Handling buyers and item not received

[dylan11235813]

Hi,

I have been selling for about a year now and I have had maybe 3 'item not reveived' complaints from buyers in that time.

My first instinct is to think that the buyer is straight out speaking bs and I am being conned but that obviousely isn't always the case, for example I may have addressed the package wrong or it may have been lost in the mail, ect..

So my question is how do sellers deal with these cases. Do they get the buyer to put in a claim with paypal or ebay? Which I feel is unfair to a buyer as their order is in limbo until it is resolved, and no doubt they would leave a negative feedback for the seller

Do sellers just resend an item? Which means the buyer could be doing the same thing to many seller without any "flags going up".

Do sellers leave a message in the feedback "had to resend item" or something?

Also on a side note when I first got an 'item not received' case opened against me (most people usually email me though). I emailed paypal support, which I have to say is usually a waste of time, and they said suitable proof of postage is a picture of the postmarked package with the address.

So now I go into the post office and hold up the line so I can take pictures of all the parceled as they frank them, lol just kidding.

Cheers, Dylan

[dylan11235813]

I meant the postage cost not the item value also, which I assume you mean. The problem I face is that the stuff I sell is so low in value <$10 it isn't worth registering and I have spent many hours figuring out how to package stuff so its sent as a letter rather than a package.

I liked the clickandsend when it first started when it was cheaper and had tracking plus other options, but now I dont find it worth using to save $1 and spend all the time printing a label and buying special satchels.

Sorry to go off topic but with all the mail comming from overseas does AusPost just deliver that for free. I have received packages from china that cost the sender about 20c (I cant remember the  exact figure but it wasnt much), and they are quite large packages, plus I think they pay 1% of the value to register. Are the Australian sellers paying for this as extra cost to postage?

Cheers, Dylan  

[davewil1964]

Are the Australian sellers paying for this as extra cost to postage?

Yes.

[phorum_junkie*]

International mail is delivered by the receiving countries delivery service the same as domestic mail.

It costs AP the same to deliver regardless of how much the seller paid China post, which would be low, or a seller from another country where the original postage may have been considerably more than AP charged.

For cheap items sent as letters I would either replace (using registered if the cost of that fell within my profit margin) or refund (if it didn't), no questions asked. anything that can't go as a letter I use click & send, it is cheaper and much easier then using regular parcels or red satchels. For anything over $100 I use registered post.

Since starting to use C&S i have only had one missing item which was sent as a letter and they got another one by registered letter post three days after they said they had not received.

If you don't want the advantages of using click & send then you just have to pay up if a non registered parcel goes missing.

I would never rely on the limited tracking with the new red satchels or Express satchels, they only confirm delivery to the nearest delivery centre and could show as delivered when the buyer had not really received anything and woud quite rightly be very annoyed if i said too bad, so sad when they asked where their parcel was.