Someone is trying to scam? Parcel delivered but they say they haven’t received

IGBT

IGBT

IGBT

Associate
Joined
27 Jan 2019
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172
Hi everyone. I sell stuff online and a customer bought something and it was shipped 48h tracked. I received a photo of the parcel allegedly being delivered although you can’t see the person’s face. The customer is saying they haven’t received but there is a photo proving. I reached out Royal Mail and have opened a case. However they said to tell the to look around the propert, neighbour’s, etc and have said that didn’t find anything.

Well can Royal Mail mistakenly deliver to a different address? I have checked the address and name and it is all correct. Royal Mail also said in that first contact that the coordinates are ok.

Now jus my wondering if anyone has been in this situation and how can I get out of this? The customer is emailing every 2 days or so. I am still waiting for a formal reply from Royal Mail to the case. I am now awaiting. I know you can get compensation but so guess it needs to go through a process.

Am I being scammed? The customer bought the same item because it was urgent. Now the thing is if this is a scam she is getting 2 items for the price of one despite getting myself a refund.
 
On the Royal Mail tracking they’ll be a GPS map/codes of where they scanned it before handing to the resident, just check that out first and see if it matches the address - other than that the best you can do is raise the case with RM and suck it up and let them investigate it.
 
Hi thank you all. Yes it matches the coordinates with the address. I have open a case with them and waiting currently for them to come back.

When you say suck it is it like refund the client?
 
If the photo matches the GPS coordinates of the address on street view I'd send all that to the customer and ask if they know who this is. Tell them if they don't then you'll have to get the police involved as it appears the item has been stolen and you'll need to do that in order to claim on the insurance before you can send a replacement out.

It might just jog their memory...

If they stick to the story then claim on insurance before sending a new one out/refund.
 
What does the proof of delivery picture show? Is it something like a parcel in an open door or a person holding the parcel?

If either of the above I would send the picture to the customer and ask it that is them or their doorway (if they have not confirmed/denied that already). You can try and check yourself by seeing if their door address is shown clearly on Google Maps street view and matches what you have in the picture as mentioned by @Haggisman

If they say and can prove it is not their doorway or them/family member, then your issue is with Royal Mail and you will have go through their claims and refund the buyer within the time allotted.

I recently sold a small amp using Tacked 48 as the postage. I got notification that it was delivered though the picture showed that it was left under a trampoline. The buyer said that he had not received it and he did not own a trampoline. He walked around his area and did not see a trampoline. I opened a case with Royal Mail and they started an investigation. About 10 days later the buyer contacted me to say that it was delivered - though Royal Mail never got back to me, I can only presume they got in touch with the corresponding delivery office and got the original postie to retrieve where he'd left it and delivery it correctly.

Hope you get yours sorted satisfactorily.
 
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IGBT said:
Hi everyone. I sell stuff online and a customer bought something and it was shipped 48h tracked. I received a photo of the parcel allegedly being delivered although you can’t see the person’s face. The customer is saying they haven’t received but there is a photo proving. I reached out Royal Mail and have opened a case. However they said to tell the to look around the propert, neighbour’s, etc and have said that didn’t find anything.

Well can Royal Mail mistakenly deliver to a different address? I have checked the address and name and it is all correct. Royal Mail also said in that first contact that the coordinates are ok.

Now jus my wondering if anyone has been in this situation and how can I get out of this? The customer is emailing every 2 days or so. I am still waiting for a formal reply from Royal Mail to the case. I am now awaiting. I know you can get compensation but so guess it needs to go through a process.

Am I being scammed? The customer bought the same item because it was urgent. Now the thing is if this is a scam she is getting 2 items for the price of one despite getting myself a refund.
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You can't. Unless you are prepared to take them to court, then you can't win a case like this. If the GPS tracking tells the Royal Mail that it was scanned in front of the right address, then you have no hope at all. They will refuse the claim, which means the recipient is lying, but there is nothing you can do about that, other than Small Claims. You can report it to the police and then threaten them with court, I suppose, but that's about all.
Incidentally, they do have GPS tracking on their scanners, so they know exactly where it was delivered.
 
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These situations are becoming more and more problematic and I think it's since they do these photos for "proof of delivery". They are anything but. It's just often the picture of a front door or hallway floor. Ideally they need to get a pic of the parcel in the hands of a recipient, and/or the house number in it much more zoomed out so you can see the house.
 
SpellowHouse said:
You can't. Unless you are prepared to take them to court, then you can't win a case like this. If the GPS tracking tells the Royal Mail that it was scanned in front of the right address, then you have no hope at all. They will refuse the claim, which means the recipient is lying, but there is nothing you can do about that, other than Small Claims. You can report it to the police and then threaten them with court, I suppose, but that's about all.
Incidentally, they do have GPS tracking on their scanners, so they know exactly where it was delivered.
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Wouldn't the buyer have to take him to court and win vs the way round you described?
It appears he currently has the money from the sale.
 
EvilRob said:
Wouldn't the buyer have to take him to court and win vs the way round you described?
It appears he currently has the money from the sale.
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The buyer would most likely first go to their bank/Paypal and request a chargeback. Depending on the evidence the OP is able to provide (e.g. what the photo shows & what RM respond with), this may or may not be successful.
 
Ah the perils of selling online.

My business sends between 100-200 orders a day, and this is extremely common.

Theoretically, the official process to follow is this:

- Customer reports item not delivered
- Your raise this with the courier, they will usually make you jump through a few hoops (Ask end user to check with neighbours etc.) before sending you a claim form, and a form to be filled out by your customer to complete and sign to say that they have not received the parcel.
- Both you and your customer should theoretically wait until the investigation is complete before resending the goods, and you have your credit/compensation.

But in practice, this process can take up to 16 weeks depending on the courier, so in our example 9/10 we send the goods again to avoid a bad review.
 
Hi all. Thank you for you inputs. I have a bit of an update here. First of all just a few point before going to the odd thing:
1. megahurts the customer didn't complete and sign anything to say that they didn't receive anything. Do they need to do this? When I raised the case with royal mail they didn't mention anything about this. She didn't report anything to them,
2. The photo only shows the courier hands and the background is dark, like the dark hallway, can't see the door frame even properly
3. They did mention about that the gps seems right but still it's now with the claims teams

Now the odd thing. The client has come back few times asking about the refund or sending another item despite having told the client that we need to wait for the case that is now beingi nvestigated with Royal Mail. However, I decided to refund her but when I tried to do this via my CMS platform backend (wix) it came back saying that this couldnt be done there was some issues with the card. So I have reached customer support and they said that the card was reported blocked / stolen.

Given this situation I reached citizen advice and they said that the customer has the right to claim this, that's fine and that the money should be refunded to the same card/way/form of payment. Then I explained about the card having been reported stolen and asked them what to do. What if the client now says that I can refund the moneys to another card. Citizen advise said that they can do that but to have everything written on an email.

What can I do guys? Any advise? What if the card doesn't belong to her? What if she now comes back saying, assuming I transfer to the given card, that she didn't receive the money and that the info in the card was wrong? I guess this very extreme example will be backed up by the email.

Any advice would be appreciated!

EDIT: What are other possible scam scenerios here?
 
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Sorry guys I forgot to add that the client did want the item so badly that the client bought another one at the time and received at home.
 
john_smith said:
The scammer is double dipping. Buying on stolen cards so they get a refund and the item.
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The first card the client paid the goods, had the name in the card (matched with the name the client filled the details, etc). The second time the client bought the goods, the card had the clients mother name (the client mentioned this in the email we exchanged) it had same family name on both. Any thoughts?
 
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