I buy a lot from high and low volume Chinese and Indian sellers. Last October, for some unknown reason, shipments were delayed from China.....quite a lot. Instead of the usual 2 weeks, some items didn't arrive until January. It wasn't just me that had the delays, there were posts about it on the buyers forum.
Well after the then 45 day cut off with PayPal, I contacted my sellers and told them that my items hadn't arrived. I pointed out that I wasn't asking for a refund, it was just a courtesy message to let them know. ALL of them asked me to wait another week and if the items didn't arrive, they would give me a full refund. They started arriving in dribs and drabs and the others on the buyers forum said theirs were arriving too, so I never did contact them for a refund (I wouldn't have anyway as it wasn't their fault the items got lost). In the end I got to send them all a message saying it was now too late to leave feedback, but everything had finally arrived.
These were all sellers I have bought from numerous times before and they all post within 24 hours of payment, so I know that everything had been posted, there was just a glitch in the system somewhere. I also know that if I had of asked for a refund, they would have had no problems whatsoever giving me one. I guess there's a reason why most of them have 100% feedback with 4.9 or higher DSR's.
From a sellers perspective, I can count on one hand the amount of "issues" I've had with buyers. One lady said the item arrived with a big crack in it and wanted to return it (no dispute opened, all done via messages). I said I had another one, I could send it to her or give her a refund. She opted for the refund and 3 days later the item arrived back here. There was no crack in it. Possibly she saw a light reflection which may have looked like a crack, or it wasn't what she thought it was, so was change of mind. Either way, it was a satisfactory outcome.
Another buyer sent me a message saying the items she bought weren't quartz, they were glass. I could only go on what I had bought them as, but had no reason to doubt her. I offered her a refund, including return postage (not original postage as she was happy with the other things she bought, which would have cost that postage anyway), or if she wanted to keep them, I'd give her a partial refund. She lived out of town, so I sent her a partial refund. No dispute opened, all done via eBay messaging.
A few times I've had buyers from Victoria send me a message saying their (untracked) item hasn't arrived yet. As I know that mail to Victoria from rural NSW has been taking up to 3 weeks to arrive, I ask them to wait another week and if it still hasn't arrived, I will give them a refund. All but one replied within a couple of days saying they had arrived. The last one never replied, but I have assumed it arrived because I never heard back, there was no dispute opened and she never left any feedback. All those were done via messages, no disputes opened.
Yesterday morning I got home from work at 3.30am. At 4am I had a buyer send a message enquiring about some items. I replied straight away. A lot of people would have said no, I'm not replying to messages at 4am, but I was awake, I figured why not! As a small seller, I would class that as good service. Others may disagree though.
