How reliable is seller protection?

[collectorinreverse]

Although I have sold a lot of stuff on ebay, I have not encountered this before.

I sold an item to a bloke in the U.K, he took two weeks to pay for it, but that is neither here nor there.

I posted the parcel on the 3rd of September, using tracked mail.

The tracking shows every step of the trip to the U.K , including an attempted delivery on the 11th of September.

The buyer contacted me a couple of days ago, his message contained four words - the parcel hasn't arrived.

I advised the man of the attempted delivery, I sent him a screen shot of the Australia post website.

He responded by saying he wasn't left a card.

I recommend looking up the website or visiting his local post office, this is the response - It does not state which post office, there are quiet a few, also it wont allow me to ask for a re delivery.

It seems as though this bloke is not willing to take any action to find his parcel. ( other than message me)

If it were me, here in Australia , I would be down at my local post office with the tracking number, asking questions.

Any how, this morning he has opened a dispute.

I have re entered the tracking number.

I am thankful that I always send with tracked mail.

I have the receipt.

I am just wondering, what will happen now?

Am I protected? It was $120.00 worth including postage, so it would be a lot to loose, plus the initial item.

[kopenhagen5]

Is it an eBay case or PayPal case he opened ?

[collectorinreverse]

From what I can tell it is an ebay case

[kopenhagen5]

Ok, if it was a PayPal case I would be very confident in calling them as they only require proof of postage.

However, eBay require proof of delivery and delivery attempt is not enough.

eBay consider the fact that the parcel may now be returned to you.

I would wait it out and hope the PO does another delivery attempt before returning.

Calling eBay at this point in time would risk an action of seeing in favour of buyer with parcel turning up at buyer's address.

If it was me and having cheap international calls on my phone I would call the PO in the area and make an inquiry stating buyer has asked for re-delivery confirming correct address.

Tracking should show which PO.

[collectorinreverse]

I just rang Australia post. They were fairly helpful.

They said it the parcel was sitting waiting for the guy. They gave me the phone number for Royal mail,  and said to pass it on.

They said that if the guy rings them, he can come and collect it or arrange a re delivery.

It will be interesting to see what happens, I guess I will just have to wait it out.

[collectorinreverse]

What I don't understand, is why a buyer would open a dispute, before attempting to contact their post office and at least trying to sort it out from their end.
It isn't a difficult task, and expecting a seller on the other side of the world to do it all for them.
After speaking with the post people they said that he needs to arrange collection or a re delivery. I can't do that for him 😞

[lyndal1838]

If the buyer refuses to collect his item from the PO he is not entitled to a refund.

I wonder if he realises that.

If you have anything in writing that states it is awaiting collection it might be a good idea to upload it to the dispute.

[digital*ghost]

If it was worth $120 then the buyer would need to pay VAT plus the collection fee on the item, so attempted delivery is probably the incorrect status but Aus Post's website often has that incorrectly because they don't seem to have a status that means awaiting payment of VAT etc - this could also be the reason the buyer is claiming INR right after the status of attempted delivery, because they don't want to pay it and think they can just get a full refund by saying they never got it (it wouldn't be the first time, unfortunately  ).

In this case, although the MBG does clearly state that the buyer does not have protection (because they are essentially refusing delivery), I wouldn't trust the automated system to decide it correctly, so I recommend getting in touch with eBay by phone (use the call me back option), explain the situation and make sure an actual human sees that the item has arrived and is awaiting the buyer's collection. I wouldn't mention the VAT thing for fear of confusing the rep, lol, just point out that the MBG states the buyer is not covered because delivery has been attempted, and that the buyer can simply contact Royal Mail to make arrangements to collect their item. 

[collectorinreverse]

Thanks for that information. Just to clarify, The item was AU$72.00, the rest was postage ($47) = $119

[digital*ghost]

Buyers have to pay VAT in the UK on merchandise that is valued at £15 or more, (roughly $27), I think it's 20% of the value, plus a £9 collection fee, so the buyer's purchase would likely cost them around an extra £22 to collect, or $40 AUD. 

I think the threshold is slightly higher if marked as a gift, but not by much, and the hefty collection fee applies regardless of the value of the item, so lots of buyers in the UK are (apparently) shocked and surprised by it.

Some items seem to get through anyway, and because the UK is part of the EU, buyers can currently purchase from other EU countries without having VAT applied, so some seem to just try their luck - A couple of years ago, I had one that claimed INR on me as well and asked for a replacement (original didn't have tracking), I sent the replacement via a tracked method, thus increasing the overall value quite a bit, but that seemed to arrive ok, then 2 months later the original came back to me marked refused due to non payment of VAT. An expensive lesson for me.