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I (USA) purchased an item from the UK. Never arrived. Seller didn't refund. What can I do?
On March 20, 2025 I purchased a trading card from a seller in the UK for 128.14 GBP ($171.12 USD). Seller has sold over 1k items with over 99% positive reviews. On April 12 I reached out to the seller about the product not arriving. They were pleasant in their replies so I gave them the benefit of the doubt with everything, but I no longer believe they were acting in good faith. Unfortunately, it seems too much time has passed and I can't do anything about this in regards to getting my money back nor leaving Feedback to warn others.
When I initially reached out to the seller on April 12, they claimed they had shipped the item from their end and that it was confirmed as received by eBay. They claimed they were using some sponsored eBay transatlantic shipping service and that the matter is out of their hands, but they would follow up with them. This led to a 3.5-month long back-and-forth where they kept asking for time to investigate and follow-up, leading up until today where they are no longer replying to my messages.
The communication chain has been a complete run-around of pleasantries and I'm trying to close the loop here on what I believe is a malicious seller. Unfortunately, I cannot even leave Feedback on the seller anymore to warn others. Too much time has passed for me to issue a Chargeback even if I had wanted to, but also I don't think I could because I had bundled this card purchase with another card purchase from a different seller using Ebay's shopping cart feature, which executes the credit card transaction as a single transaction with the total sum.
I have all of the receipts of our message chain in hand, but for the sake of brevity I will summarize the communication timeline between myself and the seller:
- Apr 12: I reach out to inquire about the missing package
- Apr 12: Seller replies "it’s been shipped from my side & received form EBAY to ship to you" and tell me I must escalate this with eBay
- Apr 12: I try to dig deeper into escalating this on eBay but eBay makes it very clear in all printed language that this is a matter between the seller and myself, and the seller must be the one to initiate the refund. I inform the seller of this.
- Apr 12: Seller replies asking for 3-5 days to "look into this"
- Apr 18: I ask for an update
- Apr 18: Seller replies "hey ! been looking for you. nothing as of yet. i’m gonna have to delay it till tuesday or Wednesday"
- Apr 23: I ask for an update
- Apr 23: Seller replies "nothing man. will be trying again tomorrow 😠the united kingdom for you"
- Apr 23: I reply "Would you mind sharing some details about what specifically you’re trying on your end to reach a resolution to this?"
- Apr 23: Seller replies "tracking where is exactly. i haven’t been give a reference number as of yet since they have to wait 28 business days"
- Apr 23: I reply:
- I see. So then I think next Wednesday would be the 28th business day? At that point you’d essentially be able to open a case for them to investigate it (aka given a reference number)? Do you know how long that would take?I see. So then I think next Wednesday would be the 28th business day? At that point you’d essentially be able to open a case for them to investigate it (aka given a reference number)? Do you know how long that would take?I don’t mean to apply pressure but I will say that when you asked me to give you some time to check into a few things I assumed you had some sort of clearer/shorter process you could follow through eBay, and I was willing to oblige. The way this is sounding though is it’s sounding like you’re just being sent through the standard customer support channels that will likely take many months to resolve.
- Apr 23: Seller replies "no don’t worry , no offence taken if you’re applying pressure. just bare with me till the end of this week. i won’t be calling them this week, i’m simply forcing a form on to the courier"
- Apr 27: Seller initiates contact with me, stating "hey man . thought i’d update you. will be a waiting game for the next week or two. everything else has been done from my side now. investigation has taken place & i have a reference number too. sorry for this one more time"
- May 21: I ask for an update
- May 21: Seller replies "hey mate , no. i’m still waiting. unfortunately :// ill give them a call in the morning & ask for update on the case"
- June 15: I formally opened an "item not received" report via eBay.
- June 24: I message the seller plainly "I’d like to request a refund at this time"
- June 24: Seller refuses refund, stating "you’d have to contact ebay for refund as i cant process it 😔"
- June 24: I show the seller what the "report item missing" UI shows me, which is clear messaging that the refund needs to be handled by the seller (with screenshots).
- June 24: Seller replies "yeah contact ebay saying it’s never arrived & they’ll force the refund. as i can’t process it manually"
- July 5: I message the seller "This is all I see. Ebay makes it very clear that there is nothing I can do at this point - that it's just between myself and the seller (you) at this point"
- July 5: Seller replies "i can’t refund unfortunately. my ebay is restricted in terms of selling or i would refund you. i haven’t sold for over a month & my money is stuck"
- July 5: I reply "I literally don’t know what to do at this point. I think I’ve been extremely understanding and accommodating. What would you do if you were in my situation?"
- July 5: Seller replies "contact ebay brother . i’ve been contacting myself. as o want to refund at this point. would be more beneficial for me to refund at this point trust me"
- July 5: I respond "eBay will not let me contact them. That’s what I showed you via the screenshots"
- July 15: The "item not received" report was auto-closed due to inactivity (from the seller).
- July 22: I ask the seller "Can you provide me some screenshots of the various correspondences you’ve been pursuing which include timestamps? Can you also provide me the reference numbers"
There was no response after my last message.
I do not know what to do here. I have purchased many items off of eBay and have had nothing but good experiences. I generally know how to avoid the bad apples by looking for sellers who have many reviews. I should state at this point that I myself am a seller on another platform - mainly just getting rid of collectibles I no longer have room for. My default position on this is always always refund the buyer first, leave a good impression, give people a reason to give you a glowing 5star review. I have had snags with shipping my own packages and the way I handled it resulted in glowing 5star reviews. I have also had this experience returned to me from other sellers when things have gone sideways, causing me to go out of my way to write that glowing 5star review for them in kind.
With that said, eBay is not the site I sell my products on, so I am unfamiliar with the hoops and hurdles sellers have to jump through. I will say I have heard about it being rough out there for sellers. This is why I gave this particular seller every benefit of the doubt and empathized with them the entire way. At this point though, given the evidence of our communication, I have no other conclusion to draw here other than the seller stringing me along until the time windows closed on leaving them a review.
It is in the timeline above but I would like to state clearly that as part of this process I of course clicked the button to "report the item missing", which allowed me to open a report. However, eBay was very clear that this item was outside of their Buyer Protection Guarantee, and that this would simply open a report so that the seller could be made aware of this, but any remediation would have to come by way of the seller. That report simply timed out after 30 days due to no response from the seller.
I've deliberately refrained from naming the seller because I'd first like to know what the broader consensus is here on this. Perhaps shipping from UK -> USA is a known nightmare and other sellers can pop on and add some insights. Perhaps some other sellers can speak to this seller's statements about how they "can't" issue a refund due to the way eBay has things structured. Perhaps there is simply more to this than I know as a buyer, and since I've already given this seller every benefit of the doubt what difference does it make to give them one more.
comics-scifi-collectibles
Mentor1 year ago@shnackaran Sorry that you had a bad seller and waited too long to come here for help.
The eBay Money Back Guarantee is only 30 days from the last estimated delivery date. An eBay agent can't extend this.
If you had opened a refund request in that time period then you needed to Ask eBay to Step In and force a refund if the seller was not co-operating before the case timed out after 21 days.
Your only option now is a charge back with your funding source.