I sold a microphone kit for 120 GBP via Ebay the 9th of April 2024.

I subseqently booked a Royal Mail Parcel Collection via Ebay with the Royal Mail Economy Delivery Royal Mail Tracked 48 service.

I was not present with the package was picked up from the front porch of my house and I failed to notice this email:

Days later, the Ebay buyer messaged me to say the package had not been delivered to my suprise. I raised a complaint with @royalmailhelp on Twitter since I couldn’t figure out how to do it on their website. At first on April 17th they said:

I’m sorry for the confusion this may have caused. The item appears to have been scanned incorrectly at the time of collection. I can confirm it will still be processed and delivered as normal.

They asked me wait, but still the Ebay buyer says he still hasn’t received the package. I contacted Royal Mail again and they replied on the 23rd to say:

In regards to complaint ref: 1-XXXXXXXX, the office manager has replied after conducting an investigation and has advised that an attempt was made to collect the item on the 10/04, but as no label was on the item, the postie had to leave it. Just to check, did you hand this item (YDXXXXXXXXXGB) directly to the postie and watch them take it away, or was it due to be collected from a safeplace?

Oh which I replied that I didn’t. So now there appears to be a bit of stand off.

After summoning up the courage to make a claim, I put one through. The claim reference asks to wait 30 days for a response. Tbh I am disheartend that the whole process has been so painful, especially for the buyer. I still not sure how to refund the buyer!

I hoped @askebay would also be helpful, since I bought the postage through them, but they just said:

The buyer can look into opening an item not received request if they would like. This would allow the two of you 3 full business days to work together before we would be able to step in and take action.

Possible explanations as to what went wrong

My wife was returning some kitchen ware to Glasgow at the same time with the same service, though this was to be collected with a pre-printed label.

The kitchenware was not collected, but the microphone kit with the Ebay label was. We have tried to contact Bonnypack to ask if they received the misdirected package to no avail.