Blocked from giving buyer a refund... any thoughts? (No problem w/ my acct)

[elverano]

12-06 Item purchased 

12-07 Item shipped via 1st class post

12-14 Received (stuck) in Philadelphia since 

12-15 Buyer opened a case for item not received 

12-15 Msg buyer - they said they were ok with my efforts

12-18 Msg buyer - they repeated the same, looked at their fb - it shows negatives for USPS delays

12-21 Contact eBay for direction, they put a 10 day hold on this case, msg buyer telling them I am staying on top of this situation as much as possible

12-22 Opened case with USPS, Msg buyer

12-23 USPS closed case stating that a lot of people are waiting for items & just 'wait', msg buyer 

12-26 Opened case with USPS again to show buyer that I am doing all that I can (buyer has given more negatives for shipping issues since I last checked)

12-29 USPS closed case with no assistance (same msg as before), msg buyer 

12-30 Called eBay about next step because 10 day window was closing. Told to c/b today for 10 day extension

12-31 Called eBay, was told Rep from yesterday was wrong, that I need to refund buyer or take the defect. I tried to send refund but there option in now missing in the resolution center. Went to the item in my 'sold' and the option to refund is also not there. eBay is saying to just take the defect and appeal it later. They said that the 10 day extension blocked my ability to refund the buyer.

Any thoughts? I have kept in communication with the buyer and he seems ok - but his fb shows otherwise. TIA!

[wastingtime101]

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@elverano wrote:

They said that the 10 day extension blocked my ability to refund the buyer.

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That's true. What's the date shown on the case when the hold will be lifted? I'm not sure if you'll be able to voluntarily refund after that or if it will be forced.

The rep who said you could call back for an additional 10 day extension probably meant they can do that if there's another tracking scan. Without another scan they won't extend another 10 days.

Call eBay, say you want to voluntarily refund. They will have to force the refund and submit an appeal request. It will take approx 3-4 days for the appeals team to receive and process the request. They will remove the defect immediately and they will submit a request for a credit of your final value fees which will take another 3-4 days to process.

Your other option is to do nothing and let eBay force a refund. Then, if the package is delivered within the next 30 days, appeal the defect.

It appears you're very (overly) concerned about negative FB. There are 2 reasons why you shouldn't be:

1. Depending on what the buyer says in that FB you can get it removed because it's about late delivery and you shipped within the timeframe that eBay's offering seller protections. See Announcements.
2. If the buyer complains about other stuff in addition to late delivery so you can't get it removed then a professional reply is all that's needed to nullify the impact of the FB. Pretty much everybody conscious knows about the current shipping delays. That shouldn't affect a future buyer's decision to purchase from you.

You shouldn't open more than one case on the same transaction. All that does is take up additional USPS resources. Communicating with the buyer the current delays and setting their expectations (USPS is advising mid-late January before they start to catch up) is a better option than opening extraneous cases.

[elverano]

Thank you for your response. 🙂

The hold was lifted this morning. After this time expired, I called and no refund methods were available.

I am not too worried about the feedback. It is rather an indicator of the thinking / state of my buyer. He is a buyer and knows the current situation with USPS. I want him satisfied with the transaction as much as I want to prevent defects on my account. (CSR said I probably could not get a defect removed if I appealed it.)

I was instructed by USPS to open the second case. The 1st one only resulted in a form email that was automatically generated (no resource time involved), same for the 2nd. The USPS 1-800 rep said that only cases that were reopened / had a 2nd request where getting 'human touch time' at certain locations.

I am going to call eBay back with your suggestion about 'voluntary refunding'. This might be the verbiage I need. 

Thanks again!