Ebay is asking me to resolve an issue that I cannot

[tevroc78]

I sold an item as "Local Pickup Only" in early January.  The buyer is in another state and paid the BIN price.  They then complained to Ebay that I never shipped the item.  I told the buyer that it was clearly listed as Local Pickup Only and they could come and get it whenever they wanted.

Now Ebay has sent me a note saying I need to ship it/resolve the issue with the buyer.  Shipping alone would cost me more than what the item sold for so I dont know what to do here.  There seems to be no way to actually contact or email Ebay on this so I am stuck at the moment.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[bonjourami]

Cancel the transaction with problem with buyers address, he will be refunded and you will get your fees back.

[buyselljack2016]

Typically in such a situation the seller would chose to cancel/refund selecting "problem with buyer address" as the reason.

[tevroc78]

Thanks Guys,

I will give it a shot, never had an issue like this before.

[tevroc78]

Well I tried what you suggested but it did not work, I got a big red banner that says "Case Exists" so it would not allow me to cancel.

Not sure what to do now.

[sapphire_studio]

Try to give them a full refund through the case.

[soh.maryl]

You could have canceled, citing "problem with buyer's address" as the reason.  

[aprilmoviebuf2000]

Well, now that the buyer has opened an Item Not Received case...no, you cannot cancel.

You can and should refund the buyer via the case.  Be sure to do this before the case times out.  If eBay has to step in and do it for you, you will earn a defect.  

[Anonymous]

When  it was evident that the buyer could not pick up the item, you should have canceled the transaction due to problem with buyer's address.  You can still do that now.  Because eBay had to get involved, you earned a defect.

[fashunu4eeuh]

Well, this is not good. When it became evident the buyer was unaware that the item was Local Pickup Only, the prudent thing to do was to cancel the sale using “problem with buyer address”, as others suggested. But now that the buyer has opened a case, that option no longer exists. 

Refund the buyer through the case and do not escalate it to eBay. Escalation goes against the seller 99.9% of the time. I hope you have acted quickly enough to avoid the buyer escalating the case. When that happens, eBay refunds the buyer from your account, penalizes you by not refunding your Final Value fees, and you get a defect that can downgrade your seller standing.

Did your buyer request a refund at some point prior to the case? eBay is not a “buyer beware” platform. It places its buyer’s interests above a seller’s. One cannot simply advise a buyer “sorry, no refund. Too bad you didn't notice this was a local pickup listing.” And then just wash your hands of the deal. Virtually any buyer can invoke the Money Back Guarantee. Cases can negatively impact your seller metrics, and should be avoided.

[buyselljack2016]

@tevroc78 

Other thing to do post haste is to add the non-reading ID to your blocked bidder list.

[bonjourami]

You didnt say in your op that the buyer had opened a case.

[duffy4444]

   Do NOT ship the item; shipping it would only result in a larger loss to you than losing your seller fees on this transaction. Follow what others have said here, and issue a full refund to the buyer thru the eBay case. That will close it out. Then put the buyer on your Blocked Buyer List, wash your hands of the problem, and move on.

   Immediately after a local pickup item is sold, you can message the buyer to make arrangements to come and pick up the item, and if they cannot, they can ask you to cancel the transaction. That way, if the buyer did not see "local pickup", they will either ask you to cancel or will provide an excuse why they want it shipped instead. Then in the future with a similar situation where the buyer either accidentally or purposely pulls this stunt on you, immediately  cancel the order using "problem with buyer's address" before the buyer has a chance to open a case with eBay.

   You've been around for over 20 years, and have 377 positives. Unless there are any other demerits on your account, one here should hopefully not affect you too much, if at all.

Cheers, Duffy

[the_fancy_fox]

Go onto Facebook. Ebay for business. Click the message button. 

explain this was a pickup only that the buyer did not pickup and has opened a case. Ask how to refund them without getting a defect. 

please let us know how this resolved. 

[the_fancy_fox]

Also I just did some research and found a post from 2021 where the seller had the same issue. 

Several people told him that you could refund without a return in the case. 

I have no idea if that would earn you a defect.