Think I stuffed up.... lost item, WWYD?

[elusiveeditions]

Am unsure how to handle this from here, advice welcome

Order rec’d 15 Jul, mailed 16th as a standard package with tracking, no extras. Rural Vic to rural NSW. Last seen at Granville-

Mon 27 Jul 2015 20:08
Customer Enquiry lodged
MILTON QLD

Fri 17 Jul 2015 20:53
Processed through Australia Post facility
GRANVILLE NSW

Thu 16 Jul 2015 09:37
Received by Australia Post
BALNARRING VIC

The address on the order had a peculiar street name, and a google maps search at the time couldn’t find it. I figured I could either contact the buyer to check they’d typed their address correctly, or just mail it as instructed. Given the buyer had clearly received other items recently, and for deep rural areas google maps isn’t necessarily all-knowing, I chose the latter. Possibly a mistake.

I noticed it hadn’t arrived and both contacted the buyer asking if the addy was correct & lodged the enquiry with AP. I haven’t heard from the buyer at all and they don’t seem to’ve been active since they made this purchase and others. Lucky for me they haven’t just launched INR on this. Still, they’ve paid for something they don’t yet have & I want to fix it.

AP called to say ‘10 days investigation blah blah’, which is nearly up, I’ll give them a call on day 10 if I hear nothing. They said it’d be returned to sender if it was undeliverable, but I’ve actually never seen that happen personally.

I do have the receipt with postcode, so could potentially argue the ‘handed to carrier’ issue, but I’m not actually facing an INR, yet.

So... what should I have done differently and what now?

[kopenhagen5]

I assume you sent it to the address in the PayPal notification not ebays.

I send all my items signed for now, but my items can absorb the postage cost.

And of course they can still go missing yet less likeliness of it with registered mail.

Still early days yet, there could be delays to rural NSW.

It's only 14 working days so far.

(I learned to sail in Somers and Balnarring, we had a beach house there for 25 years) 

[lane-ends]

Even if the street name was wrong it should have tracked to postcoded delivery center before that became a problem

[lane-ends]

Either it will turn up or good PR will mean you refund the buyer. I would wait upon APs offical answer.  Dont refund until buyer reconfirms they don't have it.

[lyndal1838]

Australia Post Tracking is not infallible.....if the buyer has not reported it as missing you should not have started a search for it.

That is just looking for trouble.

Do you look up the address on Google maps for all your parcels?

[elusiveeditions]

Thanks all.

lyndal, when you say “if the buyer has not reported it as missing you should not have started a search for it. That is just looking for trouble".... I’m thinking you might be right, that’s part of the stuff-up 🙂

No, I only google addresses if they look strange... the street name had 3 words that looked misspelled, think something like ‘Hiddin baile signes St’.

lane-ends, as for good PR, in the past I’ve offered the buyer a 50% refund (so we both wear AP’s stuff-up equally) but I’ll see what happens from here. Not adverse to refunding the lot if need be... we shall see.  

kopenhagen, yes sorry, I meant the address on the PP transaction. And awww.. I don't sail despite rellies in the yacht clubs and all! but Balnarring, Somers & Merricks are still great for a swim and/or dog walk 🙂

[cathyjoyjoy]

Australia Post have been in touch with me by email AND phone regarding an item I enquired about.  I would be on the phone ASAP to AP if I were you.  Today, I was asked by the AP rep to attach a photo of the missing item to a reply email, so at least they are looking at it.

[cathyjoyjoy]

Believe it or not I HAVE actually had an item returned to me safely.  The address was rubbed against something so the permanent ink on the plastic parcel post bag came off !!!!  (I always tape over the address but must have missed that one).  Was very surprised that the item came back to me.

[kopenhagen5]

Balnarring, Somers & Merricks are still great for a swim and/or dog walk

 Yes, nice and quiet most of the time. I have my little private spot I windsurf at in Balnarring.

[digital*ghost · Accepted solution]

I've had a few items returned to me for being undeliverable, and if the address was actually 100% correct, I personally treat it like I would an INR. That is, if the circumstances were not the buyer's fault in any way, I take responsibility - either for refunding (in full), or paying the costs to resend. (That assumes the package is returned).

While the buyer is not responding and the whereabouts of the package is unknown (to you, anyway), it's difficult to know how to proceed, but I tend to work under the assumption that if a buyer needs me for anything after a sale, they will let me know, so I would just wait it out until you have more info, from AP or the buyer.

I don't know how rural your buyer is, but don't forget that in some remote areas, there's not even any scanning equipment for tracking updates, I assume the records are kept manually so in those cases, tracking wouldn't be available online, so it may well have reached its destination safely, and the buyer may have intermittent access to the internet.