Canceling an order that has not arrived

[paulhorv]

I ordered and paid for an item on October 21st which had an estimated delivery date of October 28th.  I needed the item by October 30th, so I figured the seller had some extra time to get the item to me.  The seller printed a FedEx label for the package and assigned a FedEx number on October 21st, but did not drop off the package to FedEx, so I could not track it.  I had been in constant communication with the seller who initially blamed the issue on the FedEx tracking system.  On October 30th, I still had not received the package and still could not track it.  FedEx kept informing me that the seller still had not dropped off the package to them, so I canceled the order and requested a refund.  Now, it is November 2nd, I still have not received the item and FedEx still has not record of receiving the package.  The seller wants me to give them 3 more days and I no longer need the item as I had to get it somewhere else to meet my October 30th deadline.  I also received an email today that the seller was updating the shipping information which tells me they are dropping the package off to FedEx today.  Ebay is stating they will not step in until November 5th which I think they should step in now.  It seems like the seller is refusing to refund my money and trying to force me to take an item they failed to deliver in a timely manner.  Any advice would be appreciated.

[donsdetour]

Well file an item not received case since tracking shows no movement.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/returns-refunds/get-help-item-hasnt-arrived?id=4042 

[mudshark61369]

@paulhorv,

If you haven't done so check the seller's feedback profile page.  You may find one of two things

A) The seller has many feedback about slow shipping or non delivery click on the numbers of negative and neutral feedback to read only those comments.

B) The seller could have a fair amount of feedback and a 100% rating but has never sold before or not in over a year.

If (B) is the case the delay is probably because of an ebay payment hold place on all new or returning sellers listings, and many of them do not know about it, or how to deal with it.   Let us know what you find.

[mudshark61369]

@paulhorv,

Thanks for the helpful, but did you look to see if either choice helped you?

[fab_finds4u]

File an item not received claim.

 Points to ponder.

Do not order something you need  2 days after the expected delivery date.  The date is an estimate not a guaranteed date certain delivery date.

You said the seller didn't "meet my deadline." Did you tell the seller you had a deadline or you would be returning it before you bid?  You should have so the seller could send it guaranteed delivery and charge appropriately for the guaranteed delivery.

eBay is not going to step in when you think they should.  Depending upon the country the seller is in they're given 3 to 8 days to respond with a tracking number. Then if it shows recent movement they can keep the case open to see if it gets delivered before they force a refund. Because what will happen is if  they don't then you end up with the item and the money and the seller has no money or no item and you can't be forced to return it.

 If you should get a refund before it's delivered then you should refuse delivery so it's returned to the seller.

[slippery-half]

You say you ordered an item on 10/21, which you believed would give the seller time to get it to you.

That's okay.  Now here's the problem.  You've set up an arbitrary time which it should arrive – You don't mention what type of shipping you and the seller decided to use though I'd hope it would have at least been quick enough to arrive by the time you wanted to receive it – October 30.

If you ordered something and it took than nine days to arrive there's nothing out of the ordinary happening – once again, unless you paid for some sort of expedited shipping, which would be another matter entirely.

By way of comparison, the package I ordered from eBay – which never arrived – took about twenty-ish days to arrive.

Now, based on the tracking for the parcel – even considering that USPS was having delays – it should have arrived a week or so ago.

[paulhorv]

The seller has refunded my money.  As I had indicated in my original post, it did not appear that the seller actually ever shipped the item, even after nearly 2 weeks.  That was my primary problem.  I could not even track the package.  The seller now seems to be admitting that there was a problem on their end with shipping which I brought to their attention about 10 days ago.  

[paulhorv]

Thank you all for your replies.