Robbed by Ebay! "Buyer protection" but what about sellers? Unfair practices.

[marco8909]

I am mainly a buyer on Ebay, occasionally I would sell clothes I have here at home. I have sold no more than 6 items in my lifetime since 2006 with a 100% positive score. I recently sold a 900$ jacket to a buyer in the UK. Due to the pandemic, Royal Mail states on their website that they no longer allow signature confirmation. They only need a receiver's name, and it can be the neighbour as well. I paid 160$ for express shipping with signature confirmation. It was shown to be delivered to the buyer's neighbour and the buyer claims his neighbour never received the item. Now Ebay is siding with him even after I have provided proof from Canada Post and Royal Mail. How does EBay UK & the buyer not know their own shipping laws & procedures? I contacted them minimum 10x and received 10 auto reply msgs stating that my signature confirmation is invalid. Now they're trying to steal my money and do a chargeback on the item. Any help would be appreciated, I might have to lawyer up.

[msau4301]

This is awful! I don't understand why with all the proof - address and name of neighbour who accepted it eBay would not see this as proof of delivery. Did you show the buyer (message him with the info you've shown here from Royal Mail) as proof and he can talk to this Sonia Mellar neighbour him/herself and show the proof! Maybe Sonia is a daughter and you asked the mother (or something like that) and they didn't know. Speak to the Sonia Mellar directly (if it's a neighbour maybe you know who it is??)

Try eBay's customer service again (the post office has shown their proof of delivery so it's not with them).

I know I've had more knowledgable CA agents when I've used the little phone icon (call me back) that is on the Managed Payments section of the site. I've found them to call back within a couple of minutes and have known a little more than calling a general number.

Good luck!!

[marnotom!]

eBay seems to be following its Seller Protection policy to the letter (so to speak) on this one.  Sellers don't need just proof of delivery to be protected against a bogus claim of non-delivery, they need proof that the delivery was made to the address or postal code/postcode/ZIP code/etc. on the transaction details address. 

Is the address in the letter from Canada Post the recipient's address or the neighbour's address?

[ricarmic]

To my mind this is not unlike situations where the CP recordkeeping says that an item was left at a community mailbox and the buyer claims that it was not delivered.

I have had this exact situation. Canada Post said it was delivered, buyer said that is was not. Buyer had already contacted Canada Post before me, and in that case Canada Post refunded me as though the item was lost.

This situation is similar, except the buyer hasn't contacted CP but the buyer is claiming non-receipt so CP is theoretically still on the hook, notwithstanding the assertions of RM.

This is certainly a mess, as usual everyone is pointing at everyone else whilst the seller suffers.

I do think that given the seller doesn't control what the PO(s) do, it showing as delivered albeit to a different signor/location should count for more.

Depending on what happens with eBay I wouldn't give up pursuing through Canada Post.

[femmefan1946]

Signature Confirmation normally means a named adult, not necessarily the name on the parcel.

tyler@ebay  -

[tyler@ebay]

Thanks for the tag @femmefan1946!

We require you to purchase a signature confirmation service if the purchase price meets the threshold (which this definitely did). Because courier's have COVID protocols in place most of them are not collecting signatures, but are typing them in manually. 

I've sent this on for further review @marco8909 - please keep an eye on your eBay inbox as they should process and update you there. 

Thanks! 

[marco8909]

Thanks Tyler and @femmefan1946! Case closed! Merry Xmas and happy new year to you all! =D

[msau4301]

What wonderful news!

[mr.special-editions]

Call them, if you read eBay policy it's not difficult to explain the policy better to reps then they can to you.  Be polite and simply don't take no for an answer.

Also make sure they know you are on eBay Canada and not eBay USA.  Different policies.

Congratz on your outcome