Overseas package returned unclaimed after 60 days. How to refund and recover FVF???

[o-kushon]

I had a transaction on February 17, 2018, shipped form US to Germany, where it sat at the German post office waiting for recipient pickup from about March 1 through April 15.  It was returned to me April 19.  The package is covered with French and German postal stickers, which appear to say that they notified the recipient that the item was being held for pickup, that $15 was owed in duty fees ($300 item, sounds reasonable to me), and that the recipient never claimed the item.

I tried contacting the buyer through Ebay, and have gotten no reply.  Seems to have dropped off the face of the earth.

I would like to issue a refund for the item (not the postage), and get the transaction canceleld out and recvover the fees.

I am not seeing a way to do that, only click through a refund on Paypal, which would not recover the fees.

Any suggestions?

[dangre_1]

Refund minus shipping and fees

[nobody*s_perfect]

The time limit for canceling a transaction is 30 days.  IIRC, even the link to refund a payment disappears from the PayPal transaction after 60 days.

I agree with the other post: Subtract all your expenses (i.e., postage and eBay AND PayPal fees) and issue a partial refund through the PayPal transaction.  I know that PayPal refunds the 2.9% fee when a seller issues a refund to a US buyer, but I don't know how they handle the extra percentage that they charge for currency conversion. And there's the 30 cents that you won't get back from PayPal.

[nowthatsjustducky]

It may be a good idea to wait until you hear back from the buyer before sending off any money.  Otherwise, it could be floating forever in money limbo if there ends up being no one to claim it (like if the buyer has since become living impaired for example).  May as well get some use out of the funds yourself until you hear otherwise.  🙂

You always have the option of sending money minus original shipping and fees at any time when you do finally hear back.

[o-kushon]

Three good answers. Thank you nobody*s_perfect, dangre_1, and nowthatsjustducky.

I was hoping there was a hidden link somewhere on the Ebay website which would cancel out all the fees without me having to manually deduct them and look like a chissler while trying to minimize my losses on the collapsed sale.

I do still have a refund link on the Paypal page for that transaction.

Not sure about mailing the payment if that link disappears, the buyer might not be there to receive that if he was not there to receive the item.

I'll procrastinate a couple more days and then try subtracting the postage and fees and sending the refund.

[slippinjimmy]

Three choices

1 - Do nothing until you hear from the buyer

2 - Refund the entire payment

3 - Refund the payment after deducting the original shipping plus fees paid

I know which one I would NOT do!

[slippinjimmy]

FYI - $15 does not seem at all right for a $300 Item. The VAT rate in Germany is currently 19% plus there is a "handling fee" added. VAT is also applied to both the Item value AND the shipping amount (if known).

On an item declared at US$300 the total due to customs would be more like $70 - $75 (probably why it was never picked up).

[o-kushon]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

FYI - $15 does not seem at all right for a $300 Item.

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One of the yellow stickers is the one that translates to "Item does not comply with Article 9 and 10 of the European Economic community...".  Which means they were going to hit it with a tarrif. The plastic envelope taped on the back says "Taxe de renvol Rocksendungsentgelf, 12.45 Euro", and the total at the bottom of the sheet says they were asking for 12.45 Euro (which is $15 according to the currency thing on the internet).

My word was "reasonable".  I am not in favor of taxes, duties, or tarrifs, but in the grand scheme of things, if I paid $300 for something, and got to the last step, and the guy at the counter said I was going to have to pay $15 to get my $300 item, or lose the item, the money, and the time, I'm pretty sure I'd give him the $15, grumble a little, and then thnak goodness it wasn't more.

The buyer has a feedback above 1400, so I am guessing this was not the first thing they bought from outside Germany.

[glgenterprise]

I'd sit on it for awhile yet. I had the same thing happen a couple years ago with an item going to France. The buyer got back with me eventually - he'd gone on vacation before it showed up at his end. It had already been returned to me. He made  arrangements with a stateside friend to take delivery of it - I shipped to that guy and never heard another word about it.

Give it another week or so for the buyer to answer you.

[ittybitnot]

I had a transaction on February 17, 2018, shipped form US to Germany, where it sat at the German post office waiting for recipient pickup from about March 1 through April 15.  It was returned to me April 19

I would not do anything.  When the buyer claims INR, then refund.   Thus you avoid the "defect" for a PayPal refund for an eBay transaction if they are still giving those out.   Buyer makes a claim, you "pay them off" as ebay likes and all is good.

[7606dennis]

Since you have already sent a message to the buyer explaining that the item has been returned to you, I would secure the item and await the buyer's reply.  I would then go from there.  The item is the property of the buyer.  They are the one that owe's the customs fees to their government.  So unless the buyer files a INR dispute, I would do nothing else.

If the buyer replies to your message and request that you reship, I would require that they pay for the additional shipping.  However, if they request a refund I would oblige them, but make sure they are on my BBL.

If the buyer never replies to your message I would store the item securely until such time as your state allows such items to be declared abandoned and then dispose of the item as you see fit.  Keeping the original payment as compensation for storing the item.

Of course, for an item in that price range I'd probably expect the buyer to file an INR dispute though.

[dougsue123b]

Could be he died

[whatmodernwas]

I would put it on a shelf and forget about it. If I ever heard from the buyer again, I'd offer to re-ship it for the additional shipping fee.

[tapi-szem]

If the money is not claimed, it will go back to the seller's account. I had that happen with a package that was returned months after it was sent to Germany, IIRC. Never heard from the buyers. I refunded the payment, minus shipping and Ebay/Paypal fees and was notified several weeks later that the funds were unclaimed and back in my account.

[o-kushon]

Again, more good input from everyone.  Thank you ittybitnot, 7606dennis, whatmodernwas, and tapi-szem.

I was hoping to make a refund and get the whole situation behind me...  ...and then you point out a big concern:

Getting tagged with a defect.

I read through several pages and posts from Ebay employees, and it looks like the whole issue is like Russian Roulette, with three bullets and three empty chambers.

They seem to have made refunds really difficult.  Now we are "encouraging" us to offer 30 day cash back, and the system locks out refunds at 29 days, 23 hours, 59 minuts, and 59 seconds.  Not very flexible.  And the customer is supposed to initiate the refund or they tag the seller with a defect.  Making it pretty hard for the seller to step up and provide really good customer service.

For dougsue123b, it looks like the buyer is alive.  I got a three word email response:

"What is problem?"

Which tells me several things.  First, the buyer did not receive the notice from the German post office to pick up the item.  Second, the buyer was not keeping track of the tracking number or purchase delivery.  Third, the buyer is not fluent in English, (and I am not fluent in German), and my several unanswered emails explaining the situation were not understood.

I think I am going to sit down with the google translation web page and work on a German language letter.