Buyer claiming item is broken 2 weeks after sending

Hi Matthew. It is indeed your responsibility to get the item to the buyer in one piece. If it has been damaged during shipping you have to put it right. I'm sure you would expect the same if you were the buyer and something turned up broken at your place? There are a few "buts" though. If it was a fragile item that you had reservations about sending but the buyer insisted you send then they have some responsibility. There isn't really such a thing as "sent at buyer's risk" these days. You definitely can't say it if you are in-trade. Even though plenty still do to try and wriggle out of their responsibilities.

Usually what happens is you refund or replace the item, then start a claim with the courier. It is your right to get the item back first (if you want it) before you refund or replace. The courier might want to collect the item to assess it, or at least see photographs. It is important the ALL THE PACKAGING IS KEPT. You can arrange to do this from the buyers end, or get it sent back to you and do it that way.

Hi Callum.

the question is was the item actually damaged during shipping? It would have been delivered 14 days ago. Anything could have happened to it between now and then. It's not as if the buyer said please send it in two weeks because I'm going on holiday and we sent it anyway. 

How long after a package is delivered should the sender have to be responsible for?

Items are unfortunately damaged in shipping. Happened to me recently and the buyer gave me all the photos I needed to send to the courier. Courier uplifted the item and refunded me after checking it all out. But before that happened I refunded the buyer as they did not get what they paid for in good faith.

I'm not a big seller by the way, just trying to make ends meet and get rid of some stuff. It's a bit of a blow when something gets damaged but the right thing to do is follow through with buyer protection policy and sort it with the buyer in the best possible way. If this doesn't happen it's red faces and disputes lodged with trade me. Best to sort it before it gets to that.

You just have to take what the buyer said as the truth Matthew. You can't really disprove it. I mean if they have reams of negative feedback that makes them seem like an untrustworthy person you could have suspicions. If you really want to I'm sure you could ask for some kind of proof that they were on holiday. But that could rub them up the wrong way. You probably have some idea yourself by knowing what the item was and how it was packaged if it would be possible that the item was broken in transit. Things can get rough treatment in the courier system.