“Send it back? Paypal are very good at refunds and under UK law you don’t need to prove a fault, but the postage might make it unfeasible”.

I have decided I need to send it back but there is a problem. It was delivered by Evri but Ebay has provided a Royal Mail returns label. The problem is the item weighs 23Kg and it states that an item that weighs more than 20Kg cannot be accepted at the Post Office. A parcel between 20Kg and 30Kg has to be sent by Parcelforce. Does this mean it won’t be accepted by Royal Mail or just at the P.O. for Parcelforce? If RM will accept it I can take it to the local RM distribution centre which is 7 miles down the road from me but I can’t seem to find any information on this and the eBay automated assistant is useless like all this AI driven nonsense. I suppose I will have to drive over there and ask at the RM counter if they would accept it with a valid return address label or even pay extra for Parcelforce and cut my losses. Worth a try I suppose.

Maybe this is worth knowing. I returned the chuck that I either ordered in error or it was incorrectly supplied. The Royal Mail returns label Ebay supplied stated a maximum weight of 5kg so I used the address portion but folded over the barcode because at 24kg it had to go by Parcelforce, cost £22!

I heard nothing for over two weeks until I received an email requesting me to complete the return I had initiated. Something clicked that the RM barcode was needed to mark the return so I printed off another returns label, stuck it on an envelope containing a copy of proof of posting and took it to the village post office who scanned the barcode. Almost immediately I received an email confirming the return.

Obviously, the RM label barcode proves posting not the Parcelforce code. I am now going to get my money back, less buyer protection and the £22 Parcelforce postage rate, but it’s a lot better than losing everything. It’s worth bearing in mind if you find yourself in a similar situation.