i have sold about 1000 items this year, 4 have gone missing, and strangely enough all in latvia. All my items are insured so if they get lost the customer is refunded. However if the seller states that it is your responsibility to request insurance and you dont, then if it goes missing they are not liable. I think its a case of, when you bid, you are agreeing by default to the sellers terms and conditions

If its an expensive item you should always check the sellers policy and if its mega expensive its worth considering collection in my opinion, but if thats not possible then at least make sure you specify that you want the item to be fully insured

Vebalkint,
i take it you mean insured via the royal mail extra compensation cover on the international services?

If so how long did the process take etc.

Thanks

Oh yes. Think i will never sell overseas again!
It is just not worth the hassle...

Some months ago, I bought a McLauchlan print from EBay. After around a week of winning and paying for the print, I emailed the seller to ask when it might be received. I was horrified to be informed that they had sent it immediately. The seller provided me with a tracking number and when I traced this online, Parcel Force stated that the item had been delivered and even produced an image of the signature of the person who had signed for it. Unfortunately, the signature was no one who lives in my house ! When I complained to Parcel Force, I didn't find them particularly helpful. There was a huge claim form to complete and lots of evidence required (including ORIGINAL proof of posting ... ) Fortunately, the EBay seller was extremely supportive and helpful and emailed me lots of info / images etc. Had he not been so pro-active in this, my claim would have failed immediately. Some months later, I received a cheque for almost the full cost of the print, though I would have preferred to have the art itself. This was only because the seller had used the best postage service available. What was most frustrating though was that Parcel Force had absolutely no evidence of where they had actually posted the item to - just a signature - basically, the post person couldn't have given a toss so long as they got a signature. And the thought that somewhere, someone has a Warrior Bird that they are probably not even interested in ..... (Since bought the print from another seller and this time had it delivered to my parents address in another area just to be safe !) Am currently waiting for some more art which was posted on 10th July ..... maybe posted in Thailand ? !! Fingers crossed !

I wouldn't worry, they can take a week or so

I won some books on ebay from the states and the seller twice upped the postage charges.

2 months later no goods had arrived and after contacting seller he told me the postage service he used didn't provide tracking numbers so feared the worst and logged a dispute via Paypal who decided in my favour and refunded approx 80% of the costs.

A further 2 months after that.... the goods turned up

Actually, it's to do with an U/S LV Child, which I want to share with the forum but need to wait for its arrival in case I tempt fate !

Last year I won one of Banksys soup cans from the bay and had it delivered special delivery.

I was tracking it and to my disbelief one day saw that it claimed to have been delivered, which I knew was untrue.

When the postie came round I let him know and brought him into my flat to show him what it was saying on my computer. Once I told him it cost me £400 he was straight onto it as he knew it might come back to him if it was lost.

About 3 hours later the guy came back with tube in hand, and showed me what had happened. Some retard had signed the wrong box further up and everyones signature was one done from where it should have been and mine was the last on the card, so it appeared like the card was full and everything delivered.

If it wasn't for that guy I would really hate the posties, instead of just simply not caring for their pish ness.

something similar happened to me twice last year within the space of about a week with different courier companies. in both situations the print was left with a neighbour that i didn't recognise. it turned out in both cases the items had been left with a neighbour in a different street i.e i stay at 23 notknown drive and one had been left with a neighbour at 21 notknown road and another with a neighbour at 25 notknown road. neither made any effort to bring the items 100 yards round the corner to me.

i managed to decypher the signature in both cases and find the name on the electoral roll at the addresses above. i live in a pretty decent neighbourhood but the second one was an old bloke who was quite abusive when i went round for the item - saying that he had done me a favour by signing for the item (then holding onto it for 3 weeks while i tracked him down). it was worth the effort in the end and i still entertain notions of getting him back in some way.

Get his phone number and stick an advert in Loot selling a car for a really stupidly low price - like a top spec new BMW for £10000 - emigrating forces sale ;D

expect them to take a year to be arsed to do anythin if they're anything like the feckin royal mail.

Parcelforce have finally been in touch and said that to make a claim I need a proof of posting in the form of drivers signature...which my mother tells me he didn't leave. Brilliant! How can something that large go missing. So p****d off

i didnt read all these posts, but i always make my buyers pay full insurance! If they dont want insurance, i make them email me stating they take full responsibility if a print get lost. I tell them I would rather spend a little money up front, than lose the whole thing trying to get by VAT.

Rather worryingly, I still have not received the print from SOS which was notified as being dispatched on 10th July - I am probably being paranoid but am now thinking that it has been sent by Parcel Force and they have posted it to the same address as the McLauchlan print went to ... though perhaps I am going mad ! Does anyone know how long SOS prints take or who they are posted with ? I have asked SOS for a tracking number as I feel that I need to act quickly, but no reply as yet. If it has gone astray, I don't want compensation this time, I want the employee who is totally incapable of posting to the correct address to be de-testicalized (it's a technical term !) Please post immediate reassurance - I am unable to sleep !