After selling a few unwanted items on the aforementioned auction site, one buyer has claimed that he didn’t receive his item. Rather foolishly I posted it first class only, not recorded or signed for. I still have the receipt for the postage. Is that accepted as proof of anything? The value was about £80.

Has anyone had a similar experience? What did you do about it?

I may be wrong but I think the proof of postage covers you to the value of £36. Any more it needs to be insured.

You’ll be able to claim up to something like £46 from Royal Mail.

How long ago did you post it? I’ve had items take 2 weeks to arrive with First Class post recently.

here’s a bit more info I found

for a Royal mail claim for item not received you need proof of posting stamped by the Post office which shows the address of the person the item was sent to. This can either be a special till receipt they can issue which they fill in by hand, or a pre preared sheet of names of addresses on a form P326

You could claim but AFAIK RM don’t pay out AT ALL if you are underinsured.

You could submit a (fraudulent) claim under the limit (£50?) but you need evidence and so would have to print out the auction page with a different total AND hope they don’t check online.

Wtong, cynic-al.

This compensation is subject to the maximum payable being the lower of the market value of the item and the maximum of £46.00.

RM have been sneaky – the compensation always used to be 100 times the value of a 1st class stamp (which is what I assumed it still was), but somehow they managed to delink it before the latest huge hike in prices. So you’re paying more for postage without any increase in compensation if they lose your stuff.

A receipt isn’t the same as proof of postage, proof of postage they write the post code/address on. If you have that you’re fine. Otherwise you are screwed and will have to stump up the £80 I’m afraid.

Thanks for the replies, not what I wanted to hear tho. I posted over a week ago, so it should have arrived by now.
Next time I will use “signed for” service.
Its the first time I have had any problems in over 300 transactions using Royal mail.

Next time I will use “signed for” service.

That only helps if buyer is being dishonest, not if RM lose it. The only thing which does any good in the latter case is either proof of postage or special delivery for something more expensive. Though in actual fact proof of postage is just as useful as signed for even if the buyer is dishonest (in that case RM takes the hit).

Anything over ~£30 and I always send it signed for which they pay for.

I’ve had a number of people “say” stuff didn’t turn up in the past.

It’s never once happened since.

Its the first time I have had any problems in over 300 transactions using Royal mail.

How much extra dies “signed for” cost?

You’re probably still well ahead money wise than if you paid for extra insurance and signature required, etc. with only 1 problem in 300+. 0.33% loss rate for you to date, or better.

Oh well, that is or was an insurance condition on one of theirs or Parcel Farce’s services, I got caught out.

Signed for is £1 or so? I never use it, no benefit.

Signed for is £1 or so? I never use it, no benefit.

There is. A big benefit. If you can prove it’s arrived; that’s half the job done.

I’m suprised you haven’t picked that up from the other threads

I know that Scotchegg – my point is you can still claim from RM without signed for.

I’ve heard of someone else signing for a parcel then the recipient claiming he doesn’t have it to paypal – then you are screwed, £1 wasted.

^^^^^ cynic-al – The buyer pays the postage (usually) so that can be factored into the postage details, i do EVERY time with items over a tenner. its not really wasted as such as theyve paid for it….

Ask the buyer to take a trip to their local sorting office as the postie may well have tried to deliver and not left a card or card went straight in the bin with junk mail. We send out 1000s of parcels a year and more often than not the parcel is at the sorting office or the buyer is pulling a fast one. I hope you put a clearly labelled return address as it may find its way back to you.

Hi mate. You receipt functions as proof of postage. My PO make me write the destination address and keep th receipt. Hope this helps you.

In my limited experience ebay will almost always find in favour of the buyer in these cases and issue a full refund (inc. postage). Like you i’ve had very few problems but after getting burnt will pay the extra 75p or whatever it is for signed for just for personal peace of mind.

How long ago did you post it? I’ve had items take 2 weeks to arrive with First Class post recently.

RM also won’t consider it lost until two weeks have passed.

JoeG – Member

You’re probably still well ahead money wise than if you paid for extra insurance and signature required, etc. with only 1 problem in 300+. 0.33% loss rate for you to date, or better.

Yep. I post high value items insured but for the middling stuff, if you deal with any volume it’s often cheaper to write off an occasional loss than to insure against it.