Buyer Refund on item not received even though Tracking Uploaded showing sent

[Anonymous]

Suggestions please.

I sent an item to a customer via fastway - who have on forwarded.

Tracking was uploaded straight away to order and shows I sent the item and it was forwarded

On the 10th of December customer put through request for item not received.

I contacted Fastway who advised me they chased up the forwarder.

Fastway don't update tracking once forwarded.

I messaged buyer saying I'd followed up with Fastway.

On the 14th I messaged again via the open request and asked if they had received. 

No reply

Today buyer escalated to Ebay customer service even though they never bothered to reply to my message

I again contacted Fastway who haven't yet got back to me (only contacted them this afternoon)

Tonight received a message from Ebay saying they issued refund as no tracking was uploaded and not to ask for appeal unless tracking shows this item delivered.

No time was allowed for Fastway to even reply to this issue.

Tracking shows I Despatched.

Most likely will be a case of buyer gets item and refund?

I have emailed Fastway asking them not deliver once they find this item and messaged the buyer advising as they have no longer paid to not accept delivery.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Green Ant Toys

[*tippy*toes*]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Suggestions please.

I sent an item to a customer via fastway - who have on forwarded.

Tracking was uploaded straight away to order and shows I sent the item and it was forwarded

On the 10th of December customer put through request for item not received.

I contacted Fastway who advised me they chased up the forwarder.

Fastway don't update tracking once forwarded.

I messaged buyer saying I'd followed up with Fastway.

On the 14th I messaged again via the open request and asked if they had received. 

No reply

Today buyer escalated to Ebay customer service even though they never bothered to reply to my message

I again contacted Fastway who haven't yet got back to me (only contacted them this afternoon)

Tonight received a message from Ebay saying they issued refund as no tracking was uploaded and not to ask for appeal unless tracking shows this item delivered.

No time was allowed for Fastway to even reply to this issue.

Tracking shows I Despatched.

Most likely will be a case of buyer gets item and refund?

I have emailed Fastway asking them not deliver once they find this item and messaged the buyer advising as they have no longer paid to not accept delivery.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Green Ant Toys

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Yeah, ditch Fastaway. I've only heard bad things about them.

As far as the dispute, you've done just about all you can do for now. You just have to hope that if it is delivered, the buyer is honest enough not to accept it, let alone keep it. Keep an eye on the tracking in case it does update.

Did you try calling Fastaway or just email? Often calling is better because you've got someone there, they're not going to file it to the too hard basket.

[designers*n*more]

So much for eBay and their investigation into disputes! The minute eBay is asked to "step in and help - BAM - dispute closes in favour of buyer.

Message reply from eBay

We want to make sure that the item will be returned back to the seller before issuing any refund as eBay doesn't see or handle items, so it's difficult for us to determine the exact condition of the item when it was sent or received. For this reason, we've concluded that the best course of action is for the buyer to send the item back to you for a full refund. We believe this is the fairest outcome--the customer will receive a refund and you'll be able to relist the item after you receive it.

With our new return process if the seller failed to facilitate return, we will still ask the buyer to send the item back and we will be covering the return postage cost.  - This is carp, if a buy requests eBay to step they get refunded and get to keep the item. At no point do they contact the seller to see if the item has been returned back - this is what happened with a buyers claim, got refunded and eBay told them there is no need to return the item, despite me asking how long I have to wait to get my item back, at this point eBay closed the case in favour of the buyer without the need to return.

Total BS and judging by the number of sellers who get shafted it's only going to get worse!

[*tippy*toes*]

I also should have added in my reply that with the eBay MBG, the tracking actually has to show delivered (despite what the law is in the country). If they;d opened the dispute through PayPal, then you'd only need to show proof of postage.

If you do find out the buyer has it and they have also got the refund, send them a polite email stating that they have to pay for the item or you will be involving the police as they have items in their possession that don't belong to them. That might be enough to get them to cough up.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Seems to be a common issue here on Ebay these days.

In relation to ditching Fastway though, all carriers have problems at this time of year, at least Fastway reply to queries and deal with most issues quickly, which is more than you get from some freight services.

[Anonymous]

If tracking has to show delivered, otherwise Ebay will refund - then how long is reasonable to give a shipping company time to locate and deliver? I was notified this morning that the item still hadn't arrived and the refund issued tonight. Despite me asking the buyer a week ago whether it had been recieved yet or not, and receiving no response.  Crazy.

[heihachi_73]

Don't always assume the buyer did receive it - I've had many tracked items go missing or not turn up at this address but listed as "Delivered", including on days where no-one has been to deliver anything at all (I can see the letter box from the window). It's all too easy for a rogue postie/contractor/courier to scan the item as delivered and put it aside for themselves, especially if the item itself is shown on the parcel itself and may be of some value. I must have lost at least a dozen items which have been apparently "delivered", despite me being a few feet from the letter box and the dog barking its head off whenever someone parks outside the house. There are two noticeable sounds which get the dog excited these days, one is the Honda postie bike engine (and the bike's squeaky brakes), the other is the beep from the parcel scanner.

When I bought an NES game from the US last year it clearly had "MEGA MAN 6" printed on the parcel in the item description box; anyone could have taken it, knowing how much the games from that series are worth! Luckily I had honest people working when that went through the mail. Need I say it was sent via USPS without tracking too?

[lyndal1838]

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@Anonymous wrote:

In relation to ditching Fastway though, all carriers have problems at this time of year, at least Fastway reply to queries and deal with most issues quickly, which is more than you get from some freight services.

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That is a rather generalised assumption.  Not all courier companies have issues at this time of the year.

I have had 20+ years of experience in the courier industry and until last week I would definitely say Fastway had the reputation of being the worst company bar none.  And not just at Christmas,

In the last couple of weeks a new company took over the title of worst in the industry so it remains to be seen if Fastway can keep up their improved record.

[Anonymous]

That's true, however in this case buyer was still pushing courier for delivery and didn't give us time to ascertain whether item was missing or not before escalating for refund -in fact was still on the phone to courier asking for delivery after escalating for Ebay to refund.  I have no problem refunding if it's gone missing, but do have a problem refunding while a query is still in progress.

[lyndal1838]

I have to agree with you there.....but it is not the courier's fault that ebay have jumped the gun.

I think you need to get on the phone and appeal to ebay on the grounds that the courier is still investigating.  The whole MBG is very much on the nose IMO.