gave refund then item delivered by USPS. am I out of luck?

[kidzthree]

Buyer bought item, shipped next day, item made it from Georgia to California then disappeared from scan by USPS.  buyer filed item not received claim but never contacted me at all.  Ebay basically said I had to do refund within 2 days which I did.  Item received by buyer today.  no contact from buyer.  they have my item and a refund.  do I have any recourse to get the money back?  will ebay help in any way.  

I understand why the buyer filed claim though I would have appreciated them talking to me before hand.  the item just stopped scanning.  the scan today that says delivered is almost full two weeks after the last scan prior to them filing claim.  no idea what happened at post office but it will arrive to the buyer finally.  

any suggestions on possible getting funds returned to me would be appreciated.

[evry1nositswindy]

You can contact the buyer, explaining the delays in shipping due to the pandemic, and invoice them through PayPal.  I did this a few months ago and the buyer was so thrilled to get the item and they paid, no problems.

[kim_y_buran]

You can try to contact the buyer, but the chances are fairly slim I'd say.   It happened to me a few times, and the only time I got paid the buyer contacted me first.

[dbfolks166mt]

This is part of the problem with the stupid estimated delivery date. When you first received the INR notification you should have immediately initiated a missing package case with USPS, they generally respond back in 24 hours as to the status. You should have also provided the buyer with the most recent tracking status from USPS or one of the other carriers before you issued the refund.  I had a priority mail package that took 21 days to get from Virginia to California. It took multiple messages back and forth with the buyer and two missing package cases with USPS to finally get the item delivered. I would have attempted to work out the situation with the buyer before issuing the refund since you knew the package was still in shipping channels.  

[duncanvr]

I set shipping time to the slowest possible time frame and contact all buyers there will be delays at the point of shipping. Most are understanding. ebay should extend delivery etas across the board because of Covid. I thought they promised to protect sellers from such circumstances like these during the pandemic? Try contacting ebay and see what they will do. If the first rep won't give your money back then contact them again and try another rep. You can sometimes get a better result from different reps. Try and phone the buyer instead of using the contact message system. Explain what happened and see if they are prepared to pay for the item since they received it. Or if they will return it since they got a refund. Did they leave feedback?

[needitlikea0inthehead]

Not only is the mail slow but the tracking system is worse.  For example my carrier picked up a package I mailed to New York (from Arizona).  I watched her scan it.   Three days later tracking system still shows nothing.  On the 4th day package is in New Mexico and this is the 1st scan showing.   By the 7th day all the scans had filled in including ones earlier than the NM scan.   Since buyers rely on the tracking number how many would get a refund on day ?   

[inhawaii]

I would demand ebay refund you.

Push the issue  hard enough and i believe they will. 

Good luck and stay safe!

[the1moons-0]

Hi, Just contact the buyer and explain what has happened. This happened to me about a month or so ago. I was the buyer and I contacted the seller and they sent a new item. Then about two weeks later both items turned up on the same day. So I  just paid for the extra item as it will come in handy later. 

I think most people are honest and should pay.

[postingid7659]

all you can do is ask the buyer to either pay for the item again, or return it to you. 

If they don't, then push eBay on it.  

I had one non-eBay transaction from my wholesaler last week that normally makes two or three stops before delivery, get scanned in the first stop from the pickup city, then nothing at all until it was at my local post office.  I was starting to wonder where it was. 

The advice above to start a missing package case when it doesn't show up is a good idea.  

[vintagecraze50]

I have had several of these and yes you have to contact the buyer and tell them you are doing a package trace and to be patient. Apparently USPS is STILL having problems with this stuff. Do not prematurely refund people here where there are some minor delays. You will loose your item and your money doing that. Get on the USPS website and start a trace now. These packages usually get moving when that happens. KEEP IN CONACT WITH THE BUYER.

[vintagecraze50]

This stuff is completely unacceptable when these packages get delivered with these INR claims. Stop this from happening Ebay. Somehow, STOP IT!!!

[vintagecraze50]

I had  an over 199.00 item that I refunded becuase of this stuff and the thing got delivered a few days after that. COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE.

[vintagecraze50]

IF this starts to be a problem again emasse with USPS, better put the Use another delivery service stuff up again.

[dbfolks166mt]

Not sure what your status is with regards to getting your money or getting the item back. If the buyer is not responding you can report them on eBay for all the good that will do. Not sure how much we are talking dollar wise but if it is significant you have the buyers address you could try contacting the local law enforcement and see if they would assist. You could also file a FBI Internet Crime complaint at the following site. I always send eBay a copy of these just in case they are contacted by the FBI. 

https://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

[jovmil-67]

Not totally out of luck. Many have experienced this horror and I was beaten up pretty bad this summer with multiple delays and refunds.

What I've learned: If a buyer contacts you FIRST to let you know that a package is lost in scan or has not shown up, do your best at that point to work with him or her, and let them know you will check on it. Initiate a trace request through the USPS website or at your post office. Explain the delays and that it will show up in due time. Most buyers will understand this and you can monitor the progress daily, keeping in contact with them.

If a buyer can't wait any longer and opens the INR case, or you just have one pop up on you, you have three days to REFUND unless you can show delivery. There is no dilly dally at this point. Forget dealing with the buyer at this point as they have become impatient or understandably upset, and want their money back instead. If you continue to try and work with a buyer after they opened an INR and it goes past the 3 days, then be aware they can escalate it and you'll get a automatic decision in favor of the buyer, and automatic refund issued and a defect on your account.

If I have a buyer open an INR, I IMMEDIATLY go on the USPS website and open an PACKAGE INTERCEPT on the item. This is a $14.95 charge to you once the Post Office does a successful intercept and tracking will show it coming back to you. They get their money back and you get your item back. I do this, no matter WHAT the cost of the item is. It's a principle thing for me.

https://www.usps.com/manage/package-intercept.htm

In the unfortunate situation where you have an INR that gets escalated and you're forced to refund the buyer under the MBG, you have 30 days to request/appeal for a refund if you can show delivery via tracking. Keep in mind, if you have decided to initiate an Intercept to get the item back, this won't work. It's one or the other.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/appealing-decision-seller?id=4369

In your situation, with you already initiating the refund, you can still open an Intercept to get the item back. Otherwise, they WILL eventually get your item AND the refund. You can try to contact the buyer, as others have suggested, but if you don't hear back within a day, then you can assume they plan on keeping both the money and the item.