Item returned and received an empty box

[red_apple_av]

Hi all

A customer bought a £700 satellite dish for his motorhome, claimed it was not working correctly so I arranged to collect this with DPD from him and have it sent back to my supplier to be tested. I get a call a day later from my supplier saying that all they received was the box it was originally in but this was empty apart from a bit of inner packaging.

I have asked DPD to investigate, but they have said that they cannot be held liable as there is no proof that when the driver collected the parcel that the dish was in the box! So now I'm being asked by the customer (who is really calm about this, raising a concern with me) to supply a replacement dish at £700 I'm loathed to do this.

So I'm thinking of cancelling the order as I think I'm being scammed. Where would I stand on neg feedback if I did this, as I do have proof with images of an empty box, and the customer would not be out of pocket.

Thanks in advance

[downunder-61]

You would be better to post this on yoour home boards  eBay.co.uk  I have not heard of DPD and UK sellers may know more about the options you have over there.

In saying that, I would imagine the carrier would notice a difference between the weight of a satllite dish and an empty box.

[red_apple_av]

Thanks I thought this was eBay 

[downunder-61]

No, this is eBay.com the US community boards.

You can find your Community here: https://community.ebay.co.uk/

[48hrs-clothing]

You have not stated delivery date of your original dispatch.

This is important for eBay's returns and money back guarantee.

There are 3 possibilities of what happened.

Your Buyer sent an empty box, DPD driver stole the item, your supplier stole the item.

Decision right now is to have immediate closure or long drawn out dispute.

For immediate closure ask buyer to open a return case and issue an immediate refund, report the buyer as abusive and add him to your blocked buyer list.

Long drawn out disputes you could start by sending the same empty box back to the buyer and face him opening disputes on eBay and him sending you the same empty box to you and if he does not win these then he could open a charge back claim and send the same empty box to you and he will get his money.

Unfortunately this is cost of selling online and I would guess that almost all sellers have faced this kind of issue at some time or another.

As you have been a victim of crime then you can report the whole thing at your local police station and get an incident report and discuss this with eBay and they would be able to confirm your very limited options.

Always insist that box is sealed in presence of collection driver and this is noted on documentation.

[inhawaii]

This is the US board.

You may want to visit the UK boards for the best advice as some policies are different from the UK to the US.

[eleanor*rigby]

@red_apple_av 

Here's a great link to the eBay UK discussion boards. You may want to bookmark it for future use, since the link available on ebay.co.uk brings a user to the US discussion boards. eBay knows about this problem but apparently either doesn't care or  can't figure out how to fix it. 

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Discussion/ct-p/13?nobounce=

[gjs_16]

"Your supplier"
Oh dear...

Do you know this supplier in person?

Have you met this supplier, does this supplier actually work for you, are they on your payroll?

Reason I ask is the issue you describe is generally associated with those who do not have direct control of their inventory, such as dropshippers.  Granted you could be working for a large company, if such is the case you would want to direct these questions to your immediate supervisor.