Empty box delivered
I think I know the answer but I thought I’d ask.
I have a buyer who claims he’s received an empty box. Trying to understand his email it seems the parcel has been opened by the delivery company (Royal Mail). It wasn’t recorded.
I assume we’re still liable? It’s not much money just very irritating.
17 replies
Seller_o2DBfhXXLComY
I would ask them for a picture of the bag it arrived in as if Royal Mail damage a parcel or letter they put it in a clear bag and make it quite blatant that it was damaged 
if it didnt arrive in a clear bag then it wasnt damaged when it arrived ;0)
Seller_O1XqffFRyKP19
May be true, but it’s also a classic scam.
Problem is you can’t exactly prove them wrong, and if it’s just your word against theirs, then Amazon will always side with them if they take it to an A-to-Z.
If it’s a low cost item, I can’t really see any other option than to send a replacement.
Would probably send it recorded or tracked just to cover your back against another potential spurious “replacement didn’t arrive” claim.
Seller_Xa3GAMUnGn5uQ
Had something similar just after Christmas, customer said they received an empty bag. I told the customer that due to our packing process that there is no way an empty bag has been shipped out with an address on and also an empty bag would have been picked up by the staff at our local post office. I asked for photos of the bag which they sent. It wasn’t our bag and it clearly had a senders return label on the bag which was from a completely different company. When i pointed that out to the customer they replied telling me that they had ordered from 5 different retailers around the same time, so they just emailed all five of us at the same time! so yea i would ask for photos just in case, and i would definitely tell them that you will need to speak to Royal Mail in case it rattles any cages.
Seller_n0bJDRRezJ2p6
You only had the one item and are not able to resend the order (understand). But even if you were able to send a replacement, really, DO NOT DO IT. When you have to deal with it, just refund and watch out for a repeat sting.
I have heard of people sending two, three and four replacements - all mysteriously lost in the post. After you try with the RM bag question, and when you decide to suffer this highway robbery, just refund.
Mark their emails suspicious, in case the Amaz metrics take in this sort of thing (Zzzzzz). Maybe report it to the Action Fraud people too.
Seller_jjQ4dQOPjTmqs
Highly likely to be a scam. Don’t replace and do not refund.
As has already been said, RM do not deliver damaged packages - they always put them in a plastic bag with notification of damage details.
Tell the buyer RM take a dim view of internal theft and the ‘empty package’ must be reported to them in order to obtain compensation. Ask if the buyer wants to do it themselves or would they prefer you to open a case. Note that they must keep all the packaging as evidence if required by RM.
Seller_PlOVmqWKhQfHb
Royal Mail have delivered an empty box to my customer before.
I’m fairly sure it was genuine as they sent me a picture and the box had official Royal Mail notification stickers on it.
If you get a photo of the empty box you can use that to claim back the cost of the goods from RM, provided you have invoices for the original supply.
Maybe it is a scam but if you treat the customer badly you’re on a hiding to nothing so I would assume they are telling the truth and write it off as part of the cost of doing business.
Seller_d5xGVic0qWqw7
More likely they are claiming the same with all the parcels they recieved.
I had one in usa she claimed recieved as it was tracked but it was an empty bag.
Amazon refunded out of their pocket. To be honest the empty bag scam is amazon doing as they refund so easily.
I had this on ebay once and when i checked her feedback shd left for others it said not recieved or empty bag.
Reported to ebay they removed the feedback and closed the account. If amazon allow sellers to leave feedback on buyers so many acammers will be caught out and stopped. We should be able to leave a feedback for each one making false claims. Then we should be able to block these buyers from buying from us. This should give these buyers a taste of their own medicine.
Seller_cJms0GbotqqtV
I would tell the buyer that before you can issue a refund, you need them, as recipient, to formally notify Royal Mail that they received an empty box; and to copy to you the response from Royal Mail.
In these circumstances, the item inside has either become separated from its packaging in transit. RM are usually very good at spotting this, and will deliver the package in a clear plastic bag with a note explaining what has happened.
Or it has been deliberately removed while in transit, in which case RM will need to investigate the possibility of theft by one of their employees.
I would also ask that the buyer retains the packaging as received, in case RM ask for it as part of their investigation. And that they send you photographs of the package as received by them, so that you can check whether the packaging used was sufficiently robust.
At the end of the process, you are probably going to have to refund if the buyer sticks to their story, as you have no way of knowing for certain whether it is true or a scam. But it does no harm to make possible scammers jump through a few hoops; and to ensure that Royal Mail are aware, in case they are able to detect a pattern of such claims from the same address.
Paul
