Do I have to give a refund?

[snk-guru]

Just over 3 weeks ago, I sold an item for just over $1500, item was shipped out the same day and got to the buyer's PO box within 4 days. Since it's over a certain price, eBay requires a signature from the buyer upon delivery. The buyer is a hard-working individual and hasn't had the chance to pick up any of his mail which he told me via eBay messages and it's now been 3 weeks so the post office has now generated an automatic "return to sender".

So what happens now? If I have to give a refund, I'm screwed. I sold that item to pay for an emergency car repair. It cost me $40 to ship it via Priority mail with full insurance. So if the item is sent back to me, am I supposed to give an automatic refund to the buyer (or take another $40 hit to ship it back to him and hope the process doesn't repeat?) Obviously I'll have to wait and see what he says but I fear he might just ask for a refund, which I can't.

I'm not sure if there's some eBay rule where I am forced to give a refund even though I did everything on my part to deliver the item or if there's some kind of Seller protection against scenarios like this.

Any help is appreciated.

[wooden_flower]

Try to arrange reshipment tot he buyer so you don't have to refund. 

If you can't come to an agreement, you're going to have to refund - even if eBay doesn't force the issue, the buyer will go to his credit card company and have them open a payment dispute which you will lose since the item was not delivered.

[inceptions]

Are you asking if it's OK to keep the computer AND the buyer's $1,500? I think you know the answer to that.

You do not have to refund the original shipping.

[snk-guru]

I'm not asking if I can keep both the money and the item, I want him to have the item he paid for and I not to have to issue a refund because of the situation.

[inceptions]

Does your buyer still want the item?

If so and if you both have PayPal, you can send him an invoice through PayPal for reshipping. You'll need to ask him for his PayPal email address (which is OK to do through eBay messaging now that you are in a transaction together).