Ebay closed a case incorrectly in buyers favour when I did everything correctly as a seller

[giftsnbargainsoz]

Hi Guys, Has anyone experienced this sort of behaviour from ebay. I have a case going on and its not getting resolved as ebay is just passing the buck around and passing me from department to department. I sold an item and posted it via Fedex to Argentina (while buyer only paid Australia post shipping!). The item got stuck in their customs due to Argentina's strict and often corrupt customs. My tracking shows clearly item landed in their country and its awaiting customs clearance and is available to customer . But ebay just took funds from my managed payments and gave it back without my knowledge to the customer. I only came to know 4 mnths later when reconciling my account. Still trying to get my funds back and really upset about how they have done this. Has this happened to you?

[gutterpunkz05]

I don't know how you could only know about this matter 4 months later, you should have received at least 4 ebay messages at the time.

1.  Case Opened

2.  Funds on hold

3.  Case closed in buyers favor

4.  Refund issued

[padi*0409]

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@giftsnbargainsoz wrote:

 I sold an item and posted it via Fedex to Argentina (while buyer only paid Australia post shipping!).

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I'm curious as to how that happened. Did the buyer give you a different address to send to after the sale?

If they did and didn't change the address in checkout then technically eBay wouldn't cover you under the seller's protection anyway. As GP has said how could you miss all the emails from eBay regarding the case?

[jellybirddesigns]

There definitely would have been communication from Ebay if the buyer had opened a case and you would have had an opportunity to re-enter the tracking into the case details.

Because you didn't respond to the case within the set 4 day period it was closed in the buyers favour.

When the buyer checked out, was the initial address within Australia and did they ask you SEPARATELY to send it to Argentina, or was the initial address to Argentina? If you agreed to send the item at your expense to a different destination, that's on you, and you will not be covered.

Having said all that, South America is never a place I will send anything to, as well as areas such as Southern Europe, and most of the Middle East. There's too many problems in those places with items going "missing" and postal delays.

All you can do is write it off as a loss in your taxes.

[digital*ghost]

I'm going to take a slightly different tact and suggest if you only noticed the deficit when reconciling your accounts, it might be beneficial to assess whether it's worth investing the time in fighting eBay to get the money back; more particularly because appeals are meant to be lodged within 30 days of an eBay decision - this is their policy so they are likely to abide by it, I do not know if it is legally enforceable but there's really only one way to find that out, and that wouldn't be cheap, I imagine. 

I understand the principle at stake, so I'm not trying to convince you to abandon the notion or  suggesting you wouldn't be within your rights to  continue trying to fight eBay customer service over it (and if you choose to continue doing that, from the info posted I would wish you eventual success), but at the same time sometimes you have to weigh up whether it's worth the cost to be proven right. 

(@padi, I'm pretty sure the OP means the buyer paid for international shipping via Aus Post, but the seller voluntarily upgraded to Fedex, which would have been more expensive but likely for a faster delivery time). 

[giftsnbargainsoz]

I was following the case and added all the proof into the case as and when Fedex updated the details. But they did a sneaky thing. Because the funds were sitting in their account (ebay managed payments) they did not inform me that they would refund the buyer from those funds, so I didn't even notice that they had done this because it was not drawn from my bank account. The other thing is I did not get any email that the case was closed stating the reason: you agreed to give the buyer a refund and you didn't. This is a lie. Whoever closed the case was obviously siding with the buyer and using any reason to just close the case off. I can't understand how he / she managed to ensure I didn't get notified. I have appealed the decision to close this case without actual facts. At the worst case scenario I would need to bring this to the ACCC or complain to ebay management (by letter to USA), very time consuming. Very tired of ebay really and looking to diversify platforms so I can be less and less dependent on ebay for an income.

[giftsnbargainsoz]

I replied and documented everything on the case....there is heaps of details of tracking, Fedex responses -- everything mate. It even shows that it is stuck in their customs. But Fedex acknoweldged that there was a wording which shows "in transit" but only when you expand the tracking can you see the full status of it being in customs, this was also explained numerous times to ebay customer service and also put in the case information. I just don't get it, how could they do this.

[giftsnbargainsoz]

No it was sent to the correct destination address of the customer in Argentina...it just got stuck in their customs and the customs asked the customer to get it cleared through a non fedex broker and they asked for something called "proof of origin" to them. I was not asked to give this to Fedex at the time I did the paperwork. However all this has nothing to do with me the seller, its the buyers responsibility once it lands in their country. Looks Argentina is one of those countries you should never ship anything to. Not only is corrupt, even the customers try to cheat sellers somehow, its not worth me ever shipping. Now the customer got the money back when its not the sellers fault.

[jellybirddesigns]

Sorry to hear that it didn't get resolved.

Definitely limit the countries you sell to and exclude South America, Southern Europe, Eastern Europe etc. I won't even send to Canada! 

Honestly, so many of these countries are just not worth the aggravation. Of course, other sellers experiences may vary, but after selling online since 2002, I'd rather have a smaller pool of locations that are more reliable (in my opinion) than sell worldwide. You can have a look at my postage locations - I've only got about a dozen countries on it.

[sugar249]

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@giftsnbargainsoz wrote:

 But they did a sneaky thing. Because the funds were sitting in their account (ebay managed payments) they did not inform me that they would refund the buyer from those funds, so I didn't even notice that they had done this because it was not drawn from my bank account.

Ok so many troubling things in your story.

Above you say that they did a sneaky thing and took the money from the managed payments account and not your bank account.   This is not sneaky, this is how the process works, if there are any funds required to repay, claim fee's or anything else it comes from you managed payments account first,  they only draw on your bank account if there are insufficient funds.   Not sneaky and bought to your attention when you sign up,  but lets call it sneaky because it is now sneaky Friday.

You say it took you 4 months to notice the refund.   My first thought is sack your book keeper, or pay them more.   Or if you are the book keeper,  hire one.

You state that Argentine customs are corrupt,  is this just to inflate your argument that it is not your fault, and that someone at eBay orchestrated it so you weren't notified of the refund.   Do you really think someone is going to stop an email being sent to hide a couple of dollar refund.  I call BS

Not sure what substance you would have to provide to the ACCC,  but hey it makes it sounds important