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I'm not sure whether this is an appropriate place to post a thread of this kind but I just hoped that someone might be able to offer me some advice as I expect a lot of you are seasoned eBay users. I recently (early October) sold a pedal on eBay for about £40 and I sent the item from the UK to Spain untracked (not something I would repeat!) about two weeks ago. The buyer was initially patient but has now raised some form of Paypal claim against me and wants a full refund. Should I issue a refund at this stage? Or try to make the buyer wait a bit longer? (Of course he could have already received the item for all I know. .) I think I need to wait another week or two before I can make a claim for compensation from the Royal Mail.

Thanks!

Do you have proof of postage? A postage receipt or record or something similar, I imagine those would be a strong valid defence against a claim.

jskadiang wrote:Do you have proof of postage? A postage receipt or record or something similar, I imagine those would be a strong valid defence against a claim.

Yeah, I have proof of postage but the guy just keeps asking for a tracking number and then I tell him that he didn't pay for tracking.

harsh lesson learned, from the uk to eu/usa ALWAYS send royal mail international recorded delivery, you can track it and it needs a signature at the other end, to spain it would cost about £8.
sounds like the buyer has got you over a barrel, you could ask them to wait as it could still be held up but there just isn't any way of knowing whats going on.
good luck!

I'd wait it out and see what Paypal says. They will do an "investigation" and come to a conclusion based on information from you and the buyer.
If they force you to give a refund you don't really have any options other than to issue one. But that could be weeks or months from now.
Also, only communicate with the buyer through eBay or Paypal.

Also, even if it costs a little extra, I still believe that paying for tracking is the seller's responsibility to the buyer. I wouldn't want to buy something from someone without a tracking number, and I'd never sell something to someone without one.

D.o.S. wrote:Also, even if it costs a little extra, I still believe that paying for tracking is the seller's responsibility to the buyer. I wouldn't want to buy something from someone without a tracking number, and I'd never sell something to someone without one.

It's really only the sellers responsibility if the seller stated in the ad or shipping description that
the item would be shipped with tracking. If not, the buyer knew that the item would be shipped without
tracking and agreed to buy it anyway.

It's really the responsibility of Royal Mail/Correos to make sure they complete the shipment.

Fun fact: your customs form number is a tracking number!

ghost_effects wrote:harsh lesson learned, from the uk to eu/usa ALWAYS send royal mail international recorded delivery, you can track it and it needs a signature at the other end, to spain it would cost about £8.
sounds like the buyer has got you over a barrel, you could ask them to wait as it could still be held up but there just isn't any way of knowing whats going on.
good luck!

I suppose I will end up refunding the buyer but it's useful to get some advice all the same. Increasingly more southern Europeans seem to be bidding for my items and I sent a Digitech Synth Wah to Spain with tracking this week. .It was £15.50! And I had only charged £10 for shipping. .

D.o.S. wrote:Also, even if it costs a little extra, I still believe that paying for tracking is the seller's responsibility to the buyer. I wouldn't want to buy something from someone without a tracking number, and I'd never sell something to someone without one.

tracking or proof of postage is the seller's responsibility to make sure the buyer doesn't jerk you around like this. Whether or not the pedal arrives if you can't prove to Paypal that you shipped it in the first place then it's lesson learned unfortunately

nightraven wrote:

D.o.S. wrote:Also, even if it costs a little extra, I still believe that paying for tracking is the seller's responsibility to the buyer. I wouldn't want to buy something from someone without a tracking number, and I'd never sell something to someone without one.

tracking or proof of postage is the seller's responsibility to make sure the buyer doesn't jerk you around like this. Whether or not the pedal arrives if you can't prove to Paypal that you shipped it in the first place then it's lesson learned unfortunately

I do have proof of postage though, should I scan the receipt of something? How do I prove to Paypal that I posted the item and what difference does it make? Presumably I'll have to refund the buyer eventually. .

I don't think you'll be held accountable for the item not being delivered if you prove you shipped it. And have you tracked it now?

futuresailors wrote:I don't think you'll be held accountable for the item not being delivered if you prove you shipped it. And have you tracked it now?

No, as I don't think I have a customs number or a customs form. All I have is the stamped and dated proof of postage.

For future reference, what is the best service to use for continental Europe? I used Airmail Small Packets for the 'lost' package and then opted for Airsure Small Packets last week which was double the price. There's also International Signed For Small Packets which is slightly less expensive than the Airsure service.

i think that the onus is on you to prove that it arrived, if you cant then paypal will probably just refund the buyer (and they are always free to leave you a negative feedback)
your proof of postage may only be useful to you in claiming the money back from the post office, if possible

is it just a generic proof of posting of an item? or does it contain the postcode and address?

are they buy it now listings?
there is no point in posting smaller value items to other countries, its not worth the hassle and extra costs of postage tracking.

just stick to uk sales with signed for post (an extra 66p or something like that)

Doctor X wrote:i think that the onus is on you to prove that it arrived, if you cant then paypal will probably just refund the buyer (and they are always free to leave you a negative feedback)
your proof of postage may only be useful to you in claiming the money back from the post office, if possible

is it just a generic proof of posting of an item? or does it contain the postcode and address?

are they buy it now listings?
there is no point in posting smaller value items to other countries, its not worth the hassle and extra costs of postage tracking.

just stick to uk sales with signed for post (an extra 66p or something like that)

My proof of postage is specific to the item in question and contains the address and postcode.

Up until recently my items had rarely attracted bidders from overseas (although I've sent things to places like Germany and the Netherlands without any difficulties). I've noticed that a lot of sellers state in their listings that they are not prepared to post things to southern or eastern Europe but I always thought that seemed a bit xenophobic. Maybe I could just increase my postage costs to the extent that it would discourage bidders from poorer countries. .

Thanks for the advice everyone