Can't ship item to buyer

[makingcustomershappy]

I had a hot heater bust and it flooded some of my items, one of the items, I was suppose to ship but had to inform customer of problem.  It's been 2 days now and the item is showing overdue for shipping and I haven't heard back from buyer yet. So what do you do in a situation like this? I would appreciate any help.

[pburn]

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@makingcustomershappy wrote:

I had a hot heater bust and it flooded some of my items, one of the items, I was suppose to ship but had to inform customer of problem.  It's been 2 days now and the item is showing overdue for shipping and I haven't heard back from buyer yet. So what do you do in a situation like this? I would appreciate any help.

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Is the item ruined? Or will you be able to ship it at some point?

If it's ruined, what is it you're expecting to hear from the buyer? You'll just have to cancel the transaction. You will be dinged for it, but sometimes things happen that are beyond our control.

If the item is not ruined and you intend to ship it at some point, I'm still not sure what you expect the buyer to say. Just ship it ASAP--with tracking--and hope for the best. Even if the buyer files an INR, the tracking will show that the item is on its way to its destination.

Either way, you'll have to suffer the consequences for the situation. Bite the bullet and move on.

P.S. Sorry about your hot water heater. It's happened to me before. Not fun.

[mudshark61369]

@makingcustomershappy,

Because of the 4th of July holiday many go on vacation for the week, and that may be why no response from the buyer.  However, as pburn said the decision of whether or not to ship is on you at this point.  If you feel the item is too damaged then canceling the transaction is pretty much your only option.  You also might send a photo of the item showing the damage so the buyer doesn't think you are backing for some other reason. 

[crystal-bear]

This has happed to us.

This is what we did.

We shipped the item.

The next day we emailed the buyer explaining what happened with a full refund.

The buyer said thank you, and we got 5 stars.

Yes we lost money, but it was our problem, not our buyers.

Most buyers on ebay have  heard it all.

Hope this helps.

[makingcustomershappy]

Thank you guys for replying and helping out.  The customer messaged me the same day I reached out for help.  They were very understanding, with no problem with situation.

The reason I wanted to touch base with the customer first, is because I wanted them to know what was going on before taking any action.  I was hoping they would reply back, and in this case they did. This is just my way of handling things, right or wrong, for me, it felt right to wait for customer to reply (in reasonable about of time, of course).  I was asking for help, in case I didn't hear back after a few days, I wanted to know what to do in the case of.  I imagine we all have certain ways of handling some things with our customers. 

Thanks again everyone, it's so nice to have you guys to help out.  Everytime I visit the community, I always get great help. Take Care