Quick one for the ebay experts - help required please

[The Admiral]

I'm hoping someone can help.

Sold a pedal on eBay and posted Special Delivery. After 4 months, the Royal Mail have finally admitted it's been 'lost' - but draw your own conclusion on that one, as I always pack things really carefully and it had both the buyer's and my address all over the package.

I need to claim for the item and postage, but I need a copy of the eBay listing, and it's no longer on the eBay system, not even in my summary page , as a sold or sent item, which surprised me.

Any thoughts on how I can prove I sold it on eBay? Apparently the PayPal receipt is not enough for the Royal Mail process!

Cheers

A

[bertbass]

Ebay do send you an e-mail saying that your item has been sold, do you still have that?

[geoffbyrne]

Certified letter from the buyer?

G.

[dand666]

It might be handy to ring Ebay and ask? [color=#304B58][font=Verdana, sans-serif][size=3] 020 8605 3000[/size][/font][/color]

Thats ebays main switchboard number. If not you have to get a invite code by going through eBay support online and ringing [color=#304B58][font=Verdana, sans-serif][size=3]0800 3583229[/size][/font][/color]

[Old Horse Murphy]

Why not ask the guy who bought it to see if it still appears in his My Ebay section (feedback needed, items bought etc).

Same with your own Ebay account. I thought sold items were archived for up to 6 months

[dmccombe7]

I think after 28 days Royal Mail wont pay out unless you have lodged a complaint - might be wrong but check the small print.
ebay also has a similar thing that you need to register your complaint within 35 days i think.

Dave

[The Admiral]

[quote name='dmccombe7' timestamp='1355156001' post='1894731']
I think after 28 days Royal Mail wont pay out unless you have lodged a complaint - might be wrong but check the small print.
ebay also has a similar thing that you need to register your complaint within 35 days i think.

Dave
[/quote]

Thanks to everyone for all the tips - much appreciated.

There is a substantial file of notes on the Royal Mail system, and I first raised it with their customer services within 28 days, so I would hope I'm ok on that score. The level of incompetence and misinformation, due to ignorance of their own systems, has been staggering. The most galling thing is that they allegedly couldn't deliver it, and then had to return it to a special centre for orphan parcels, despite the fact that I had put my address etc on the parcel in case of returns. They now can't find it - which feels a little suspicious to me, insofar as they are all bar coded items, so why has it gone missing - when they had tracked it to the parcel centre? Draw your own conclusions on that one. Now more time wasted on the bloody forms to claim the money back!

[dmccombe7]

yep i had same issue waiting for a delivery during the very bad winter a few yrs ago whereby they couldn't deliver due to weather and the parcel was apparently waiting in the "Central Hub" at Coventry. That was fair enough due to the extreme weather but they then couldn't actually locate it when it was clear to deliver.
The parcel never arrived and the seller couldn't get it returned either and at this point the recomendation from both Ebay and Royal Mail was to allow more than the stated 28 days due to weather but when the guy went to claim he was told it was over the 28 days and he had a helluva trouble trying to get his money refunded for the goods.
MAKES ME VERY WARY OF SENDING ANYTHING AT THIS TIME OF THE YEAR. I have no confidence in the honesaty of people working at the Royal Mail central hub where most parcels seem to disappear into another dimension yet they are unable to track with their own tracking system. My own knowledge is that everywhere the parcel changes hands or location it is scanned and signed for and should therefore be traceable as to who had it last. In my opinion that should mean legal action against the person who last had it.
Sorry to be bringer of bad news but Royal Mail are not to be trusted.

Dave

[thepurpleblob]

Did you have proof of posting from when you sent it? Surely, by definition, that should be enough.....

[Grangur]

Really sorry to hear about this. Unfortunatly on this kind of thing Ebay, in my experiance of being on both sides of this, always sides on the side of the buyer when it comes to disputes. And Royal Mail is next to useless even when "Special Delivery" goes missing, no matter what info you have. Tracking numbers mean nothing to them, in my exp.

For future info, on all my sales i use [color="#00802a"][url="http://www.collectplus.co.uk/"]www.[b]collectplus[/b].co.uk/[/url][/color]
They say the max size is 30cm x 30cm x50cm. But I've mailed full bass instruments for £6.99 and they got there ok in 5 days - signed for too!

[Cygnus x-1]

If it was sent 'Special Delivery' it would have had a time limit ie. 24h /48h etc. If it didn't arrive at the destination within that time, you probably could have claimed for it being 'lost' after 15 working days.