If a buyer says he did not receive a parcel ,what should the seller do?

[glenair172]

If a buyer says they did not receive an item ,what should the seller do?

[mr.elmwood]

If you were the customer who did not get what they ordered, what would you want?

You would want a refund, wouldn't you?

[mdf_jersey]

Do you have a tracking number? If not then you are in trouble. 

All I would suggest if you dont have tracking is ask them to wait a little longer and if the item doesn't show, you will look into it. Obviously if you dont have tracking then there is nothing to look into. Hopefully it will arrive.

If not you will have to refund the buyer. If you dont the buyer will open a claim and will still get the money back.

If you have tracking then you dont have anything to worry about.

[cumos55]

Send the buyer a tracking number  and a link to the appropriate postal service  where they can see for themselves  where the parcel is in transit...

[cumos55]

If you do not use tracking .. then it is wait... and if not received by the buyer... refund without question.

Sending a $50 bill via lettermail....  can hurt  if you have to make a refund....

[pjcdn2005]

If there is no tracking.....depending on where and how long ago the item was sent, I usually ask the buyer to wait until a specific date and tell them if it isn't there by that date, I will refund.

[reallynicestamps]

Given your DSRs and relatively low sales, refund as suggested, asking politely for a refund of the refund WHEN the item arrives.

I notice that your only 5 star Rating is based on Free Shipping.

You should be aware that Free Shipping is ad-talk for "Shipping Cost included in asking price.' EBay knows and understands this.

If you  normally ship LetterMail (as I do), the Free Shipping component is negligble. Even lower if you can buy discount mint postage. But this is not tracked in any way.

So there you use Cookie Jar Insurance, adding a few pennies to every asking price to cover the occasional low-value loss.

With better items, like a $50 bill, you should be using a tracked service like ExpressPost.  And put the cost of domestic delivery into you asking price. International shipping then would be posted as International/USA tracked service minus domestic ExpressPost rates as a Fixed Rate.

If the customer does not want to pay that much, do you really want that customer? Or is the financial and emotional cost of a 'lost' package too high?

DSRs of 4.5 are dangerously low. You really really don't want the possibility of a Paypal dispute. The 'defects' could knock you right out of selling.

[ricarmic]

If it helps at all, here is a link to an old posting where I put my "form letters" I use for situations like this. I have had good luck, relatively speaking, in my category (stamps) for folks contacting me afterward so I can reinvoice them....


http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/I-haven-t-received-my-item-or-Item-not-received-case-the-...

[38e_avenue]

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@cumos55 wrote:

If you do not use tracking .. then it is wait... and if not received by the buyer... refund without question.

Sending a $50 bill via lettermail....  can hurt  if you have to make a refund....

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Unfortunately, just happened to me. A $50 item shipped to China (small packet). I asked the buyer to wait (2 months), them I refunded with apologies.