buyer decided to make claim 3 months after shipment

[edices]

my buyer has announced they have not had delivery 3 months after i have posted it (internally, in the uk). of course, i have not kept the postal receipt for so long as i assumed they would have contacted me earlier. i only have my bank statement to show i paid post office back on 11th December. surely that is not fair, but the paypal seem to be take the money of my account and refund the buyer?? anyone had the same issue?

[kernowlass]

@edices

A buyer has up to 180 days to open a dispute with Paypal so why would you get rid of your proof of postage so early?

Also in the event of an 'item not received' dispute the onus is on the seller to provide trackable proof of delivery (not just that you posted it) or provide a refund.

You should really read up on seller protection before you start to sell so you aren't caught out on these things.

[edices]

thank you for reply. i dont see why 3 months is considered 'so early'. surely it is a bit illogical that buyer would not report missing delivery for 3 months? hey ho, lesson learnt, paypal account to be closed. seller protection is obviously minimal

[kernowlass]

@edices

Yes 3 months seems a bit long to dispute not received, but the reason that paypal give 180 days is because credit card companies normally give that long as well. So if the buyer felt they had 'more' cover with a c.c. they would not use Paypal maybe?

As for seller protection, if you provided trackable proof of delivery of the item then you would have won.

BUT if you choose not to send trackable OR the buyer really did not get their item then of course the buyer would be refunded.

[edices]

i just dont get it. so  in theory, within 5 months, anyone is allowed to claim they have not received delivery, if sellers were unwise to use just a standard royal mail? 

 so the seller is guilty by default. if i wanted to, i could go through my ebay history, check who was as stupid as me and used regular mail to send out something to me, and get my money back for the last half year, claiming i received nothing?very strange

[Susanyork]

Hi

A very similar thing has just happened to me. I posted an item to a buyer on the 16th December. Presumably it was a Christmas gift. I didn’t hear anything else and thought all was well. Until on the 30th January I got an email to say the buyer had imitated a non delivery dispute. 

Then it got strange, I did try hard to resolve it with the buyer, but had a bad feeling about the way the dialogue progressed.

The buyer eventually claimed it was my fault as I had sent the package to the wrong address, he didn’t live there.

This wasn’t true, I used the address PayPal sent me. That address was visible on the dispute in the resolution centre. They even say you will lose your protection from reversals if the address they give isn’t used. 

To cut cut a long story short, they upheld the buyers claim, even though I had proof of postage to the address I’d been given.

I lost my money. There doesn’t seem to be any such thing as protection against reversals, even when PayPal May be at fault. I’ve been with EBay/PayPal since 2002 and had an excellent feedback record. I’ve closed my eBay shop and my PayPal account is next.

I have lost all trust in them, they blindly favour the scammers. I certainly won’t accept PayPal payments any more.

Be careful out there!

[edices]

that's is absolutely disgraceful!

in this case i was in loose/loose situation

the buyer suddenly deciding they didn't receive something after 3 months of silence. apparently they were not at home for 3 months, in which case nobody would be holding or re-attempting deliveries for that length of time. post office, of course, wouldn't accept claims 3 months post- factum.

why, in paypal's opinion, it should be me who pays for it? i am convinced this was a foul play from buyer's side, unfortunately. why not to keep both goods and money if you can

i will definitely minimize my use of paypal and look elsewhere

good luck to you too, with alternative, and hopefully much better, service providers

[kernowlass]

@Susanyork

Proof of postage just means you posted it and not that the buyer received it.

After all if you paid for an item and did not receive it would you not want a refund?

If you sent trackable and it went missing you could refund the buyer and then claim from RM.

[edices]

of course i would very much expect to receive parcel if i paid for it but it no way i would dream or dare saying i have not received something 3 months after expected delivery date?! my proof of postage would not have helped at all. RM would not accept claims for lost parcels 3 months after expected delivery date (unlike PayPal, which apparently allows the buyer half a year to realize they have not actually received something). so it would have been exactly the same outcome- money taken from my account by paypal and i left to sort it out with RM who do not allow such late claims.

apparently the buyer wasn't at home for 3 months. who would have been able to deliver in such case? nobody. and nobody would have held the parcel for that long. so i was doomed from the moment i sent out the parcel.

i cannot believe you think it is fair that the buyer is allowed not to question delivery for months and months, but each to their own

[kernowlass]

@edices

Whether I think it is fair or not matters not one jot.

All i can do is tell you how Paypal works, whether I agree with that or not is immaterial.