read the applicable SOGA in your state as well as I can.

Once an item is lodged with a carrier then the responsibility for ownership passes to the buyer from that point onwards.

It's the risk we all take when shopping online under Australian Consumer Law.

If you drop your parcels in a red street box you have no proof of lodgement despite the fact that you may have tracking. You will likely lose your INR case since you have no receipt or proof of acceptance from AP.

If you use large letter then from my personal experience PayPal (possibly ebay too) will accept a photograph of the addressed envelope showing the AP stamp cancellation on it as proof of lodgement. So this means you have to take each and every letter over the counter to your local PO and have them cancel the stamps then take a pic of each one for you to be covered. Some PO staff are more tolerant than others about doing this.

Basically anything dropped in a red street box is done at seller risk, even express satchels. You need that over-the-counter receipt as your proof of lodgement. Having said that we predominantly (not always) use large letter posted into a red street box. Our INR claim rate is about 1 in 750-1000 (approx) so we just accept the hit when we get a claim and send out a replacement item straight away after asking a couple of pertinent questions of the buyer.

It's another story altogether how you handle your buyer who has not gotten what they have paid for. That's up to you and your professional ethics to sort out. Personally we send out replacement items if they cannot be found. Then if we have insurance we submit a claim thru AP. For lost express items AP will compensate for the cost of the postage ONLY not the item value (unless you have insurance). But they take their sweet time to do this.

[clarry100]

Croydonparktooling...

If your seller had the appropriate and acceptable lodgement receipt then I'm afraid that in such a INR case you (the buyer) would likely be up the proverbial creek in a barbed wire canoe.

If they had no proof of lodgement then you would win the case and get a refund or replacement item.

Its all about how the seller chooses to protect themselves.

Even if signature on delivery was specified then unless the seller can prove they have lodged it at their end they will likely lose an INR case. This is because anyone (over 18) at the receiving address can sign for it. It does not have to be the original buyer who signs unless person-to-person was specified and that costs even more.

[joethenuts]

one thing is correct yourself and most sellers would just replace an order sent by letter as it would be the right thing to do ,looking after your buyers , and most of the time its only a small amount of money. 

now i dont know where your post office is , but mine is at a shopping centre, and most times the line up is huge ,and if those standing in line saw a person with a whole lot of letters and parcels taking photos of everything, and taking a lot of time ,i dont know how the rest of the people in line would feel,these days post offices have everything from lollies to toys ,to selling anything ,pay bils ,passport-photos , in fact a few weeks ago ,i had to get a licence renew ,  a very expensive photo card $250  + line up for 20 minutes mmmmmmm

[bakeandfry]

Joe, i think Clarry was just using what they wrote as a guide, eg: this can be done, but not compulsory done.
I suppose it depends on each seller what they do, some sellers get proof if they have a "gut feeling" (myself included), or if i mis-read your post just disregard my comment.

[pennyforum14]

Clarry wrote: If you use large letter then from my personal experience PayPal (possibly ebay too) will accept a photograph of the addressed envelope showing the AP stamp cancellation on it as proof of lodgement. So this means you have to take each and every letter over the counter to your local PO and have them cancel the stamps then take a pic of each one for you to be covered. Some PO staff are more tolerant than others about doing this.

Joe, this is what I do every day.  I use a small family run PO at the other end of town, because the customer service there is exemplary and nothing is too much trouble.  The main PO is Auspost run and staff are overworked and don't have the incentive to provide over the top service.  At "my" PO, they have two counter points, and are very busy, but are always happy for me to photograph each and every envelope as it is postmarked.  We have it down to a fine art, and in the time it takes them to weigh each item, apply the postage sticker  and stamp it, I have already photographed the one before, and they can process my payment while I photograph the last one (whatever did we do before mobile phone cameras?). So there is little or no delay to those waiting in line.  Yes, I would rather not have to do this, but if it saves my customers money and provides me with a level of protection, then it is worth the effort.  As I said above, I replace or refund anyway, but if I happen to get a buyer who negs first and have to fight a defect with eBay/Paypal, I am armed with evidence of postage.