What would you do?

[duongo]

Want to get some opinions on what you think i should do.
I've had 2 cases where the customers parcel (with goods) have been returned back to me by royal mail- reason given was 'not called for' (failed delivery). Now although i have tried many times to get hold of these 2 customers, have had no replies back.

- customer one: put 0000 as his telephone number and his email bounced back several times.
-customer two: she left a mobile, which i have called a few times and left messages and also emailed her, regarding her returned goods. No replies back.

Now, i think i have a moral dilema here: should i leave things as it is and 'profit from it' :| or make refunds back into their cards? (and pay for the refund fee)

The good were dispatched just over a month ago when ordered (guess they have been in Royal Mails hands for 2 weeks).

What would you do?
Love to hear your thoughts.

[sysops]

You refund the orders. Approximately 0.05% of our parcels fall into this category. We call them DPPs (dead people's parcels).

[deniser]

I would wait a while longer in case they contact you. Then if you have still not heard anything in the next month then do the refund. The people are most likely away, in hospital, have just had a baby or are too busy at work. This will save you having to repack them at a later date. In my experience the parcels aren't just not called for but the postman never bothered to leave a card in the first place. It will have a note on the front if they did leave a card showing the date it was left. If it hasn't then no card was left.

I have had several like this - the customers still want the goods but are remarkably laid back about the whole thing. In the end I always send the item back to them eventually.

I do find that customers are reluctant to give their phone number as they think it will be sold on or used for hard sell and it is amazing how many people never check their emails! If they have paid then they will have to contact you eventually (unless they really have died)

[duongo]

Thanks for your replies. I've just made the refunds, as don't want the matter to linger and i might forget about it altogether.

Is there a way to close the thread?

[gibby]

we used to get a few & I think most of em were false orders or fraud.
possibly someone trying out the card to see if it works.

They seem to have stopped since we moved away from paypal.

Im not sure how the RM handle it but most couriers charge you for returning the goods.
We have a clause in out T&C's that if a customer dosent contact the couriers after a card is left we have the right to charge em for the return costs.

Its only happened once, where the customer kept emailing to ask where her goods were, but she didnt not contact the courier who had even rung & spoken to her & yes she was out when the returned to deliver.
She even asked for the address to be changed at one point.

we did refund her but took the extra charge out of her refund.

The rest of the time we just refund but we have found a few times that when they were fraud, with paypal we couldnt refund due to the account being closed and paypal didnt repsond

G