posted on September 10, 2000 04:44:26 AM
I got an email from buyer, apparently she has received two items damaged. She stated she would like refund or replacement. These items were insured. If I replace these items, which I do have replacements for them, I'm going to be the one to deal with the agravation of dealing with the claims dept. at PO.Plus I've got to pay to have these items returned to me, plus ship the new items to her. What do you sellers do in this situation? I would like to send her the green slip and have her deal with the situation.Please advise. Thanks, Ericka
posted on September 10, 2000 04:52:41 AM
Who paid for the insurance? Did you note that insurance was included in the shipping charges, or make it an option, or did the bidder request it herself?
posted on September 10, 2000 05:24:10 AM
JMO, but I handle it like this-
Tell the customer to start the claims process on their end. All they have to do is take the items and the package to their PO. Once you get the claim form from the PO for you to sign off on, ship the replacements. This way I know they are really have damage and aren't just trying to get free items out of me. They should certainly understand that you need them to cooperate in the claims process.
posted on September 10, 2000 06:14:29 AM
Sword013(Joe)
OK, So lets say the buyer takes items to PO, the items prove to be damaged. I ship replacements for the damaged ones. My question is.... am I reimbursed for the cost of items I shipped as replacements? As you can tell I have not dealt with damages before. Please brief me on what takes place between myself, buyer and PO. I really appreciate all the help......
posted on September 10, 2000 07:48:35 AM
From what I've been told by the PO, the claim MUST originate from the buyers end and when payment on the claim is made, it will be paid only to the BUYER! Given that, I would not send anything more to her until I received the $.
posted on September 10, 2000 08:19:24 AM
The Post Office insurance claim form that has a check box in which the person filling it out checks off if the claim payment should be sent to the Shipper or Receiver.
If you are going to ship replacement items using Joe's excellent suggestion above, make sure the claim form has the shipper checked off as recipient of the claim payment.
posted on September 10, 2000 08:34:07 AM
I hope your buyer has not tossed the shipping package yet. It's my understanding the damaged items AND shipping package must be taken to the PO. I may be wrong, but that is what I was told by my local PO. Of course, I have discovered from reading this board, that different PO's GIVE different information! Good luck!
posted on September 10, 2000 08:57:15 AM
ericka> When this happened to me, what I did was told the buyer they had to take the broken item and the packing materials to the Post Office and start the claim. I also made a copy (for my records) of the insurance slip and then sent the original to them so they could be paid on their end for their item that they say was damaged. When they got the insurance slip for the claim, my responsibilty for the item was over, as they got their initial investment through the claims process, so why should I send another one, unless of course, I had one and they wanted to re-buy it. This saves from wondering if they just want to get a freebie. As for reimbursing their postage they paid to get the product, I reimbursed on one and not on the other, since the whole shipment on the second product ws not damaged, and the buyer was ok with keeping the undamaged part in lieu of the shipping costs! Both transactions were delt with so both of us were happy. Don't let anyone bully you into a second shipment with the veiled implication of a neg. That is blackmail and I am one that does not sit still for that! Good luck!
posted on September 10, 2000 11:24:09 AM
About a month ago, I bid on and won a couple of auctions from the same seller for spun glass. One arrived in fine shape, the other was broken. This is what we did:
Picked up the insurance form from the PO and filled it out. Took the box and the form to the PO the next day; they signed off on it and sent it to the seller. The seller sent me a replacement.
Unfortunately, that one was broken also, so we repeated the steps. This time I asked for a refund (but not for shipping, since they'd paid to have the second item shipped). When the seller got the form this time, he had the payment from the PO sent to me (I haven't gotten it yet, but the seller just signed the form a week ago).
We didn't send the broken items back - the PO verified that they were broken, and that was good enough for everybody concerned. And, for proof of value, I printed off the auction page - and the PO was fine with that as well.
posted on September 10, 2000 06:02:59 PM
Recently I bought some dishes and the seller didn't pack them right, so they came broken. I knew the seller had more of the same, so I requested that they sell me replacements at the reimbursement price the post office would pay. They agreed. I took the box, packaging and items to post office and filed the claim. The seller checked the box on the form to have the reimbursement paid to them. When they received the money order from the post office, they packed up the replacement dishes, told me how much the shipping would be, and I PayPalled that amount to them. This time they were packed better and not broken.
Since the seller was somewhat negligent in not packing the original dishes correctly, I felt that they should supply the replacements (since they did have more of the same). (If they had not had additional identical pieces I would have only gotten my money back.)
Violetta
(Not known by this nickname anywhere but here.)
