Attention!!! since the end of 2016, the Russian post has tightened the rules for accepting an application for tracing a parcel and requires attaching copies of a receipt or receipt of payment mailing.
Many Aliexpress buyers have come across on forums with advice to ask the seller for an invoice. But a common person, far from accounting, is not familiar with this concept. Let's figure it out together, what is an invoice and what does it look like? In what situations is it required? How to ask the seller for an invoice? And how can the invoice be useful to the buyer? What are the misconceptions and myths about the invoice and why is it not a proof of shipment of the goods?
Typically, buyers ask the seller for an invoice in two situations. The first is when the parcel is lost and you need to write an application for its search. The Russian Post asks to provide for this application a document on the sending of the parcel that the seller receives when sending you the goods.
And the second situation is when the buyer, confusing the invoice and the shipping receipt, wants to make sure that the seller has sent him the package. But in this case, the invoice is not a confirmation of shipment. Which will mislead many buyers.
Formally invoice- this is not a receipt for the shipment of goods, but an agreement between the sender and the addressee, which contains a list of goods, their quantity and price, formal features of the goods (color, weight, etc.), delivery terms and information about the sender and the recipient. This document confirms that the goods have been shipped in accordance with the terms of delivery. That is why sellers send very different types similar documents. That is, this document does not tell us anything about the shipment of the goods. There is no analogue of this document in Russia. A document that is similar in meaning is an invoice. In Russia, the invoice is used only for international shipments of goods.
Accordingly, since invoice- this is a document that is drawn up by the seller himself, then be prepared that when you request this document, you can be sent it in any format: a printed file in Word, Exel format, and just a scanned and printed document with the seal of the store and the signature of the seller.
When searching for a parcel, such a document will be enough.
Basically, sellers send a similar scanned document with a store seal and signature:
Often such a document is created in Exel format:
And here is an example of an invoice in Word format:
If you need to find a parcel, but the seller does not respond to your request to send an invoice, then you should not despair. You have a way out. You can either draw up a similar document yourself, based on the available data of your order. Some buyers make a printout of the order details, where you can see the recipient's address, the track number of the parcel and the name of the product. To fill out the application, data on the weight of the parcel can be found in the product description.
If you request an invoice from the seller as proof of sending the parcel, then such a document cannot serve as confirmation of this action. Accordingly, the only confirmation that the package was sent is a receipt from the post office. Why doesn't the seller send it when requested?
First, the seller may not have this receipt. Since the goods are often sent in batches, a courier comes to the seller's house, the track number is booked in advance. And in the end, the seller is left with something like a sales receipt with a list of shipments. And in order for him to receive a receipt for the shipment, the seller needs to go to the post office with this check and request a full extract. That the seller is usually too lazy to do with every request of a frightened buyer. Accordingly, it is easier for him to make an invoice or any document similar to a shipment document. Up to screenshots from tracking systems of track numbers.
And secondly, if you requested an invoice, the seller will send it. This is normal practice for international shipments.
The document confirming the dispatch of the parcel, which is an agreement between the sender and the post office, is a receipt or a receipt for the dispatch of the parcel.
At the Russian post office, the check looks like this:
If the seller sends the parcel personally by China Post or EMS, then the Chinese receipt looks like this:
Depending on the mail and courier services, there may be other forms of documents from dispatch.
We hope that this article will help you in clarifying the situation, which documents the seller can send to confirm the sending of the parcel, what guarantees they can give, how they can be useful and how they can be used.
Have a question? Write it in the comments or contact the chatEvery day the world takes a step forward, improving technologies and various processes. More and more appears automated production, data processing machines, various robots that replace people in one area or another.
The postal service is no exception. Every year there is an improvement in the processing of parcels and letters, more and more new technologies are applied to achieve the shortest possible delivery time.
But ... as in the Middle Ages, the premises are now and then lost.
On many forums, you can find advice on what and how to do in this case: ask the seller for an invoice or a receipt for shipment and write a statement at the Russian post office about finding the parcel. But few people know what an invoice is and whether there is a difference between it and a shipment receipt. What is the invoice for and how can I ask the seller for it?
We will tell you about this in this article.
In official language, an invoice is an agreement between you and the seller to conclude a deal for a specific type of product, its quantity, color, weight, and so on. It provides a complete list of that. What should be sent, how and how much the parcel will receive by weight.
In Russian practice, there is no document similar to an invoice. It is used only for international shipments.
The invoice does not have a special form and can be presented in absolutely any form - be it a handwritten list, electronic document or such a form
Most often, the invoice is advised to ask sellers in two cases:
In this case, the invoice will be sufficient.
What if the seller doesn't send you an invoice?
No need to despair! There is an exit. If you need an invoice for drawing up a statement on the tracing of a parcel. You can create it yourself. You just need to print a page with order details, where you can clearly see the track number, order date and a list of things in the package.
You can find out the approximate weight of the shipment on the product description page.
The invoice, as we said earlier, cannot serve as proof of the dispatch of the order. Actually, except for the receipt of shipment, nothing can serve as proof of this fact.
Why, then, doesn't the seller ship it right away?
He simply may not have a receipt for sending the parcel. How so? - you ask. It's very simple: large stores based on Aliexpress send not one or even ten parcels at a time. Therefore, all shipments are picked up directly from their office by couriers and issued under pre-booked track numbers. The seller only has an invoice with a list of parcels in his hands.
And in order to receive a receipt, he needs to go to the post office and ask for a check on the operation, which is extremely lazy for the Chinese to do without an extreme reason.
Therefore, it is easier for him to send an invoice.
At the Russian Post, the check-receipt for the shipment of the goods looks like this:
As you know, and as the site wrote, one of the most important advantages over ordinary Aliexpress is that when buying goods from Nav Tmoll, you make a purchase from a Russian seller and pay to a Russian legal entity. At the moment it is LLC "Alibaba.com (RU)" 109316, Region 77, Moscow, Volgogradskiy prospect, 42, building 9 INN 7703380158... For the buyer, this means that all your purchases on Tmall are protected by the Consumer Protection Law (ZoZPP).
Until the summer of 2017, when paying for an order on the Internet, you had nothing left in your hands at all except a transaction in your card statement. However, in July 2017, the law on online cash registers began to operate in the Russian Federation.
The full name of the law: Federal Law "On Amendments to the Federal Law on the Use of Cash Register Equipment in Cash Payments and (or) Payments Using Payment Cards and Certain Legislative Acts Russian Federation"Dated 03.07.2016 N 290-FZ
One of the most important points of this law is the requirement to provide the buyer of an online store with a receipt at least in electronic form. The law does not specify the exact methods of delivery of the check. It can be sent to an email address or be available somewhere in your personal account. But one way or another, the seller is obliged to provide this check to the buyer immediately after payment.
In the event of a disputable situation with Tmall, you can apply for its resolution not only in support of Aliexpress, but also in the supervisory authorities of the Russian Federation and in the Russian court. ZoZPP cases are famous for the fact that decisions in them are most often made in the direction of the buyer.
In your personal account on Tmall, find your order that you made on Tmall. Next to the Pending Sending timer there will be a link Download the sales receipt.
Download this file. Open it with any pdf reader. But in this check there will be neither the name of the legal entity, nor the address for making claims on the ZoZPP. In order to get this data, we go to the website of the Fiscal Data Operator (OFD) that issued this check. They can be different, they can change, but at the time of this writing, this is what platformaofd.ru releases for Tmoll. Go to them and click on Check receipt.
In the form that opens, indicate the data from the electronic receipt that we downloaded.
As a result, we will get an almost familiar full-fledged legally significant fiscal document, a cashier's check, if simple. With this check, a screenshot of the goods that you bought, you may well already apply to the courts if you think that your rights as a buyer were violated while shopping on Tmall.
At the moment, Tmall sells equipment from large manufacturers of the level and who have been servicing their goods for a long time by serial number. Therefore, most likely, you will not need a cashier's receipt for a guarantee. However, it will not be superfluous to download it, print it (or save it somewhere), because Aliexpress has a habit of blocking accounts sometimes. And having lost access to your account, you will not be able to download the check. And it's not a fact that they will keep this check for any length of time. In a word, save it just in case.
Placing an order in international online stores is constantly associated with various risks and situations when sent parcels disappear or are no longer tracked by the specified track number. On the trading platform, this is also not uncommon, since completely dishonest sellers may come across, who may give the wrong track number or not send you the ordered goods at all. Problems can also arise when a parcel crosses the border of your country. On the Internet, you can easily find a large number of reviews about the loss of parcels in the post offices of the Russian Post. In such situations, it is quite difficult to find your package, and you also need proof of its sending to you from China.
Since 2016, new rules have come into force, according to which, in the event of an unforeseen situation, in this case, the loss of a postal item, the procedure for submitting an application to search for this item has changed. To write such a statement at the post office, you must necessarily provide a copy of the receipt or check from the payment for international mail. In the case of orders for this, this is a rather difficult situation.
Under what circumstances may you need an invoice or receipt for payment of the shipment:
Sometimes, if there are serious concerns that the parcel has not been sent or it was lost somewhere along the way in the mail of the country of departure or in any post office in your country, buyers are lost and do not know what to do. At the same time, they roam the Internet in search of ways to solve the problem. Many users advise in this situation to contact the seller with a request to send an invoice for the shipment, although this document confirming payment for the shipment is completely two different papers. Let's consider the features of each document.
In fact, an invoice is a kind of contract that is concluded between the seller and the buyer for the purchase of a specific product. This document may look completely different, since it is drawn up by the seller himself and it is clear that every Chinese seller will have different shape filling. But in any case, the invoice contains information about the ordered product, its quantity, color, configuration. It also contains complete information about the seller and the buyer.
But the invoice does not guarantee that the parcel has passed the postage and has already been sent to you. This is just a statement that your ordered product has been shipped in accordance with all the conditions. Since it is drawn up by the seller himself, it may look different, but with the obligatory presence of the seller's seal and personal signature. This document is somewhat reminiscent of the invoice we are used to, since such an invoice does not exist on the territory of Russia.
However, if you have lost a parcel somewhere, when submitting an application, such a document will be enough for you, the main thing is that all information not only about the product, but also about the seller and yours is indicated there.
A receipt for sending a parcel is a special check that is issued after the parcel has been accepted at the post office and processed. The receipt is issued after the seller has paid for this shipment. And if the invoice is not a confirmation that your order was sent to your address, then this receipt becomes a complete guarantee that the seller has fulfilled all the conditions of the purchase and sale agreement.
The receipt of payment for the shipment may look completely different, but a mandatory component must be a barcode with a track number. Such a document will be useful to you if you want to make sure that the goods you ordered were sent accurately.
If suddenly you personally encounter such a problem as the disappearance of your parcel or its loss at the post office, do not panic. You just need to contact the seller from whom you ordered the product directly.
Problems may also arise, especially if it is related to the work of post offices and the delivery of goods. Therefore, you should not worry, everything can be solved quite simply. You just need to write to the seller and ask them to send you a receipt for payment of the shipment or an invoice.
Sometimes they face the problem that the parcel gets stuck. Of course, I want this process to go faster, especially if the purchase is needed by a certain day. Is it possible to do this, and is it worth writing an application to search for a parcel? Let's figure it out.
How to speed up the delivery of a parcel with Aliexpress?
Lost package from Aliexpress
You can submit an application for search in two cases:
At first, when Aliexpress just starting out active work, on Russian Post gladly accepted the applications for the wanted list. It was enough to write a statement and provide a document confirming the shipment. The latter, by the way, is called an invoice and is provided by the seller.
To receive an invoice, you had to write to the seller and explain the situation why you need a document on the shipment. Although not every seller went for it for different reasons. But the fact remains - in order to write a statement, you had to get a document that no one gives. What did the buyers do in such a situation?
In some offices, employees accepted a printout from personal account Aliexpress, where you can see that the package has been sent and where it is going.
If that didn't work, then the smartest buyers would write their own invoice and print it out. Examples of filling were widely available on the Internet. In fact, the Chinese do exactly the same, so nothing terrible will happen from compiling it yourself.
As you know, today Aliexpress sales volumes increased tenfold, and, accordingly, there were a lot of calls. A huge amount of work fell on the postal workers. This led to the tightening of the rules for accepting applications for the search for parcels.
Therefore, now, in many branches, the application is only accepted if you have a copy of the receipt for the shipment of goods or a check in your hands. Thus, you still have to beg from the seller Required documents... Otherwise, the application will simply not be accepted.
This is how receipts and receipts look like that the parcel has been sent:
The type of document differs depending on the service, but everyone has the same meaning - the document is provided to the seller when the parcel is sent. It is his copy that the seller must send you.
It should be noted that some branches still accept invoices or printouts of orders. Therefore, you can call the branch you need in advance and clarify their requirements.
