Payment after a refund; post office delivered late

[markjoseph125]

We sent out a $200 electronic item before Christmas. The post office didn't record it as having been received, and after a few weeks of trying to locate it, we refunded the money, and advised the post office to return the item to us if ever found. Of course, some time later, they delivered the item to the buyer. The buyer is willing to pay us for it, but how do we go about that? I don't see any way to send him an invoice, and if I put my address in an e-mail to him, eBay will send me a nastygram. I can't be the first person to whom this has happened. Thanks in advance.

[pburn · Accepted solution]

You should be able to send the buyer an invoice via PayPal. If you're having trouble finding the buyer's email address, try these steps:

• My eBay
• Selling
• Orders

(Find the appropriate transaction.)

(On the left-hand side of that transaction, activate the dropdown menu.)

• Print shipping labels or invoices
• Invoice for your own records

(You should see the buyer's email address.)

[markjoseph125]

Excellent. I'd gotten as far as your last bullet point, but hadn't clicked "Invoice for your own records". Doing so, I was able to bring up the invoice, and even save it as a PDF. Now do I just e-mail it to him? Via eBay? Via PayPal? This is much appreciated!

[pburn]

@markjoseph125 

Glad that worked! What those instructions are really for in this case, though, is only to identify the buyer's email address, because you'll need it to send the invoice. You'll now go into your PayPal account and send him/her an invoice to that email address with PayPal's invoicing process. 

https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/how-do-i-create-and-send-an-invoice-faq3144

I can't show you any more than that, because it requires an account log in, and a link wouldn't work for you, but it's pretty straightforward, and a good tool to learn how to use.

See? You've already learned something new in 2021, and it's only January 14!

Good luck!

[greh3595]

The very same thing just happened to me, with one really bad important difference.  The Buyer has not responded to my emails, has received the merchandise and is apparently going to keep the money and the product.

I have to believe this is happening a lot right now given the problems the USPS is having with timely delivery, and I also am of the firm belief that EBay is in complete denial of the situation - they know full well the Seller is being exposed to losses due to EBay's Buyer refund policy which allows EBay to take the money out of the Seller's PayPal account without the Seller's consent.

How totally unfair to the Seller can you get!  To make matters worse, with EBay's new automated response system, you can't even get a hold of a customer service representative to discuss the injustice their policies have precipitated!

[caldreamer]

You are so fortunate that the buyer is an honest person.   You can send buyer an invoice for merchandise through PayPal.

[markjoseph125]

Yes, I am. The other two times this has happened, with admittedly less expensive items (though one was quite a rare book), I never did receive any money for it.

[markjoseph125]

Yes, we were able to figure out how to invoice the buyer from PayPal. Thank you for the lead!

[pburn]

You're certainly welcome! Good luck!

[pburn]

@greh3595 

I couldn't agree with you more. It's a lousy deal and has been devastating for many sellers over the last several months and especially during the Christmas holiday season. 

As a buyer, I understand eBay's position of requiring refunds under the MBG (sort of), but I also think they were complicit in establishing totally unrealistic "estimated delivery dates" and requiring refunds to be issued when items were in transit, along with other scenarios that just weren't fair. 

IMO, which is, of course, worthless in this case (and in most cases, frankly), eBay should have had a plan in place to reimburse sellers if a refund had been issued but the item was subsequently delivered. 

It's unconscionable, as far as I'm concerned.

P.S. eBay DOES have your consent to take money out of your account. It's part of the Terms of Service/User Agreement.

P.P.S. Don't bother wasting your time on Customer Service. It won't get you anywhere, and it will only make your blood pressure skyrocket and make a minimum-wage customer service rep miserable. No point in that, either.