Buyer INR Advice Please

[mrcdeals]

Good morning

We have a buyer who purchased an item mid January.  The item was (and still is) lost in the USPS system somewhere. The buyer has been very gracious & patient this entire time.

We did open a lost item case with USPS in February. USPS closed the case - no positive results.

Experienced sellers advise please - should we just go ahead and refund the buyer or wait until the buyer files a INR through ebay?

(My inclination at this point is to just go ahead and refund the buyer without a INR case.)

Thanks for your advice.

[48hrs-clothing · Accepted solution]

Hi

If you refund without an INR case then you may not get your final value fees automatically and you will have to contact eBay and they should refund these manually.

If you issue a refund on an INR case then Final value fees minus $0.30 should automatically be refunded by eBay. 

I would ask the buyer to open an INR case and I would respond on that case and upload tracking information. 

Loading tracking on the case gives you better protection with eBay's trust team and confirms that you have acted properly and helps avoid negative impact on your account.

Having done this I would issue a full refund to buyer which will close the case.

[mrcdeals]

We did suggest (to our very patient buyer) that they could wait a little longer or open a INR case through ebay.  At that point we would refund them immediately. The details why a INR case is preferred we did not know. - Thank you

We will wait till our buyer opens a INR case, then refund. 

Many regards to you - your advice is much appreciated 🙂

[48hrs-clothing]

I am glad that I was able to help provide some information or help.

If postage label was through eBay then INR case may also give you the opportunity to make a claim for your postage costs.

If postage cost was small then this may not be worth the aggravation of contacting eBay and USPS which I have learned through these posts are not the easiest business to deal with.

eBay customer services will help guide you through this process. 

[teth_1615]

If your buyer waits./may have already waited too long to start an INR, you can't refund, and can't get FVF credit. You'll lose postage too, and already  lost the item.

If so, your buyer can still get a full refund for INR from PayPal or their card issuer, and you may pay a $20 chargeback settlement fine.

[monster-deals]

The buyer lost the ability to file an INR 31 days after the last estimated delivery date.

If you want to refund you will have to do it manually.