Item claimed as delivered

[emailfro_22]

Hello All,

I placed an order for an item worth hundreds of dollars through eBay. After 3 days I received an email stating that the item was delivered. On inspecting the door and the mail area the item was not there.

- Neither I nor anyone from my family accepted the parcel. 

- My suburb is in covid-19 lock-down, we are not allowed to go out. There is no way to miss the parcel, we are at home full time.

- I have thoroughly checked the mailbox area, near the door, safe hiding area, in a bin, or the porch area.

The Australia Post tracking shows that the item was delivered on July 1st.

After a long follow-up with the seller, I asked eBay to step in. eBay closed the case with the Australia Post tracking details stating that the item was indeed delivered. I appealed again to eBay and now I have been asked to do the following:

- Contact Australia Post and investigate

- Contact the payment provider (my bank) so that I can claim a refund. 

I paid eBay and expected an item for the last 23 days.

Overall, it is pretty disappointing that I made my kids wait during this covid-19 lockdown period for online order through eBay where we did not get the game console nor did we receive the money. 

Any thoughts? What are your thoughts about my rights on this issue? 

[emailfro_22]

I contacted eBay chat again today and finally got a message that it would be refunded:

Please allow me to share that I've sent a manual refund request to our dedicated team and have also shared all the information with them. Once the refunds get processed you'll receive it to your account within the next 5-7 business days. Hence you're not required to worry further.

I don't know why they are that adamant and opposed to re-opening the case even when all investigation/proof presented is in favor of it and shows that the seller did something inappropriate. Not sure, what a manual refund means, I'll wait for the next few days to see if the amount comes back!

Thank you once again.

[emailfro_22]

It meant that it was sent to someone else.

[emailfro_22]

Today, I reopened the order id on eBay, surprise, surprise there are two tracking numbers from Australia Post! I don't know when the second tracking number showed up in my order and how come eBay never looked at it.

I guess that pretty much answers what was going on in the background. How come eBay was not able to spot all this in the last 3 weeks of back and forth communication with them.

[emailfro_22]

I did not believe it was a scam, I'm trying to be positive 😊 until today I saw those two tracking numbers from Australia post linked to the order id. Could not believe my eyes when I saw that, how come eBay support in the last 3 weeks could overlook such an important issue.

[sandypebbles]

Please still be aware a tracking number does not mean it will be what you actually bought

Sorry, I don't mean to be a downer but there have been a LOT of cases where a buyer has bought a Nintendo Switch/ PS5/ similar items  and have been sent something like a toothbrush or a piece of cardboard (seriously, there was one just a week or so ago that was posted about)

I really do hope this will be one of the times where what is bought is what is sent

[papermoon.lady]

Does the second tracking number show the item is still on the way to you?

[emailfro_22]

It shows as delivered.

[countessalmirena]

Manual refund request means that it's not automatically handled by a bot-driven programme.

It's a request handed over by an eBay CS rep to the eBay dept that provides refunds.

eBay's return/refund system is almost entirely bot-driven. There is certainly no human overlooking the process in each case to ensure that it is fair and has considered specific impacting factors in a particular case. To successfully get a refund through that process, everything must be complied with and provided by the buyer in exactly the way that eBay's bot system has been written to receive the necessary information. There is a rigid timeframe with which to comply, and specific conditions need to be met. That's why the case couldn't - strictly speaking - be re-opened.

When one asks to have a case re-opened with information such as you have about the delivery address on the parcel NOT being your address, information that you received only because you contacted AP and AP were able to inform you in writing that this was the case, the result is really that the eBay CS rep realises that the threshold of proof is reached, promises you the refund, and passes on that to the "dedicated team" with the appropriate authority to override the automatic decision and issue you the refund. Practically speaking, it's like having the case re-opened and immediately found in your favour.

[emailfro_22]

I finally got the refund on Aug 30 after several calls with eBay. I became tired of email and chat support and hence found that there was an option to request a callback and eBay reps did callback as per the shown estimated time.

I struggled for a whole month of August with these issues:

> Manual refund team requested proof from Australia Post once again, this time asking my address to be in the seen in my communication with them. This way they wanted to ensure that my address matched on both sides (Australia Post and eBay). How come eBay does not work with the delivery partners! They expect us to do the follow-up and investigation. Not acceptable!

> You cannot email the manual refund team or talk to them, the eBay reps (level 2 or escalation team) will look at some updates from them and convey that to you.

> I had to send the proof from Australia post tracking information to eBay by email, then had to talk with eBay reps as they couldn't see it. However, I can see it under My Messages in eBay website 🤔

> Every time on-call I was told that my money will be refunded after 5 - 7 business days. Nothing happened 3 times straight until the fourth time I saw the refund!

> The manual refund team when they need information they do not follow by sending an email. The first or second-level reps do not follow up as well. This is a process lapse, every time I had to call up once the 5 - 7 business days have elapsed.

> The eBay reps every time took solid 45 mins - 1 hour even to just understand what's going on. They placed me on hold several times and then transferred me to the escalations team. Then the escalations team placed me on hold to know what's going on. 

Looks like there are serious process flaws/gaps in eBay's manual refund process. I placed an order on Jun 27 and followed up with eBay for 2 continuous months spending countless hours of time on email, chat, and voice support to get my refund. 

I thank God, there are two things that were always helpful throughout when I was wandering not knowing what to do next, this Community and Australia Post. I want to especially thank @countessalmirena for the great assistance and direction 🙏

This sour journey has left an indelible mark and sometimes I wondered if was worth getting the refund as I wasted so much time, effort and was under stress to get out of this in my favor as it is my hard-earned money.

[countessalmirena]

I’m so glad that you’ve finally been refunded.

A sceptical person would suggest that the process of appeal or manual override for refunds is made deliberately difficult so as to exhaust appealers into giving up in frustration. I will only say that if you persist, with the right evidence, you do get the outcome of the refund to which you’re entitled.