Hi
Lately we've had a few incident where deliveries are returned because buyer were not at home at time of delivery and they don't call to organise re delivery.
As a result, the goods are returned and the postage fee forfeited.
If this happens, should buyer be responsible to pay for postage fee again?
Keen to get everyone opinion,
Return for change of mind or warranty is a different issue
Sorry, not following your logic here
????
o.O
Yes, I'm assuming this is a large item which would be the reason it doesn't get sent to the post office?
We use a mix of courier and Australia post deliveries
I have had issues with couriers as a buyer, i was not left with a card or notice that the couriers came by until days later checking online. Rescheduled a redelivery fine online, only to be called the next day saying they cant redeliver with no reasoning and literally just threatening to have the item sent back to seller if i didn't pick up from the warehouse. Nope i didn't go pick it up as it was not worth my effort. Complained to the Kogan, was first offered to redeliver and later told to pay an additional 9$ for redelivery…
i don't see how re postage should come from the buyer if it was already paid in the first place but the couriers failed to deliver, which sellers choose to use.
By all means, if the buyer failed to organise redelivery then fair enough they should pay for another postage, but how do you know they didn't try contacting the couriers?
edit: ->"Couriers Please"
I think your case falls into an exceptional circumstance which should be initiated by the buyer, not the seller
If you are ordering goods and there is no one home to accept delivery then make arrangements for delivery elsewhere.
What are you expecting to happen?
You pay for delivery for an item … that is for one delivery.
How many do you think you should get?
If you want the supplier to make repeated delivery attempts then you should pay for it.
There are circumstances where suppliers send an item that will require a signature but fail to tell the buyer this. The supplier should pay for re delivery in that case.
If you live in a safe area you can register with your local couriers for them to leave it at your door. Naturally in doing so you accept the risk.
The buyers should not be expected to stay at home for the whole day. Sometimes there are even couriers that do not tell the recipient what date they are going to come. They cannot expect that there will always be a person waiting at the delivery address at any time. A good courier should be able to call the buyer one or two days in advance to arrange for a delivery time and on the day of the delivery to confirm the estimated time (hour). Otherwise, just use auspost and let the buyer picks the parcel from the local post office.
Toll Group for eg, will simply card you without even ringing the doorbell. Really bad service.
Australia Post is expensive, but at least you can specify the PO Box for deliveries and pick it up at the post office.
Aus post card without trying too.
With Toll, you can specify a local newsagent at which they can leave your delivery
Lately we've had a few incident where deliveries are returned because buyer were not at home at time of delivery and they don't call to organise re delivery.
Have you thought to ask your customers why this is occurring? As others have noted, the issue might be more with your courier & less with the customer!
I hate couriers who won't leave the item at the post office. I try to avoid companies who use them, as I have things to do and can't sit at home all day waiting for a package. I have an item right now which tried to be delivered yesterday while I picked up my children from school. I could have it redelivered today, but I'm out in the morning. I'm going to drive the 40km round trip to their depot instead to make sure I don't miss it.
Inconvenient. Use Australia Post connected couriers and it's fine. You don't have the stress either.
Lately we've had a few incident where deliveries are returned because buyer were not at home at time of delivery … should buyer be responsible to pay for postage fee again?
Absolutely not! They're paying for the item to be delivered to them. You have a responsibility to give them what they're paying you for.
A very recent example: I got a text message at around 9.30 - 10am telling me an item was on board with a driver and was ready for delivery. I cancelled what I had planned for the day so that I could be there for it. It didn't come until the next day.
As already suggested, if the couriers you are using will not leave it at the post office, change couriers, or be prepared to keep having to deal with redeliveries. It's not the customer's responsibility to have to repay for that though.
Is there a "leave at door" option?
Also, I've had cards left by AusPost with attempted delivery time while someone was home.
yes the purchaser should be liable for a redelivery fee if they were supposed to be home but weren't. HOWEVER- my local couriers don't even bother ringing the doorbell, they simply leave a failed delivery coupon in the mailbox and take the box back to the post office. Example- was expecting a delivery one day, stayed home all day. Left at 5pm to pick up kid, and there's a failed delivery notice in the letter box. did not even ring the bell (it's very loud).
Complain to post office- their response was 'well, there's very rarely anyone home so we don't really bother'. Cue chicken and egg joke.
I had a series of delivery issues with Australia Post some time ago. The complex I lived in had a secure entry gate on one street, and the letterboxes around the corner. So I would either get a card in the letterbox because they couldn't find the buzzer at the gate around the corner, or I'd get no card and no buzz, and I later figured out that they were wedging a card into the security door to the whole complex, which would flutter away the next time a random resident entered.
I complained, several times, and it did get better. Pretty much all parcel deliveries are contracted out nowadays, so the upside is that the Australia Post manager who receives your complaint probably hates the fact it's a contractor, so they're likely to be on your side as long as you're reasonable with them.
And my experience with who pays for redelivery is that if the item is still with Australia Post, they'll usually agree to redeliver as long as they accept it's the fault of their contractor, however it's usually easier to just go get it from the post office. If it's already gone back to the sender, you're probably out of luck.
Always leave the instructions to "leave at door". This can be done either by the seller or by calling up the courier company, give them the tracking number and advise them as such.
If iit's Australia post, just go to the local post office if you missed the courier!
It's easy and I never had issues. Even when signature is required, they will leave by door if instructed to (except Australia post)
I think the problem two folds,
In situation, where the receiver lives in a secured building, they should let the seller know. This will prevent a lot of problems
Problem freight usually occur in apartments, most likely the courier/aust post can't get in to leave delivery notices.
But then again, I know it is annoying having to wait for couriers to deliver, because they can't give you a specific time.
Moving forward, we will give buyer the option to tick box "authority to leave" during checkout.
The problem is, if the parcel lost or they claim it was not received, then the buyer will blame us (the seller) for non delivery.
This is a catch 22 situation. convenience vs security
need to think it through more!
Agree with the above - we always stipulate that goods can be left on the doorstep - although one of us is normally at home. However have had instances in the past with a lazy postman or courier who just puts in an "unavailable to deliver" notice in the letterbox. When we go away I always ask the Postie to deliver our goods to our neighbours & it's always happened -they too are nice people who are willing to help when asked (Posties )
A DEFINATE YES AND NO… depending on circumstance.
If the seller chooses a courier who does not offer a convenient alternative on first delivery attempt or if the goods are faulty, not as described or not what was ordered, then the seller is responsible for postage costs.
If the buyer simply changes their mind or in anyway frustrates the delivery process, then they should pay any further freight costs involved…. and that's a very common model of retail sellers here.
NOTE: buying from China will not achieve the same result. If for ANY reason return freight is required, the buyer is responsible - including for warranty (which usually involves the high expense of posting back to China via registered mail), wrong, broken or faulty supplied items and whether it is the sellers fault or not. A good thing to consider before
considering any other merits.
Hows that for oriental compassion!
To make a valid assessment
we have to assume
all courier allow customer to change their delivery address if their home address not convenient.
So if you are not at home, it should be a simple matter of calling to organise a redelivery.
the problem is, the window are rather narrow for courier deliveries, usually only 3 business days.
I know i can be at times, lazy to follow up.
Forgot to mention the terrible episodes with one courier company whose driver arrived with our deliveries complimenting me on my hair etc. & would look like a lost puppy dog asking for shelter. - Took this on numerous occasions but then rang their Head Office to ask that he NEVER deliver our goods again.These episodes with him arriving made me extremely uncomfortable as husband wasn't home although obviously I have told him. Don't these companies do security checks on employees?
Lol,
Take it as a compliment :)
Coming from a courier i'd have to say yes as we get paid for redelivering so it has to come from somewhere and im not sure about other couriers but i make every effort to deliver the parcel as i hate taking it back or having it sit in my van all day. I will always call the customer to see if they're home and you'd be surprised how many times they're just in the backyard or took their dog for a walk. It's about 3/4 of not home situations. On top of that i also leave a card as well as take a photo as proof of attempt and also proof i went to correct address as there are a few dishonest ppl out there who will lie to get out of the redelivery fee or try and get it redelivered on the same day. A photo has the time, date, location all embedded into the details so it saves a lot of lets see whos lying situations………
Regarding why couriers don't leave at local Post Offices. Simply not allowed to…… Its only Australia Post who can do that and a few companies that are AusPost affiliated. Thats the reason they charge more as they're more convenient to deal with regarding redeliveries.
Confused a bit. Did the buyer pay for the item and the postage (for the initial delivery)? Is the question about whether the buyer needs to pay for another postage (to have the returned item re-delivered) or you are providing a refund to the buyer but feel the buyer should pay for the postage?
For a refund due to buyer not at home to collect the item, then the buyer should pay. For buyer not on site when the item is delivered, it is not as clear cut. It depends… Did you or the courier company provide information on when the item is scheduled to be delivered? Also, how long did the courier company wait before returning the item to you? Generally, the customer/buyer shouldn't ignore the sorry we missed you card.
No!
People buy online for convenience… being expected to call to organize redelivery, then being forced to wait around for a few hours (during business hours no less, which would be difficult for some) with no guarantee that the courier company will even show up when they're meant to is not convenient!
If you're using a cheapo courier company and forcing your customers to jump through hoops to actually get their items, and when they fail to do so (because they're people with busy lives that don't revolve around your product) demanding more money in order for the items that they paid for to actually show up, that's a good way to get bad reviews and lose customers.
I love it when online businesses use Australia Post, because it's so easy to just pick it up from the nearest post office. When companies use crappy courier companies that add hassle to my life, they lose my business.
That's a good point. It's the seller's choice of courier, however there's an implied obligation on the part of the buyer to be available at the receiving address despite having no contractual relationship with the courier and no way in many cases to even know when the item has shipped.
I've had retailers refuse to deliver to a PO Box, only to have the item left at a different local post office after a failed delivery attempt. The best courier experiences I've had involved orders from Apple. The courier they use has awesome tracking, so I can check each morning whether the parcel is going to be delivered that day.
the answer is actually no, its easier if you think of it this way, if the seller was selling a person, the buyer, to the buyer, who is buying himself, and wants to return to the seller, the buyer would have to pay to return himself to the seller