eBay and Royal Mail not adding up?

[sparkledog]

I recently sold an item. Posted to the address on eBay order page via 2nd class signed-for. Same day it was delivered I started to get harassed by the buyer asking where it was (and I mean proper spam messages which if I didn’t reply to they would resend every 30 minutes. Then they requested my contact information and called me 40 times in 3 days).

Anywho, the buyer proceeded to open an item not received request. Which I initially won. Then the buyer appealed and they got refunded.
When I asked eBay why, this was the answer: “When I carefully checked your case again, I can see that we have overturn the original decision as we have confirmed with royalmail and the courier admitted that the item was delivered to a different address. For this reason, we have taken out the money that the buyer paid.”

I posted the item to the address on the eBay order page. The address is in Peckham. The Royal Mail tracking says: “"Your item with reference XXXX was delivered from our PECKHAM Delivery Office on 11/01/17.”
And when I contact Royal Mail they tell it was correctly delivered.

I have gone through the process of contacting eBay 5 times about this, each time I receive a similar reply. All suggesting I posted to the wrong address. Or the Royal Mail messed up, which they deny doing.

I also haven’t received any communication or emails about the buyers appeal. The first I knew of it was when PayPal emailed me to say the refund had been taken out of my account. Even still today when I click ‘see case details’ I receive a white/blank page.

This was quite a pricey item, so does anyone know how to get a better response from eBay?
Do they even phone Royal Mail up to confirm tracking numbers? I have been scammed myself from an eBay seller entering a tracking number that was delivered 40 miles away, from a different delivery office to where I live and eBay didn’t take any notice at all.

[oompaloompa]

ebay are possibly outright lying....but it seems weird, not heard of this. Usually they check the regular online tracking and find in seller favour.

was it signatured? are they saying different signature was taken than the buyers? if so, why is RM not admitting this to you......sounds dodgy.....they could not have got a different answer from RM than you got....

ask for that admission from RM in writing, that ebay say they got...........they will not be able to provide it, threathen to take it further unless this is provided...

ask for a copy of the signature from RM, if applicable?

show ebay the email from RM saying otherwise.

are you stealth?

the question is - is this worth losing an account over, you may be in the right but they may take revenge on you for pushing this......

[stevebills]

if its gone to a wrong address claim off royal mail and anything over £99
always send special delivery only

[sparkledog]

There is a signature and printed name online. The signature could be anything. The printed name doesn’t match the buyer’s name but it is quite a unique name which I personally wouldn’t know how to spell unless told. But to be honest if someone intended to pull a scam wouldn’t they just give the postie a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ name?
And isn’t Royal Mail’s policy to deliver to the address, not the addressee? Failing that a neighbour?I am rarely at home when our post is delivered, so it is either signed-for by my partner (different name) or a neighbour and we’ve never asked them to do it either. So if this buyer has got a refund on this basis it is making using Royal Mail very unsafe.

It isn’t a stealth account we’re using, luckily never needed to go stealth. We have a business and private account, this sale was actually from the private account but it is over 10years old with 900+ feedback.
Item is worth £120 too, would have sent it special delivery myself but my partner posted it.

Royal Mail are firmly saying it was delivered to the address, so no chance of a claim.
As the buyer has quite a unique name, done a quick Google search and found them easily. Including an instagram account with a picture of the item we sold them, a few days after it was delivered. The item is unique to a certain manufacturer and hasn’t been in retail for 2 years, so a bit surprising they would find another so soon. Ours has been the only listed on eBay for a few months too.

[wired]

Lol., Peckham, love Peckham. You should visit sometime

He has obviously intended to rip you off, it failed initially and he has socially engineered the situation to get eBay to overule it - its fairly easy enough to do.

You will have to claim off RM, but don't hold your breath, RM are refusing legitimate claims left right and centre these days.

Its an unfortunate 'suck it up' scenario which are everly to familiar on eBay these days.

You CAN report this to Action Fraud, and send the evidence you have gathered - the Police have been known to go and visit the perp, in London this is probably less likely, however it will have some basic investigation and if he is on the watch list already for similar crimes, he would well be arrested.

Go the legal route and also initiate small claims court proceedings.

[oompaloompa]

You are correct, it is address not addresee that is the delivery aim for RM, so anyone at address can sign, what idiots at the address to put a fa ke name signature and then parade on instagram with the product......

Your evidence is that RM says it was delivered to correct address (you need this in writing), instagram screenshot helps, ebays lack of evidence to the contrary (the evidence they say they got from RM).

I doubt ebay got anything from RM, all they got was a call from buyer and then they looked at the signature online and a low grade employee refunded it... and now they are covering their arses........

file with actionfraud and hand the reference to ebay along with the above evidence...pretty sure this will do the trick but if this does not work, no point in filing in small claims against the buyer for just 120...

and as for peckham, big dump....

[sparkledog]

Contacted Royal Mail who said they couldn't provide me proof of delivery in writing because "I have the address it was going to but it doesn't tell me where it was delivered to specifically".
They also confirmed neither eBay or the buyer contacted them personally to confirm tracking details, as Royal Mail record every enquiry and there were no previous ones for this tracking number.

Still a bit amazed at how the buyer got away with this. Appeal granted within 48hours too.
When I had a seller give me a dodgy tracking number I got it in writing from Royal Mail that the parcel was incorrectly addressed and still they wouldn't budge.

eBay also said they couldn't consider social media as they couldn't be for certain it was the buyer. And as the item wasn't unique or had a serial number they couldn't be sure it was the exact item I sold.
Buyer also told me they were unemployed and are always home when their post was delivered. Had a lot of expensive stuff on their Instagram too. Doesn't take much guessing to how they could afford it.

[oompaloompa]

sorry but I win these all day long, tracking, and depending on value, signature squiggle is what you need to win INR....tracking equals seller protection.........

As for RM, weird reply, all they would usually say is tracking shows as delivered, yes of course they do not know there was not a mistake, but unless they want a claim made from them they MUST confirm delivery in writing so this can be submitted to ebay - otherwise you tell RM, if they cannot confirm it, then RM pay-out - cannot have it both ways.........

It looks like a call from buyer reversed their policy........I would keep on pestering ebay about this, the best you can achieve is ebay pay the claim out of their own pocket, which does happen in grey area cases......