International Item lost during shipping has come up after being refunded

Question

Hi, I purchased a shirt from an international seller. The tracking was stuck for 3 weeks beyond the expected date. I put an ebay request in and received a full refund. Now I learned through tracking that it's arriving.
Can I just pay the seller back and keep the item? Will USPS allow me to refuse it? Is there any way to work it out through eBay to allow the transaction to go through. I want to keep the item and do the right thing. Thanks.

shipscript · Answer

@lifes2short

eBay has no facility for a buyer to reimburse a seller for a refunded item.

If the item was shipped through eBay International Shipping, then the seller would not have been involved in the refund. However, if the seller shipped directly and the refund came directly from the seller, I would recommend contacting the seller to find out if they have a way to receive payment.

I had a similar incident where an international package was delayed in shipping for weeks. I suspected the item would eventually arrive, so waited until almost the last day within eBay's 30-day money back window before opening the "not received" claim. At the same time, I asked the seller for their PayPal account should the item arrive after a refund was issued.

So my case went smoothly. I had a PayPal email, eBay issued the refund from the seller, and when the item arrived just a few days outside of the 30 day window, I was able to send a PayPal payment to the seller. The only difficulty was the PayPal payment fee. I allowed PayPal to take their fee out of the gross, so the seller received a smaller payment, but the seller was gracious and happy with the final resolution.