Hope someone who gets stuff off ebay from the US might be able to help me out with this one..

My Dad won a skiing jacket on ebay at the beginning of december and paid by paypal. Jacket was $109 and postage to the uk $55. This was back on the 6th December. The guy says the item was posted and has proof of postage/customs forms. It is unclear to us at the moment how it was sent ie courier/post etc but the guy says he is going to see if he can get it tracked from the customs forms?!

Should/could it take this long to be delivered bearing in mind the busy xmas period?
If it doesn't turn up and cannot be tracked what is the comeback? I know paypal is supposed to protect against fraud but if this has been posted in good faith as he has proof of postage where do we go from here?

Help/suggestions appreciated.

cheers,

Ned.

I would have thought in all honesty your up the creek.

He has documentation to say it was posted and thats it, he is not responsible for making sure it does actually get to you. Im sure his responsibility will end when he drops it off at the post office.

Had it been sent by carrier then there would be some official carrier paperwork and he can then claim for losses through their insurance cover and return your money to you. He can also ask for a proof of delivery(which will be non existant) from his carrier to prove that you are not trying to fleece him either.

Many of the Uk carriers are very awkward when trying to claim on them, they have limits for example Lynx who i use wont entertain a claim for less than £40 (cost price) and even when they do its notoriously difficult to get the money back from them.

For an item of that value coming from overseas you would have been best asking the guy to send it by a trackable means and maybe paying a little bit more to esnure if not safe tranisit at least you can be certain its lost and not still sitting in his storeroom while he is pissing your money up the wall.

I had a similar issue in early Dec with an item sent to a buyer by Royal Mail 1st class which never arrived. I have proof of posting (till receipt) but it has still not arrived at its destination in Inverness - although it only sold for £14, the buyer is now £14 out of pocket. when i buy stuff on e-bay i tend to ask the seller to quote for a more reliable method of delivery and pay the going rate if i stand to loose a significant amount of cash.

Ned,

Is the Paypal paid for by credit card? In which case can your Dad claim it back through them? I think Jasper had to do something similar when some yank ripped him off over a bear purchase.

Cheers,
James

Ned we bought tools from California and it took three months to clear the postal system. Take it up with Paypal and Ebay disputes dept.
You are covered up to £500 so all is not lost.
The customs have been a bit stricter of late but we have not had any hassel but several others I know have got customs hassel and delays.
The computer power supplies we ordered late last year cost 50 quid yet attracted 20 quid duty? And took two and a half months to appear at the door.

cheers

thanks for the replies so far. I didn't knw about it until he'd gone and ordered it etc. he's off skiing at the end of the month so is starting to worry it won't be here in time. He did pay by credit card on paypal but looked at the cards terms/conditions and only protects against fraudulent use as far as I can see which this isn't, he'll ring them up to double check anyway.

Need to read up on ebay and paypal as mango suggests to check that out.

cheers,

Ned.

have found this:
https://www.paypal.com/uk/eBay/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_pbp-info-outside
and this:
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/confidence/payment-fraud.html
but these still seem to be related to fraudulent transactions, not genuine postage losses...

[Edited on 6/1/05 by ned]

The consumer credit act covers all non business purcahses made on credit cards even if the bank doesn't say so in their T&Cs.

Basically the bank share equal liability with you if you get ripped off. Some act introduced in the 70s way before ecommerce and has never been changed. It's the best thing since sliced bread.

I would ring my credit card company and tell them you ordered something online and it never arrived and you believe you have been ripped off. They will do a chargeback and then it is up to the merchant to prove that you have recived the goods.

For more info on the consumer credit act ring your local trading standards office.

I ordered a PDA and GPS kit from Dell in December 03. The GPS never showed up and the PDA didn't show until Jan 04. Dell wouldn't answer my emails etc. I stuck the (used) PDA back in it's box got proof of postage back to Dell and faxed it to Mastercard. They reversed the transactions and I had my money back in a week or so.

I subscribed to a 30 day Which trial. Before it expired I told them I wanted to cancel but they started charging my card anyway. A 5min call to Mastercard got all the transactions reversed and if Which ever try to charge my card again it gets declined

[Edited on 6/1/05 by andyharding]

A courier tracking number is valuable in tracking individual parcels. Another way as follows - My company regularly get shipments of car parts from China. When they are sent by air freight the paperwork has an 'MAWB' number (Master Air Way bill number). I was told by a freight company that everything that is shipped by air (including people) has one of these numbers. The first three digits relate to the airline that handled it. If you get this number you should be able to go on-line and track it (first find airline then track on their website). At the very least you should be able to find out what scheduled flight it was on etc and when it arrived in UK. Problems sometimes occur in UK when parcels arive in UK with paperwork filled incorrectly. For example when i send items of low value out i mark the customs label as 'gift' which means duty is not payable by the reciever. I have had stuff sent to me by DHL as a commercial item whereby DHL required payment of customs duty before they would finalise delivery.

IHTH.

Darren.

I wouldn't fret after a month, especially given the holidays.

I had a parcel shipped via US Mail take three months to arrive from Boston -- and I can drive there in less than a day.

If it's shipped via a proper courier definitely get them to track it.

Cheers, Ted

andyharding - the stuff you quote is UK law - this item was bought in america?


Ive had stuff shipped from usa in small express envelopes, and they came in a week. On the other hand, if you get it shipped surface mail, it can be 3 months.

Ask him how he shipped it.

I had to wait 25 days for a bike part from germany via dhl. goth here in the end tho....


atb

steve

if the seller seems genuine and has proof of posting the item, you won't be covered by paypal or the bank as you haven't ben ripped off. did the seller not get a tracking number? if it doesn't turn up, your only option is to make a claim with the courier company. start putting the wheels in motion now, they will at least acknowledge it as lost and start an investigation before they pay out. in the event it doesn't turn, you will have to hope that either you or the seller got sufficient postal insurance.

The difficult bit is deciding whether or not to get a new jacket in the meantime...

i would not be that concerned tho, it can take a little while.