Lost parcel, or ebay scam?

[paulears]

Ebay sale - about £100 - and paypal delivery address is his work address - a large company. I get a message - "where is my order?" Check with RM and it was delivered and signed for, with scan - name is gds inwd (goods inwards?)

As we're working away I called the office and they sent another package - really just to keep the feedback ok, and assuming the other will turn up. Lose the postage, but just one of those things. He emails to say second arrived, first not - and can I do a deal? Warning bells. Check signature - and it's the same one - same person. Add this to the offer for a deal - suggests he has both?

I've told him it sounds like somebody in his firm is stealing deliveries and I'll contact his firm with my suspicions, which might panic him? Any other solutions or remedies. Never happened before. A few lost, but not actually arrived and signed for, then gone missing.

 

[UK Business Directory]

I wouldn't have sent out another parcel if you had proof of someone accepting the first parcel.

Seems fishy. What's his deal?

 

[paulears]

Yes - was an error of judgement, but I wasn't confident they be able to find the PoP as I was the one who volunteered to post it, and perhaps right, as I found it here in my wallet having forgotten to leave it on the desk - so when I told them to duplicate the parcel, I didn't know it had been delivered.

I've resigned myself to losing this one really - but I don't see why I shouldn't at least try.

 

[Newchodge]

Same signature does not mean your customer received both parcels. Signature may be receptionist of company.

 

[SamLH]

Did you tell him you had proof of delivery at his works address?

I had a customer try to tell me it wasn't delivered to him as the address it was delivered to wasnt his ( there was a slight typo on the delivery label and he said it must be elsewhere). I told him I would send a replacement and look into it with the couriers, I emailed the couriers but forgot to send the replacement. A few days later he says the replacement hasn't turned up either, by this point the couriers had came back to me with a signature, the name of the person who signed and then went and found the signatures for previous deliveries at the address, the same person had previously signed for items at the given address. I told the customer the couriers have proof of delivery so it will have to be taken further, within about 30 minutes he messages saying he now has the item so don't worry about the replacement.

 

[deniser]

I have also had this where a couriered parcel was signed for by a named concierge in the building and the customer was adamant that neither he nor she has received it.

When she went to ask the concierge, he said that he never took delivery of it. The courier company could see by his tracking that the courier had been inside the building. When the concierge was asked why his name is on the receipt he said his name is known to all the delivery people and they can just write it themselves and make up a signature.

The customer kept pestering me for a replacement but when we asked the courier to go back and actually identify the man he had handed it to by his description, all went quiet. I have no idea what the outcome was.

I don't think we as retailers can or should accept responsibility for the delivery arrangements inside a large building or organisation once proof of delivery has been obtained. It's up to the recipient to make sure their delivery address is secure. If they believe that the courier stole it rather than someone in the building then they can issue a chargeback via their card company and let them investigate. When we have been able to show proof of delivery then the card companies have always sided with us.

 

[Deleted member 59730]

I told the customer the couriers have proof of delivery so it will have to be taken further, within about 30 minutes he messages saying he now has the item so don't worry about the replacement.

Similar story for about 30% of all the parcels I ever sent to W H Smith.

 

[paulears]

UPDATE
Discovered the company had a facebook page, so left a comment there about their goods inwards security, and then discovered that paypal can be of some help - where people register their business address or other alternate address they can flag the address as insecure. Not automatic and they have to details of the issue. I didn't register the complaint, but told the customer after a week that I was disappointed his employers had ignored my complaint, so I was going to inform Paypal as obviously something is very wrong. I got a very prompt reply asking me not to do this and that the parcel had suddenly been found, and asking me to invoice him for the extra items as he wished to keep them, and as he gets lots of mail delivered there, Paypal not allowing the address to be used for delivery may or may not have happened, only could have - so looks like he was pulling a fast one, and got caught.

 

[IanG]

If you dispatch to the address in the Ebay checkout they will normally find in your favour if the tracking indicates that its been delivered.

 

[tan_lan]

Many "delivery people" engage is dodgy packages.

I frequency get recorded delivery items where the postman signs himself!. I never asked him to, but I dont mind.

I recently had DPD claim to of attempted delivery of an item to me, my cctv says otherwise. On request of the photo of the house, as DPD take one on failed delivery, I saw a shot of a generic blurry brick wall.

Problem is with these delivery situations is that you cant assume the courier is honest.

 

[AMS79]

It's the buyer's responsibility to provide you with an address that they can receive the parcel at. If they opt to have it sent to a work address and the receptionist signs for it - you've done your job. You can't be responsible for putting it in the buyer's hands.

As long as you can prove where it was sent to and that it was delivered with signature. That's the end of it. For an item worth £100 I would use a courier or Special Delivery RM but a courier would be cheaper.

You can offer to raise a claim against the carrier and if they meet the claim you will provide the associated compensation payment.

I wouldn't entertain anything else - eBay / PayPal will protect you against any type of claim. They would also remove any neg feedback so you don't have any worries their either.

Once you get a few months of online retailing under your belt you'll quickly learn no matter what silly things buyers do, it's everybody else's fault but their own. Don't be railroaded or fear negative reviews if you've done your job properly and taken the correct precautions. High value items - send by well known reliable couriers, mid-range tracked / economy courier and low value standard Royal Mail (if buyers want to scam you here, that's not much you can do until RM's 2D barcode delivery scan system is completely rolled out and live).

 

[lesliedocherty]

Hi,

We have been online now for about 10 years, had this happen around 10+ times over the years, every single time it turned up.
Almost always it was the fault of goods receiving, sent it to wrong building, wrong person, done nothing with it, put another box on it, sent it to persons old building rather than the new one they moved to last year.

We stuck resolutely to our guns and refused to replace/refund as we had delivered it to their chosen place, not our fault if it then got lost after signature.

We have had 1 credit card & 2 PayPal chargeback attempts by the customers, we won both of them, goods turned up after this.