I have a situation with a customer who claims he did not receive his item.
He bought the item on 5 June and I shipped it 7 June via Fastway couriers. When I shipped it I sent him an email with tracking number and estimated delivery date.
On 25 June I sent out some reminder emails to customers who had not yet left feedback encouraging them to contact me if there were any problems. This customer contacted me back and said he was "still waiting patiently for his item". I was surprised he hadn't contacted me earlier but I tracked the parcel and discovered that it was delivered and signed for on 11 June by someone with his first name! When I informed the customer he checked the online tracking info and contacted me back saying it was not his signature.
I contacted my local Fastway office and they filed a "Disputed Signature" claim.
The next day the courier who delivered the package contacted me. He'd been to see the customer and stated that the customer was the person who signed for the package! He said he told the customer he remembers he was working on his car at the time. The customer lives in a house at the front of a property with a business (second hand/recycled parts) premises behind. The courier told me he does deliveries there all the time and the two guys who owned the business had claimed before that a parcel wasn't delivered when it was. He told me the 3 guys were all 'mates' and he reckoned they were 'scammers'. He said it's gotten to the point he hates doing deliveries there. He said he told the customer that it would come out of his own pocket and the guy said nothing. The courier was reporting the situation to his area supervisor and they would take it from there. Fastway has now told me my responsibility ends here - parcel was sent, delivered and signed for and the guy has no claim on me or them.
Apparently the customer did not deny receiving it when the courier confronted him. However before he was even visited by the courier he had filed an 'item not received' dispute with Paypal. (We had 9 emails between us that day and he did not mention the dispute he had filed.) After the courier had seen him he escalated the dispute to a claim stating he was escalating it because "the signature was not his" and he couldn't have been there "because he was at work". The claim means that Paypal is now holding the funds while they investigate.
I'm at a loss to know what to do next. I've responded to the dispute with a tracking number and the courier's details and am waiting to hear more from Paypal. The customer made no contact for 2 days after the courier visit but now is hassling me to send his item. I want to do the right thing morally and also don't want this reflecting on my ebay store's reputation but I really don't know what to believe or do next!
The courier has had his franchise/run for nearly 4 years. He called and spoke to me direct and he sounded very believable. I know some ppl have had problems with Fastway but in over 9 years I've never had an issue and have been totally satisfied with their service. The customer has a 100% ebay rating of well over 600 so I can't understand why he would say he didn't receive the item if he did. The only thing I can think is that he saw an opportunity when I sent the feedback reminder email and ran with it! However I have to ask why didn't he contact me earlier when he hadn't received his item? Also prior to sending via courier I had stipulated in an email that the courier would not leave the parcel if there was nobody there, so if he wouldn't be home it would be better sending via Australia Post. He chose courier so why is he now saying he was at work?
Would it be acceptable to ask the customer to send a copy of his drivers license so I can check the signature myself? I would imagine it would be a close match to the signature obtained by Fastway if he originally received it with no intention of claiming otherwise. If I did discover his signature was the same obviously I would want to send him a replacement item but what would I need to do to claim the cost of the item?
Any advice would be really appreciated!!
cheers
Cheryl
