Quick update: I had not been focusing on this as have had a few other things to sort out, but got an ebay message yesterday from the buyer to say that he had received a delivery notification, but he's on holiday at the moment so the parcel could just be left outside his house!
Hmm ah well. Suppose I will just have to see what happens.
Glad I found this site though, it is great to have some idea of how to deal with courier companies in the future. Thanks for your help BF, and for all your other helpful posts on other threads. Makes one think that the internet isn't all bad!