How long to wait before refunding?

[nriddle9]

Recently sold a very high-ticket item ($1600). It was an expected delivery of January 26. Tracking now says, "Your package will arrive later than expected, but is still on its way. It is currently in transit to the next facility."

Buyer contacted me yesterday, the 26th, telling me to call the post office to find out where it is, and is already insisting that it's probably been lost and talking about refunds. I don't feel like I should refund him when it is only a day late.

Searching that term, it seems like some people eventually got the packages that said this. A $1600 item is quite an expensive item to give someone totally for free - if it was, say, $100, I'd just refund them now, cut my losses and be done with it, but I can't bring myself to just hand over more than a grand a half for it to show up in a week.

How long is a reasonable amount of time to hold on before refunding a buyer?

[sam9876]

Why are you thinking about giving a refund?

[juststuffisell]

Wait....As long as is necessary. Don't issue a refund. Either the buyer will receive the item or the item will need to be returned. If you insured it for 1600 it is probably shipping registered special handling and must be signed for at each location it arrives at. Every postal employee that handles it must be logged and thus, it takes additional time to process relative to what ebay says should be the delivery time. 

Regardless, if the buyer is concerned about delivery, you as the seller need to figure out how to sooth their concerns and explain to them the issues with shipping very expensive items. Even if you have to make up some little white lies about handling. Without the full details of how you shipped it etc. it is really difficult to say why there might be delays. I just know shipping registered mail, even when priority mail is select, can take a ton of time because of the handling protocol used. 

Worst case, if you are concerned about the buyer, you can pay to have the package intercepted and returned to you. The more impatient the buyer is, the higher the risk this may end up being a return 😞

Or....they could just be so excited to get the item, they have lost patience but once they have it will be very happy. 

I know I have purchased so may higher cost items, the 7 to 10 days for the stuff to get here doesn't bother me nearly as much as it used to when I first started buying higher ticket items.

Cheers

[automotivepartsrecyclrs]

We had 2 go AWOL. Both buyers wanted a refund. One even opened a return even with item in transit. We accepted the return REAL fast. We opened cases for both with USPS. Turns out they had a truck breakdown or something which caused a 14 plus day delay.

Stayed on top of both items 3 to 4 times a day. Both finally were delivered. Spoke to both buyers post masters who had their package in hand letting us know nothing wrong with either and it was just breakdowns on their end.

What did we get from each buyer.......1 neutral for non standard packaging ( Same packaging used past 4 years) and the other decided to use some choice words which I informed him that the next vulgar language and he could be talking to a minor since we do have high schoolers in the office for class projects from time to time.

Same type of issue on the other site "BIG A" what happened??? Buyer contacted us we informed them what was going on and even included their contact info in each case. What did we get in return: 1 BIG THANKS for Bending over backwards.............

You can do a missing mail search on USPS and also have the item returned to you at no additional charge since it is AWOL........

Since USPS is not a employee we will be using the package return to us in the future unless the buyer(s) are understanding. Getting brow beat and or cussed at for something beyond a sellers control is uncalled for!!!

[sam9876]

Smart sellers don't use Registered service.

[cream_couture]

That message has been very common with the post office lately. I think it will deliver. Go to the USPS website and sign up for email updates. That seems to move things along for me.