Buyer receives item after case closed and refunded. Ebay denies sellers appeal.

[kind_antiques]

Sent an item through USPS with signature confirmation. Item gets stuck in transit at a distribution center. Buyer opens an item not recieved case and ebay quickly refunds them the money out of my Paypal account. Of course the item is eventually found. I try a package intercept which fails. USPS delivers and buyer signs for the item. 

From my understanding I had 30 days to appeal a case from when it was closed. I call ebay and explain the situation and they said they would escalate the issue to the right department...okay. Later I get a message saying "After reviewing this case again we decided to keep the original outcome because we determined that the original decision was correct."

Why even offer sellers an option to appeal a case? In what other scenario would I get the money for the item back other then what I presented? The item was delivered AND the buyer signed for it. 

First post here sorry if this is a common problem. Just wondering what my next steps should be if any? I called USPS and they denied any wrong doing and claimed package intercepts were not guaranteed. Extremely disapointed in how this was handled by eBay. I've contacted the buyer but of course no respond. They just got a higher value item for free. Just a warning to other sellers that eBay will side with the buyer in this situation. So much for sellers protection! 

[48hrs-clothing]

Sadly what happened to you is a common problem and at present there seems to be no solution.

I am a seller and I have had incidents of this kind and frustrating as it may be I realise that eBay have very limited options in this kind of case.

Seller shows postal service that he is offering and this sets expected delivery date and case for item not received can not be opened till expected delivery date is past and once case is opened eBay allows a number of days for buyer and seller to find a solution and during this time sellers are expected to seek eBay's help and in my experience eBay puts cases on hold for a further few days for delivery to be completed.

If  at the expiry of this extension item is still not delivered then eBay closes the case with a refund to buyer and if at a later date item does get delivered there is no way that eBay can force the buyer to pay as eBay only have agreements with sellers and not with buyers.

 eBay cases are closed automatically and an appeal allows a human to go through the case history to see if eBay can do anything to compensate the buyer or seller. 50/50 chance that you get a result.

Noted that your buyer has not responded to your messages and please consider sending another message offering to send a pre paid return label to enable your buyer to return the item.

Depending on postal service you used you may be able to lodge a claim.

Seller protection works in a scenario where tracking shows that item was delivered or delivery was attempted and buyer says I did not get it and in this vase eBay closes the case without a refund to buyer and if item is returned to seller then seller ends up in exact same position as your buyer. 

Item and money for seller and buyer ends up with no money and no item.

I am sorry to say you have just experienced one of many perils of selling online.

[azaz_8302]

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@kind_antiques wrote:

Sent an item through USPS with signature confirmation. Item gets stuck in transit at a distribution center. Buyer opens an item not recieved case and ebay quickly refunds them the money out of my Paypal account. Of course the item is eventually found.

I call ebay and explain the situation and they said they would escalate the issue to the right department...okay. Later I get a message saying "After reviewing this case again we decided to keep the original outcome because we determined that the original decision was correct."

Why even offer sellers an option to appeal a case? In what other scenario [How} would I get the money for the item back other then what I presented? The item was delivered AND the buyer signed for it.

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An appeal does not right the wrong, it merely holds eBay responsible for the courtesy refund. And of course, eBay doesn't want to pay, so they will decide that their original decision is correct.

One ongoing eBay loophole is that a buyer can file for a refund even when they never paid for an IUD. A few years ago, eBay charged a seller's credit card $500 to refund the buyer that never paid. The seller filed a chargeback against eBay and got their money back, because eBay made the incorrect decision to refund pay the buyer.

So one way might be to have a credit card on file at eBay as your reimbursement method, instead of your PayPal account. And if you lose your seller account, then you didn't risk another eBay-won't-fix-this-mistake again, anyway.

[itscalledapostingid]

I don't understand the story about the $500. As far as I know Ebay can only refund an actual payment. There would have to be a lot more to that story than a buyer just filing INAD and Ebay giving them $500 from the buyer's credit card.

[itscalledapostingid]

Actually I should have said INR as item not received was what the $500 case was said to be about.

[pureinnocenthelp]

yeah also did you know people get false reported a lot on here? yeah it's a common problem

[xo-electronics]

Try contacting eBay business on Facebook. They are way helpful then phone and Twitter support. 

[vintagecraze50]

If using USPS there are still delivery delays due to their wonderful SLOW SERVICE. EXPECT that some of your items will be severely delayed and that if you use them some people wil not be patient and wait for their items to arrive some time next year. USE ANOTHER SHIPPING SERVICE, or this is bound to continue to happen. If you love to give away free stuff, then by all means use them and make people very happy,

[farmalljr]

Your only recourse is to sue the buyer in small claims court, in their state. Present all your evidence, including the signature from USPS, and you will likely win the case and be made whole. 

Other than that, welcome to eBay. This is how it tends to work. Lots of sellers get hosed by the few that work the system on purpose and steal. This minority of buyers seem like they make selling unfair to do business here. But in the end, these kinds of incidents are in the minority.

It will be said over and over here, don't list something you are not willing to gamble that you lose. That is absolutely true. While it rarely happens, high ticket items are targets of thieves. So I would suggest not listing it on this platform. Or only selling those type of items local pick up only. 

[kind_antiques]

Thanks for the replies. I've read you can send another paypal invoice to the buyer. Although I dont think they have to pay might be worth trying? I used priority mail so return to sender would have been free? It's probably past offering to send a return label since they signed for the package and wont respond to my messages but I will keep trying.

Yes unfortunantly I now know this is just the cost of doing buisness on eBay. I've had delivery delays from USPS before but never a buyer so eager to get his money back. I believe they knew exactly what they were doing and took advantage of the system. Going to start considering using other services for valuable items. Actually finding it hard to post anything for sale at the moment after all of this. But it is what it is I'll get over it...

[fern*wood]

I wish you luck.   I was paid back by one of mine after 2 months.  Hopefully your buyer with do the right thing.

[us4strays · Accepted solution]

Try filing a complaint with BBB 

https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/san-jose/profile/online-shopping/ebay-inc-1216-204015

[kind_antiques]

So the buyer finally responded "I didn’t receive anything. And Even less signed it. I don’t why it says that" 

I find this hard to believe and I'm not sure if it helps or hurts my situation...

I was going to send a paypal invoice for the item but could not find the buyers email. Eventually called Paypal and explained the situation. They seemed much more understanding and agreed Ebay should of sent the funds back to my account. They suggested calling eBay again and asking for a supervisor. 

Just feel like I'm going around in circles not getting anywhere with this. It really shouldnt be this hard. Makes me worried why eBay is switching to Managed Payments and distancing themselves from Paypal. 

[gjs_16]

The easy way is to accept this standard outcome as part of the cost of doing business.

Or you can fight it, and report your progress here.

[madgepye]

Seller didn't put door number so item arrived 3 weeks later than expected, I did not file for a refund because I was happy to wait, seller refunded anyway, they were upset about the delay more than I was.  Item arrived after post office attempted to open teh package, probably looking for a clue as to the house number.  My local Postman was able to work it out , just from my name as our household gets alot of mail especially ebay and Amazon, almost daily!  So the postie was able to deliver based on name and postcode, I advised the seller and paid again to her Pay Pal, I also sent photo of her parcel so she could see why it took so long to arrive, she was shcoked at her mistake and we were both very polite about it.

Very important to be polite throughout.  It is always nice to be nice.