eBay is running business per usual with zero concern for their sellers getting hit with refund requests from buyers. Why would they allow buyers in Hurricane Helene's devastated areas to report "undelivered item"? The buyer will eventually get their item for free! We the sellers will be out of item & money that we're forced to refund. It's criminal!!
They allow buyers to open INR requests as part of their policy. However, they also provided an announcement regarding supporting sellers with shipping delay issues in the impacted area. I prefer to know when/if my customers have not received their packages so I can begin to work with them on resolutions. In the spring when we had all the flooding, which was far less severe that it has been with Helene and now Milton, I had 5 packages that were late by a number of days. I worked with each of those buyers, ultimately refunding all of them, and filing claims with USPS. NONE of the 5 packages were ever found or delivered to the buyers and I can only assume they floated down some river somewhere in the flood zones. USPS paid the insurance claims on all 5 of those packages. The whole process with USPS took less than 3 weeks from the time I filed the claims until I had a check from USPS.
