I’ve got two missing customers. They’ve paid, I’ve posted, and today I got both their parcels back again. One posted 6 days ago ‘not known at this address’, and one from the start of November never went to collect or arrange a redelivery after they missed the postie. I’ve emailed both to check addresses etc. and hopefully they’ll appear again soon.
But, what it’s caused me to think about is, what if they don’t get back to me? What do you do? How long do you leave refunding them? Would you give them a timeframe to reply in then refund? What about the postage costs? The addresses are both confirmed on Paypal, and I’d even sent items to one of them the previous month with no problems then. So would you refund the postage?
Just a general enquiry really. Like I said, hopefully I’ll hear back from both of them in the next few days. Just wondered what the protocol is in these situations if the customer really does disappear after paying. Not something I’ve come across before, and now I’ve got two.
I’m sure they’ll get back to you and explain what went wrong. I wouldn’t refund just yet, they might still want them. As for postage, I suppose it depends why they weren’t delivered/collected, but if it’s their fault, I’d ask them to pay for re-delivery, unless you’re feeling very generous and want to spread a bit of seasonal goodwill.
If they want to cancel, you have to refund the postage, as long as it’s within the 14 days. If it’s longer than that, it’s up to you I suppose.
I have heard back from one already, they didn’t get a card through to say delivery had been attempted, so that’s that one explained. Just waiting for the ‘not known at this address’ one. I’m guessing that might be Paypal throwing out random addresses, even though it said confirmed. I have had that happen one time, ages ago, for another customer.
This thread query was more about what if you had a customer that never replied back and you had their parcel with their item returned and you had their money. Anything could happen between an order being placed and the time it arrives. What if your customer just dropped off the face of the earth? How long would you give them before you refunded them? And would you refund fully? Less the postage? I know the distance selling rules for cancellations, but that doesn’t really apply if you never hear from the customer again. Or does that count as a cancellation, in theory? I’m just interested to know as it’s not something I’ve come across before (still haven’t, yet, as long as the ‘not known’ gets back to me).
If it was outside the 14 days, I wouldn’t refund at all until/unless the customer got in touch and requested a refund - it seems unlikely they wouldn’t if they were able to. At that point they would presumably explain why, then you could decide whether or not to refund all/part of the payment, depending on the circumstances. If they never got in touch, and never replied to e-mails, I’m not sure what I’d do - I don’t think I’d refund without a request though, and if I did, it would only be for the goods, not the postage, as you’ve incurred that cost.
That’s the thing. If you had their money, and their unclaimed, returned item, and they haven’t replied to emails for, say for examples sake, over a month, would you be entitled to keep both? Legally I mean. Morally is up to the individual
I would send off an email saying their item has been returned to you.
Ask them to confirm their address
Ask them to pay for postage once again if they still want the parcel
Ask if they want a refund if the don’t wish you to repost but make it plain you will not return the postage cost
Tell them if you don’t hear from them by a certain date you will refund the item cost but not the postage cost.
Just to update this, the second customer has been in contact, and it was Paypal throwing out a random old address. That’ll teach me to confirm the delivery address when I send my ‘thanks, and this is the shipping date’ email when people buy from my website, and not just rely on the Confirmed Paypal address. I will be adding that confirmation to all future emails. But, anyway, all sorted, and both parcels being resent.
So still don’t know what you should officially, and legally, do if you sent an item, had it returned as undelivered, and then couldn’t get hold of the customer ever again to sort out resending. And hopefully, I’ll never have to find out.
