Case question

[aldente28]

I just got a note that a case was decided against me.

1. Buyer made purchase and asked that I ship to his post office with a post office hold for pickup.

2. Buyer opens a return request saying order was returned to sender, requests a refund.

3. Per tracking, the order is actually at his post office waiting to be picked up.

4. I tell him this. We go around in circles. He doesn't want to pick up the order, claims "post office can't deliver to his address" when I point out the "Reschedule Delivery" option on the USPS tracking page.

4. He escalates to a case.

5. Case is decided in his favor, despite the fact that the order is STILL sitting at his post office, waiting to be picked up, like RIGHT NOW.

I am livid. I immediately appealed via "email customer service" link (internal ebay "email"). Seems sketchy. I've never done this before and I didn't even get a confirmation email in my message box.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

I swear. I am livid. The order is sitting at his post office. Customer escalated this to a case and Ebay just forced a refund on a return for a package he never received because it was delivered to his post office at his request, and he didn't bother picking it up. And it is still there, waiting for him to pick it up.

I just can't even with this.

[coolections]

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@aldente28 wrote:

I sell perishable things, and I made "post office hold for pickup" an option at checkout. It's very useful when it's either hot or cold. Buyers can choose yes or no for that option. 

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You should immediately stop doing that. The items are already taking 7 to 10 days in hot and cold temps. Ship to an actual address for now on and tell buyers no exceptions.

[dippitydoo]

Howdy!  "The item was shipped, then returned to sender".....how did it get returned, that is to say, WHY did it get returned?  Did they buyer "time out" on their window of pick up?  It should never have been returned....but wait, DID it get returned?  If it did, and you have the item back, shouldn't you refund in all good conscience?  Or...

what am I missing here?  Sorry!  

-Dippity

[ittybitnot]

what am I missing here?

You are "missing" that the product has been shipped to the buyer's address,  delivered to the buyer's P.O. and available for pick up as requested by the buyer.  It is still there, waiting for the buyer to pick it up. It has not been returned to the seller.  The buyer has been refunded by claiming "item not received" , and can now pick up the product free of charge.  

[fern*wood]

Since you state it was a INR case, did you enter the tracking showing delivered into the case itself?   You also state you denied & went back and forth with the buyer, which I've never been able to do nor wanted to do on a INR case. 

[sextons-sweet-deals]

Seems I read a similar case in the past month. I'm thinking scam! 

I bet they will rush to the post office now that they have their money and pick up the package! I hope I'm wrong!

The post office should be returning it to you soon. They only hold for maybe 14 days.??

[ra_201044]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

what am I missing here?

You are "missing" that the product has been shipped to the buyer's address,  delivered to the buyer's P.O. and available for pick up as requested by the buyer.  It is still there, waiting for the buyer to pick it up. It has not been returned to the seller.  The buyer has been refunded by claiming "item not received" , and can now pick up the product free of charge.  

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Well, we have 'customs hangers', why not 'hold for pickup hangers'?

[kiss-3]

   Keep contacting E-bay again & again .... Try to get a representative or manager to listen or understand that this is a scam. These bad buyers/thieves are causing sellers to loose confidence in E-bay.  If any good comes out of this, it's that you have have over 485 views and you are making seller aware. The more sellers who reply to your post, means more views for you. Every time someone replies, the thread gets moved to the top of the community board. Maybe if you get 1,000 views or more, E-bay will take notice.  

    Thank you for your post and all the time /energy it has taken to contact E-bay.  Hoping you get a positive reversal of this case.  

[coffeebean832]

Sorry this is happening- it shouldn't be. There are only 2 things I can think of that would have caused this to be ruled in the buyer's favor-

1- Did you respond to the INR through the actual request either by sending a message or uploading tracking? (Sending a message through eBay messages does not count as responding to the INR.)

2- Does the post office where it's being held for pickup have a different zip code than the buyer's address? (A different zip would probably cause the bots to rule against you.)

[aldente28]

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@lamber9347 wrote:

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Okay, I'm tapping out of this thread. I'm sorry but your story is changing a tad too much. You started this thread, you are the OP. What you wrote initially has changed to a return case for a delivered item, and now has changed to an INR. You also keep saying how you went back and forth but you only have to enter the tracking info which showed delivered, as it was delivered to the post office. Sorry but we are all dependent on what you write as only you know the truth. I wish you the best of luck....

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?

I mistakenly called an INR case a return case.

The package was delivered at the post office. It is there now. I entered the tracking into the INR case, the buyer appealed, and ebay decided against me.

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Case summary 

Total refund: $(deleted)
Outcome: The case was decided in the buyer's favor.
More info: We didn't receive valid proof of delivery from you.

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Right now, tracking says this:

December 4, 2020, 2:51 pm
Available for Pickup
TUCSON, AZ 85706

[aldente28]

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@dippitydoo wrote:

Howdy!  "The item was shipped, then returned to sender".....how did it get returned, that is to say, WHY did it get returned?  Did they buyer "time out" on their window of pick up?  It should never have been returned....but wait, DID it get returned?  If it did, and you have the item back, shouldn't you refund in all good conscience?  Or...

what am I missing here?  Sorry!  

-Dippity

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This is what the buyer claimed. The item was not in fact returned. It was delivered to the post office per his request, and it is still there now.

[aldente28]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

what am I missing here?

You are "missing" that the product has been shipped to the buyer's address,  delivered to the buyer's P.O. and available for pick up as requested by the buyer.  It is still there, waiting for the buyer to pick it up. It has not been returned to the seller.  The buyer has been refunded by claiming "item not received" , and can now pick up the product free of charge.  

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^ this is precisely the situation, with the slight exception that rather than delivery to a PO Box, it was simply "held at the post office for pickup". This is a service USPS offers. When you print a shipping label, you can choose "hold for pickup".

[aldente28]

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@fern*wood wrote:

Since you state it was a INR case, did you enter the tracking showing delivered into the case itself?   You also state you denied & went back and forth with the buyer, which I've never been able to do nor wanted to do on a INR case. 

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Yep - was the first thing I did. I also sent a few messages to the buyer telling him he could pick up his item at the post office or reschedule delivery to his home from the tracking page. After some time he escalated to a case, which ebay ultimately decided in his favor.

[aldente28]

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@coffeebean832 wrote:

Sorry this is happening- it shouldn't be. There are only 2 things I can think of that would have caused this to be ruled in the buyer's favor-

1- Did you respond to the INR through the actual request either by sending a message or uploading tracking? (Sending a message through eBay messages does not count as responding to the INR.)

2- Does the post office where it's being held for pickup have a different zip code than the buyer's address? (A different zip would probably cause the bots to rule against you.)

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1. Yes. First thing I did was upload tracking into the INR claim.

2. No. Just checked - PO and buyer's address are in the same Zip (though the buyer's official ebay address is zip+4 and the po is just the zip but I would imagine a bot could handle that)

[a_c_green]

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@aldente28 wrote:
2. No. Just checked - PO and buyer's address are in the same Zip (though the buyer's official ebay address is zip+4 and the po is just the zip but I would imagine a bot could handle that)

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Have you tried phoning that post office? Can you determine whether a Package Intercept request will still work for an item that is awaiting pickup?

[aldente28]

Given the low dollar amount of the item, I'd rather save the money and wait to see what the buyer does. If he picks it up in the next few days, you can bet I'm going to show that to ebay CS when I call to destroy their absurd determination that buyers can get free stuff by shipping it to the post office via PO hold for pickup then retrieving it after ebay sends them a refund.

To be honest I don't think this is a case of fraud. I think the buyer really just doesn't want to pick up the item, but prudence demands that I at least wait and see what he does. Maybe he got into the situation not meaning to scam anyone but realizes now he has stuff waiting for him at the post office that he can now get for free.