Buyer files INR, left negative feedback as USPS tracking shows Awaiting Delivery Scan.

[Anonymous]

Buyer purchased item 11/27/20.  Shipping USPS Priority Mail here is tracking from eBay

 

The tracking shows “Mis-shipped” before “awaiting delivery scan” and now 9 days of nothing.

1  Never got any message from buyer that there was a problem

2  Buyer left negative feedback AND filed INR today (12/13/20)

3  I went to USPS and filed “missing mail” request today (12/13/20)

4  eBay INR case says action required by 12/17/20

5  Just discovered when doing USPS missing mail request that the buyers shipping address appears to have the wrong zip code.  When looking up the address USPS kept giving error for zip code 10022.  When looking up shipping address of the building in NY (10 Grand Central - 155 E 44 street) USPS shows as 10017. 

6  Item was shipped via eBay labels to buyers provided address showing zip code 10022

eBay support is not worth the effort.  I know to just refund and just chalk it up to cost of doing business.  But somehow I still feel at a loss for what can I do.  I have been using Fed Ex much much more to avoid USPS.  I am just asking for support from the community on not just this case but in general.

[dbfolks166mt]

     I can sympathize with you and the current situation. It has gotten really bad in the last week and is only getting worse. One glimmer of hope is that if they cannot deliver the package you may get it returned to you at some point. FedEx is starting to show signs of stress and have suspended their money back guarantee on express shipments. I expect them to get much worse after the 1st of the year as they are supposed to become heavily involved in the shipment and distribution of the COVID vacine. On top of that you may want to take a look at the weather that is supposed to hit the country next week, especially the northeast corridor on Wednesday. 

     I have curtailed listing anything until things smooth out a bit I don't want to spend the holidays addressing INR cases and responding to buyers. I have already tried to warn them in advance of the potential delays for anything I have in shipping channels at the moment but people will only be patient for so long and the scammers will just leverage the heck out of the opportunity.  

[Anonymous]

I had 5 INR cases due to USPS problems over the summer.  Refunded all 5.  Then all 5 were delivered within days or weeks to customer after refund. Only 1 buyer responded to my request for repayment and gave me my money back.  Approx $300 lost.  eBay was no help at all. I had many, many multiple discussions with eBay customer support during these cases on how I should handle them.

4 of the cases eBay deemed were “voluntary” refunds as I responded to buyer messages about problem and provided refund BEFORE “eBay steps in” to decide case.   No seller wants to let eBay decide as its 100% refund and keep the product. But since it was voluntary there is nothing they can or will do to help get the sellers money back. In early summer it was difficult to get buyers email thru ebay messages.

On the fifth case eBay support advised me to not voluntarily refund, wait for INR case, then appeal the case with eBay.  Buyer got refund and 3 days later package arrived. I appealed case and eBay did “reverse the outcome” of INR case. Nothing happened for a few days so I called eBay support about my money and they advised my money was “pending”. Waited another week and called again and was told that since the buyer was refunded there was nothing they could do and the eBay rep did not know what I was talking about as there was no money pending. Multiple calls later I was advised to invoice customer thru PayPal.

I am not fighting this INR, I understand to refund buyer as the item was not delivered. But the seller does nothing wrong, and provides refund and the package is still “out there somewhere”  

eBay does not provide a method to help protect sellers with USPS not delivering on time.  The seller is just left hanging with money spent, money refunded, no product and eBay provides no help in “completing the transaction” due to a delivery glitch.

[donsdetour]

wait a bit more to refund them. Also make sure the time for this does not run out as it is a strike if eBay refunds/

Make sure to enter the tracking number in the case.

[Anonymous]

So in this case I cannot "wait a bit more" as eBay has given me a deadline of 12/17/20.

Here we go again, I will provide refund on 12/16/20. So I am out the money and the item is "still out there somewhere.  I filed "missing mail" request the same day I found out about the problem.  eBay is giving me 4 days and we all know the USPS is not going to give me a response in the next 3 days.  Maybe it will arrive, but probably not. Once I make the refund - eBay is done with it.  The buyer has already left negative feedback so just saying "send them an invoice thru PayPal "  is not going to solve the problem in the cases where the package finally does get delivered.  

The seller is just left hanging with money spent, money refunded, no product and eBay provides no help in “completing the transaction” due to a delivery glitch.

[Anonymous]

Since I opened the missing mail case yesterday, the tracking now shows

But this won''t make any difference with automated eBay requiring refund or delivery before 12/17/20.

 

[Anonymous]

Where does the eBay tracking information come from?

When I check the tracking on the USPS website it does not show the same information.

In this case eBay is showing that package was "Mis-shipped" and now shows the research case created.

USPS tracking # 9405508205497638141256

[dbfolks166mt]

There are serious problems with the interface between eBay and USPS. The information is often out of sync and totally different. Worse case I had was eBay still showing USPS awaiting item while the USPS tracking information showed delivered. This is causing a lot of headache's and one of the reasons, amongst others, that I am not currently listing any items. 

[selsa84]

What i usually do in this situation is open a case with usps and many times itll get that package moving the next day.

[Anonymous]

 I did (already) open a case with USPS.  You can see the open case listed in the tracking above.

Shouldn't eBay extend the deadline for the refund (before 12/17/20) ?

If they don't extend deadline , and I send refund as required.  The package is still out there somewhere and if USPS does get it delivered eBay will not assist the seller any further in dealing with this buyer.  Waiting for USPS to further process is THE problem. And no matter the outcome the seller is just left hanging by eBay

[Anonymous]

Was hoping for a little more feedback from the community on this.

1  Shouldn't eBay extend the deadline for the refund (before 12/17/20) ?

2 Why do the tracking details on eBay site differ from USPS site ?

3 If they don't extend deadline , and I send refund as required. What/Where is the "seller protection" when seller does everything right (except using USPS).

4 Then  when USPS does deliver after refund.  Buyer has already left negative feedback and seller is "on his own" to invoice this unhappy customer thru a 3rd party service (PayPal).