I recently sold some old brakes for £25. The money was paid via paypal and I sent them off 1st class signed for and thought nothing else about it. A week or two later I was clearing through some of the crap in my wallet and decided to bin the postage receipt as I hadn’t heard anything from the buyer and presumed that they’d received them as I let them know I’d posted 1st class. However the buyer emailed me this week telling me they haven’t received the brakes and have opened a dispute case via paypal. So my question is what should I do? If I were the buyer I’d be pretty pissed at being £25 out of pocket, but then again as a seller I’m pretty pissed at the prospect of being £25/the brakes out of pocket. 🙁

You have to refund the buyer. It’s your job to deal with RM.

Usually it goes like this..
Buyer pays you to get items to them.
Yo pay royal mail to get items to buyer.

If items don’t get to buyer, you haven’t done what you promised, so would refund buyer. You then chase royal mail as they haven’t done what they promised.

It looks like you’re going to have to cough up…

DrP

Did you spell the address correctly on the package 😉

Mistakes are easy to make (apparently)

Just saying 😀

Oh Cock, I thought so, but having spoken to the Royal Mail they aren’t being at all helpful. Once I’ve given the refund what’s the chances of getting anywhere with the Royal Mail (is it even worth filling in and sending off a P58)?

Only you can decide whether it’s worth it – do you want your money back?

If so it might be worth putting a bit of effort into it.

postman has a nice set of brakes on his bike.

Or did buyer receive brakes and is pulling a fast one. Recorded every time for me.

Only you can decide whether it’s worth it – do you want your money back?

Yes I do, but from reading the Royal Mail website it looks like they will try to wriggle out of paying anything and having lost the receipt they’ll probably just tell me to jog-on. It looks like at best I might get the cost of postage back, but nothing for the lost brakes. Is this right or have others had any better experience with the Royal Mail claims?

I think this is probably just another of those annoying lessons to keep hold of all receipts 🙁

I always email the seller to let them know I have the item and ask that buyers afford me the same courtesy. Many don’t though.

Recorded every time for me.

Me too these days unfortunately. Still doesn’t help if someone wants to open a PayPal dispute and say the item is broken/not as described, but it’s one less thing to worry about.

Recorded every time for me.

He sent it recorded delivery.

But threw the receipt away.

Personally anything I send recorded I keep the receipt for until I’ve had confirmation from the buyer. If I don’t hear anything I chase them for confirmation. Some forget, some are too bloody lazy to bother.

Can you can still report a missing item and get them to look for it without a receipt?

EDIT I’m pretty confident that without a receipt you cannot make a financial claim of RM – kind of makes sense.

Yes I do, but from reading the Royal Mail website it looks like they will try to wriggle out of paying anything and having lost the receipt they’ll probably just tell me to jog-on. It looks like at best I might get the cost of postage back, but nothing for the lost brakes. Is this right or have others had any better experience with the Royal Mail claims?

So you’ve already decided it’s the RM’s fault?

OP “I paid for this service and it didn’t deliver”
RM “Im sorry to hear that sir, do you have your receipt or unique tracking reference so we can investigate it further please?”
OP “No I don’t, sorry”
RM “Im sorry sir we cannot investigate if we have nothing to cross reference”
OP “Bastards trying to get out of it on a technicality, I’ll go and complain on a bike forum, they’ll back me up.”
OP “Bugger”

So you’ve already decided it’s the RM’s fault?

Who else’s fault is it that a parcel was lost by RM? I printed the buyers address from Paypal (same as address in email) and posted it at the post office, so unless the buyer is lying (which I’ll give them benefit of the doubt about) I don’t see who else could have lost the parcel! Yes, I shouldn’t have lost/binned the receipt, but that wouldn’t have mattered if RM had done their job and not lost the bloody parcel 🙄

EDIT:

Bastards trying to get out of it on a technicality, I’ll go and complain on a bike forum, they’ll back me up

I didn’t mean to start off complaining, as I wanted advice on what to do and have now given a full refund. I appreciate that there’s not much that can be done without a receipt, but it is annoying that RM have lost a parcel and there is nothing that I can do about it (yes my fault I know, but even with the receipt it looks like I’d just get refund of postage cost and still not have the brakes!), besides had RM done their jobs in the fist place it wouldn’t matter if I had the receipt or not, but hey ho you live and learn!

Did you spell the address correctly on the package

Mistakes are easy to make (apparently)

That they are; I regularly get clearly addressed mail, which isn’t addressed to where I work, so I send it back.
Whereupon it gets delivered to my firm again a day or so later.
So I give it back to the post office.
Who send it back.
Seven times over the space of about a fortnigt is the record so far, for a very large, pink envelope, addressed to someone in India.
I have written on an envelope, in large letters, ‘NOT WOODS, PLEASE DELIVER TO ADDRESS WRITTEN ON ENVELOPE’ and the dimwits still send it to us. I’ve had entire tubs of mail addressed to North Wilts addresses and beyond delivered, to us, by mistake, and half of it has still come back several times. 🙄
And breathe…

nealglover – Member
Recorded every time for me.
He sent it recorded delivery.

But threw the receipt away.

No he said he posted it 1st class, totally different from recorded. I check online to see if parcel arrives before throwing receipt away.

No he said he posted it 1st class, totally different from recorded. I check online to see if parcel arrives before throwing receipt away.

It was 1st class Signed for and I should have checked on line before throwing away the receipt, but didn’t. All I can do now is try to learn from my stupid mistake and be thankful it was just an old knackered set of brakes sent for spares!

“having lost the receipt” you claimed that you binned it?
your fault you should’ve kept the receipt until confirmed they had received the goods. Give them the refund and accept on this occasion you have been a bit silly.

Aye, see what happens when you skim read. 😳

“having lost the receipt” you claimed that you binned it?

I’m not sure whether I binned it during a wallet clear out or lost it in the office having left it on my desk after posting, but either way both are my fault and the outcome is the same!

your fault you should’ve kept the receipt until confirmed they had received the goods. Give them the refund and accept on this occasion you have been a bit silly.

See post above, that’s what I’ve done!

EDIT: but I’m still annoyed that the RM lost a bloody parcel!

Nip into the post office- nice lady in my local one got me a duplicate evidence of posting when I “mislaid” a receipt into the bin.

Refund and then ask post office for duplicate receipt.

Recorded and insured next time.

You took a risk to save money, it didn’t pay off – pay up and learn from it.

You took a risk to save money, it didn’t pay off – pay up and learn from it.

What ?

Can nobody read properly today.

Recorded and insured next time.

It was both Recorded and Insured this time.

HE LOST THE RECEIPT 😯

You took a risk to save money, it didn’t pay off – pay up and learn from it.

What risk did I take to save money? As I see it I just ballsed up by not keeping the receipt safe and by trusting the RM to deliver a parcel!

EDIT: but I’m still annoyed that the RM lost a bloody parcel!

To be fair, you have no idea wether they did or not.

You can’t check either way. Which isn’t their fault.

To be fair, you have no idea wether they did or not.

I have the buyer word that it didn’t arrive (they could be lying, but I hope not) so it must have been lost.

You can’t check either way. Which isn’t their fault.

True 😳

I have the buyer word that it didn’t arrive (they could be lying, but I hope not) so it must have been lost.

You have much more faith in people you have never met than I do.

I think instead of “so it must have been lost” I should have put “so the only other option is that the RM lost it”, however I think people are generally honest and do hope the buyer was too. As you say I have no way to be sure, but feel better about being let down by a ball-up than being scammed!

You should of sent it 1st Class Recorded Signed for.

Ah well, next time, eh? 😉

You have much more faith in people you have never met than I do.

Yep, he’s still none the wiser on whether RM lost it or the Buyer is just claiming it hasn’t arrived.

Does signed for give you a tracking number? That you can update on the item page in eBay?
If so, the number may still be in the eBay system..

I don’t think you simply have to accept you’ve lost here.

The sale of goods act states that there is no legal requirement to provide a receipt on a sale, which means that there is NO requirement to keep, or produce a receipt. You paid for a service that the Royal Mail have clearly failed to provide. If the Post Office counter staff remember you and can vouch for you, or if you paid by card and can produce a bank statement you might have a case.

I’m unsure if your statutory rights cover things like mail, but it’s worth checking out. At the very least, a claim with a threat of small claims action may be worth pursuing. They might take the view it’s a relatively small amount and even winning at small claims will cost them more than that.

You have no proof of postage, how do you know the guy never received the brakes if you haven’t checked if it was signed for or not? For all Royal mail know you could be making the whole thing up

This thread has reached new heights of posting-without-reading-any-other-posts-properly-or-at-all 😀

OP – that’s pretty unlucky but FWIW, I always ask the bod behind the counter to write, “disc brakes”, or “gimp mask”, or whatever the item is, on the receipt of posting. Otherwise I end up with a wallet full of receipts for God knows what… And I periodically empty them into a drawer which gets emptied whenever it gets too chaotic.

Have you asked the buyer to check with their local sorting office. Wouldn’t be surprised if rm didn’t leave missed delivery card.

You took a risk to save money, it didn’t pay off – pay up and learn from it.

You took a risk, and posted with a set of assumptions about the OP, rather than read his post. Apologise, and learn from it.