item not received by buyer

[kellogkeeling10]

A buyer has told me their item has not arrived. It should have been there by the 6th July.

The item was only 2.50 but  heavy, the postage was 8.99, will I have to refund the postage as well as the 2.50, even though I have paid it to the post office

Thanks

[orangehound]

If the item is not delivered to the customer by the due date, then you are liable to refund the full amount to the buyer:  postage paid plus item cost.

If the buyer just filed the INR request, here is what I would do:

1. Apologize to the customer, telling them that you'll contact the USPS and find out what happened to the package.   You might also mention that there are a lot of delays in the USPS system due to COVID, but you'll do your best to find the package and shake it loose.
2. Log into USPS and file a missing package report with your account (or create one).   I've found that this sometimes shakes the package loose in about 48-72 hours
3. If the tracking shows the package moving again, contact your buyer with the update; and give them a new expected delivery date.

[william101william]

Check the tracking at your local po they can look for the package in the system ask your buyer to wait wile the po looks for it and yes sadly if it is lost you must refund 100% including shipping but the po might refund you the shipping they have done it in the past for me .. ps never sell anything that cheep with that high shipping cost *Returns Suck* 

[luxgoods]

Fantastic Advice clearly bullet pointed and very concise.  Thanks for being a tremendous asset to this community.  

[stlbbrpm]

Check the tracking on the post office site and if no updates recently you can go to PO and ask them to check it. Mail is very sporadic I've had packages take 18, 29 and 30 days to get delivered.

[dptedora]

Unfortunately eBay is not helping sellers anymore. I have a buyer that has not received their items 1 box yet been 26 days tracking shows in transit. Last scan is in Portland where the buyer lives, we are in Pa. I have been back and forth with the buyer and Monday he asked eBay to step they refund him within minutes. I did the file a missing package report with the PO still nothing. I called eBay and wanted to know why they refunded my buyer for item not received when it is still in transit as tracking shows. Her response was they should not have refunded and kicked it up to the department that handles this. The next morning I got an email from them saying they denied my request. I never had this problem when an item was late as long as tracking show item was shipped and scanned somewhere.  Now I am out the money and items eBay does not care about seller anymore!!!!  Hey eBay Sellers have no control over the Post Office!!!

[foghat61]

This is going to become the new normal.  It's been reported in the media that the post office, in order to stop loosing money, has stopped authorizing overtime to their employees.  This has resulted in mail sitting throughout their system.  I don't see how this helps them, as now I can't tell a buyer when they should expect to receive their package.  I'll need to now use Fedex or UPS, which for me is inconvenient.