Buyer refund, item lost in mail

[hrprem]

After a buyer requesting a refund for not as described, and ebay saying don't bother referring it as we'll ask you to refund regardless, they have now forced me to refund the buyer when I haven't received the item! Auspost cannot trace it, but Hong Kong Post says the item was delivered on the 30th...and signed for! Has anyone else gotten scammed this way? The buyer seemed legit although very low feedback, I just thought he didn't look at the pictures properly and didn't know english very well. But now I'm worried as he has uploaded dodgy 'pdf' files from the supposed post office?

Any advice on how to get ebay to help would be great

[phorum_junkie*]

If the item was judged to be not as described then you would have had to provide the buyer with a shipping label for the return and then it would be up to you if you chose a service that gave on line tracking information. If ebay said the buyer had to return first with the buyer paying the shipping and it shows as delivered then it is most likely it has been lost/stolen somewhere along the delivery chain and that is not the buyer's fault. Unless it was a very expensive item I would write it off as trying to get it reversed would probably take you more time, energy and frustration than the item is worth.

There are a lot of countries I would not sell to when I used to sell overseas and China and HK were two of them.

[hrprem]

Thanks for the reply. One of the problems has been me being on ebay.au and the buyer going through the us site. I couldn't work out how to send a shipping label at all. It was sent registered via Hong Kong Post, which by all accounts is a bloody lottery! I understand the china/hong kong ban now fully. Worst case I'm out the item which sold for $650. Which is quite an expensive lesson for me! But if ebay let people refund no questions asked, then give them my money without any proof of the item being sent, I guess I'm done selling through here.

[designers*n*more]

That's a lot of money to write off. I would investigate further. Could be dodgy, the Asians overseas are experts at scamming. I would ring eBay, don't email them and ask for a supervisor, that is BS. Let us know the outcome! Hope it works out in your favour. Demand a copy of the so called consignment note and compare it with other genuine ones if you can find any online etc.

[saarzi]

Exactly the reason why I dont post to any part of Asia or Eastern Europe.

You might know the item hasnt turned up and the proof might be fake, but Ebay doesnt know that. All they see is a confirmed delivery slip. As far as they are concerned, you have the item and just dont want to refund.

Id approach Australia Post, and get the low down on how Items from Hong Kong are processed through the Aus Post system (if thats what was used).  Clearly, Aus Post would take the signature, and process it back to Hong Kong somehow to confirm delivery.   Its not like some guy from Hong Kong comes with the parcel to get your signature and it bypasses the Aussie system altogether.  To think that the signature is confirmed without going through the Aussie system, when the parcel is delivered by the Aussie system, is ridiculous.  

If you can prove that it hasnt been delivered, through a written statement from Aus Post, then it hasnt been delivered, and I dont see how Ebay can legally force a refund.

You might find someone nice at Aus Post who can get something like that for you, somehow.