Item not received - scam?
A customer contacted to say that she hadn’t received her item but Royal Mail tracking does shows it was delivered and GPS coordinates and the map show the barcode was scanned at the expected location.
The customer also received a RM “We have delivered your Parcel to your Neighbour at:” card that simply says “recycling bin” in the description below which she thinks it’s with the neighbours which none of her local neighbours has received it but I’m pretty sure it means it’s in the customer’s recycling bin as it would have mentioned the door number. Also, I attach the Royal Mail card which is something I haven’t seen before and seems like an old RM card and nothing like a standard “while you were out” Royal Mail card
The customer refuses to go to her local depot to enquire about this issue as she’s worried about queuing in a pandemic and then requested to ask her postman for the whereabouts of her parcel but tells me she works full time. so its excuse after excuse and demanding a refund which i’m thinking could be a scam
Please anyone advise me how can I handle this customer.
Much appreciated
27 replies
Seller_bhSWqoVh7Pn98
If the RM Card is dated, and the Postie has put in the Recyling Bin, raise a claim with RM, as they are not supposed to do that.
It could be that is what the Buyer asks RM to do though, then claims from Sellers.
Go to the RM website also log a query and inform about the Card, what it says etc, ask for Depot Manager to be involved as not acceptable.
https://business.help.royalmail.com/app/webforms/myserviceteam
Of couse, if the RM Postie decided it was a ‘Safe Place’ and it has gone missing, RM should pay the claim.
If sending expensive items, I’d send Tracked + Signed For as 30p more, but coverec by A-Z Claims easier, and RM have to pay if they do not get a proper delivery (Postie Signs, but they tend not to just leave ‘Safe’) - add a note on each label not to leave with a neighbour, and then they will just take back to the Depot to rearrange
How much is the parcel, what RM service used?
Seller_sFEUMUfeW5484
You are probably right, problem is of course that if they open a case, you will lose. And get a metric hit.
Seller_lljyzgTxr5fgI
You’ve only got two options:
You can either refund her and then take it up with Royal Mail later (and protect your account from any metrics hits) or you can dispute the case and almost certainly be hit with an A-Z and a metric hit which you will not be able to overturn. Before you do either of these things, you might want to look at some anecdotal evidence of what actually happens sometimes.
Sometimes RM (and other delivery services) do leave items in recycling bins and waste bins and other dozy places, for that matter. We have a regular postie here who knows the drill but when he’s on day off, another, unfamilar postie delivers to us. There is a notice on our door which says “deliver to the brown box” and an arrow pointing to the box. This is a large, plastic, Keter crate with a hinged lid. It’s as clear as the hairs on my face. However, occasionally, a relief postie would put items in the “brown recycling bin” which is for garden waste and then write on the card “parcel in brown bin”. I have thus had to move the recycling bin completely out of the way, just to prevent confusion.
@BM5 mentions this:
This is all fair and good, in principle. However, the four cottages where we live have the same street address (though a slighly different postcode) to a street in another village, 5 miles away. The amount of packages and letters that get sent to the other village, for all of our cottages, is unreal. Nobody ever returns them to us or RM. The number of times that we literally have to drive to Nawton Beadlam to seek out items is unbelievable. The people there are rightly fed up of receiving our mail and just sit on them until somebody comes. The young lady in the bottom cottage even had to go and retrieve her wedding shoes from the wrong address with the same street name! So much for postcodes, eh? How they can get it so wrong is unfathomable, but they do. We even had to put the name of our own delivery office (18 miles away) on our Amazon address because items were being sent to the wrong delivery office and not delivered to us. In other words, such mistakes do happen but are not corrected how we would like.
So, in summary, look at the two options above and decide which is your preferred way to deal with it but @MonkeyBoy has the right of it; if she opens a case, you will lose.
Seller_yWG0Qhyf7ztYF
Thanks, for your help guys, such a helpful group!! The depot contact number is impossible to find other than the general RM customer services number so I will try the number BM5 has given.
In the meantime I sought advice from Amazon CS which I have received the reply below:
I’ve forwarded your message about Order ########## to the Amazon team that reviews buyer activities as part of any investigation into possible violations of our policies.
For account privacy reasons, we are unable to disclose the outcome of any investigation. However, we appreciate your vigilance, as it performs a vital role in maintaining the integrity and security of our website.
Regarding the refund, you have to take a call in this case. You can either contact the carrier , retrieve the package and process a refund to the buyer, or you can reject the buyer request.
This I had expected would be a standard generic response and know that if the buyer did open an A-Z case it would be in the buyer’s favour despite the tracking showing it has been delivered.
Jessica_Amazon_
Hello,
Please do no argue on the forum. This thread will be closed if these comments continue.
Thank you,
Jessica
Seller_yWG0Qhyf7ztYF
Steady on guys!! we are all helping each other
Anyhow, I managed to get through to the actual delivery office and spoke to the manager at length, they did mention the postman is very reliable so it seems the customer is trying it on but nevertheless RM say they will investigate this immediately. Although it’s only a £20 item it feels right to get this investigated.
I am hopeful
Thanks guys for all the help
Seller_tc3VxVXAlHXbN
How much of a loss have you incurred as a result of this scam? Is it worth losing potentially 1% of your turnover from a seller metrics hit?
Is it worth spending potentially 4 hours with Amazon following it up at the risk that you will take a permanent metric hit?
I have sold around 5000 orders, I have had 4 scammers.
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Incident one, one of my competitors bought 2 of my products from 2 different accounts. They claimed both were not received. Did not answer if they wanted a refund or replacement. They filed 2 A to Z Claims as I was a new seller this put my A to Z Claim rate to 8%! They then left 2 negative feedbacks, it took me 6 hours to follow this up with Amazon and get them removed (I sent screenshots of the buyer threatening me to “file many A to Z Claims and Negative feedback” unless I stopped selling a competitive product with the ASIN quoted. The 2 negative feedbacks said the item had been received but were fake (made me laugh as it was my own brand made by me), but the 2 A to Z Claims they of which Amazon reimbursed them for they claimed they never received the product.
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Incident 2 I sent 2 products to a customer, tracked delivery, they claimed I sent an empty thin plastic envelope, which is impossible, they did not say if it had been opened etc and would not send me photos of the packaging. I just refunded them, it was not worth a couple of hours of my time.
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Incident 3 (this week) I sent 3 items Special Delivery they seller ordered on Saturday Morning, he chased me 3-4 times a day asking for dispatch, I explained they would be sent Monday, it arrived Tuesday and showed it was signed for my the customer. He asked me where the item was, I advised it had been signed for, he said he had not received it and immediately filed an A to Z Claim of which Amazon instantly granted him a refund but they paid for it (and they emailed me saying it would not effect my metrics). I apologised it had not been received and sent a message that should have got some sort of response, but suddenly the guy who had been messaging me 4 times a day chasing me 24/7 stopped talking.
For those who have commented it is easy to get hold of Royal Mail, I find they normally take 2 to 6 weeks since Lockdown to get back to you. By then your metrics are severely hit.
For high value items I would recommend using a courier that takes photos of the parcel and have GPS co-ordinates, but if you have a tracking number Amazon back you & fund the refund!
It sucks but I have had 3 certain scams from 2 buyers and one maybe scammer, but out of 5,000+ orders it is a small minority and part of the parcel! Think how often larger companies get scammed!
Sorry it sucks but the above is the reality, unless you want to waste even more money and time in principle. Just take the hit. I am sure large businesses have a fraud budget.
Seller_3L43pH5tyff5S
I had one very similar, provided tracking showing delivered with GPS to Amazon and they funded the refund with no mark on A-Z
Seller_cedsnRIkO32W2
If it says “recycle bin”, it’s not going to be at the local depot. More likely, the recycling has been taken by the bin men (recycling men?) … Raise a claim with royal mail, give customer option of replacement or refund.
