Item left in safe place and buyer says didnt receive it

[excellentgood]

I have tracking showing that a $250 item i sold was left in a safe place at the buyers address. The buyer claims they did not receive it.

What does ebay do here?

Please dont tell me i will have to refund the buyer. Is this the case?

Please tell me ebay/pay pal will refund them with their own insurance policy.

[excellentgood]

I had no insurance. Ive never had an item lost. And i assumed as is the case here that if it is delivered and left in a safe place that the buyer would then be responsible. This sucks! Ive never had an issue and i dont insure items around the $100 mark but for this the same buyer bought two items of $100 each and i put them in the same box and didnt pay for insurance. They were rare collectors items. Australia post says it was delieved on their website... please dont tell me if the buyer says they didnt get it then i have lost $250!

[excellentgood]

Update: in thinking this through the item was delivered successfully by Aus Post to the buyers address and then stolen. How could ebay possibly make me responsible for a theft that occurred after the item was delivered to the buyers address?

Does anyone know the ebay policy here

[minimum_56]

Contact Aus Post.
They should be able to tell you where the 'safe' place was where they left the item.

Sometimes they leave parcels in the most obscure 'safe' places & the person receiving the parcel has no idea where it is.
They often take photos of the 'safe' place. Good luck!

[everard6920]

If the tracking shows delivered, then I think you are covered by eBay. My understanding is that, sometimes, eBay will refund the buyer ... but if they choose not to, and your buyer is out $250, expect a red dot (and if they're really ticked, perhaps even a credit card chargeback).

The better course of action would've been to insure the package, as then you could obtain a refund from AP and subsequently  refund your buyer.

Without insurance, AP will refund a maximum of $50. You need to contact them and get them to open an investigation, but their official line is that they will only refund anything if it was their fault (eg: delivered to the wrong address) and as I said, the maximum refund would be $50.

They do not usually refund for packages stolen, because they argue that the recipient should supply a safe place to leave the package. However, I managed to get them to refund about a month ago for a stolen package, because the package was given to the postie, and he didn't take a photo of where he safe-dropped it.

[everard6920]

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@minimum_56 wrote:

Contact Aus Post.
They should be able to tell you where the 'safe' place was where they left the item.

Sometimes they leave parcels in the most obscure 'safe' places & the person receiving the parcel has no idea where it is.
They often take photos of the 'safe' place. Good luck!

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Correct - and it was explained to me that these safe places are becoming increasingly obscure in an attempt to thwart thieves. I know someone that found a package in their power box, and I myself have found one tucked between my wheelie bins around the side of my house.

They should have a photo of where they left it, and if they don't, you might be able to squeeze $50 (the maximum for uninsured packages) out of them.

[eol-products]

On items that are large or over a certain amount it is worth spending the $2.95 for signature on delivery so parcels are not safe dropped. Insurance does not stop the use of safe drop and not sure if it would help as they still say it is delivered.

[jellybirddesigns]

If the buyer opens a case for "Item Not Received", it will close automatically in your favour as the tracking will say delivered (I assume you put the tracking number into the order when you originally shipped).

Just because the carrier has left it in a "safe place" doesn't mean anything.

- The "safe place" could have been the garbage bin (seriously)

- Someone could have seen where the carrier put the item and then stolen it afterwards

- Another family member could have brought it into the house but not told the buyer

- It could have been delivered to the wrong address

- The buyer could be trying to scam you

You don't need signature on delivery with items under $750 and anyway, again it means nothing if the item is delivered to the wrong house and some random person signs for it. 

At the end of the day, the item shows as "Delivered" and that is where your responsibility as a seller ends. 

[kopenhagen5]

At the end of the day, the item shows as "Delivered" and that is where your responsibility as a seller ends

jellybird, I know the point you are making but when I sell my responsibility goes to giving good customer service and it wouldn't end at tracking showing delivered.

My responsibility would continue to help in finding what happened especially in opening an enquiry with AP.

[joz*garage]

I was notified by AP that my item was delivered in a safe place, so i went hunting for it.. **sigh, i found it dumped on the ground in front of the letterbox, cheap item..but still, any passer by could have pick it up and walked off with it.

so i filled out a AP service survey about it, not impressed