INR case

[jellybirddesigns]

At the beginning of April, I had to a sale to the USA.

I did message the buyer that items from Australia took at least 2-3 weeks and probably more because of the pandemic.

Of course, he has just opened an INR case without contacting me.

Checking his feedback shows a number of negatives left for non receipt of items (very unlucky buyer!)

Item does not have tracking as it is was not particularly high value (approx $25 plus shipping)

What is the best way to handle this?

I need to respond to the case in the next few days.

I have not had an INR case in years and it's annoying that this buyer is taking advantage of both myself and the pandemic to get a free item.

I have stopped international shipping since Aus Post has issued new guidelines a few weeks ago.

[curraone]

Because you have no tracking, the probable best way is to refund the buyer, block the buyer, and move on.    It's hard, but from all the other posts about the same thing, the seller always loses if there is no tracking. 

[jellybirddesigns]

Yeah, I know that he'll more than likely get a refund. I was just hoping that there would be some small protection from Ebay considering the pandemic ie: a weeks delay in which a buyer can open a case to take slower freight into account.

I have already blocked him and will wait until the last possible moment to refund him.

Some buyers are so unkind.

[digital*ghost]

eBay's protections for the buyer are in regards to the money, and for sellers are just focused on the service metrics aspect (i.e. ebay won't protect your funds from their policies during this time, but they may protect you from receiving late shipments, remove negative feedback, stuff like that). 

They did say they would be adding additional time to ETAs which should have in turn increased the time before a buyer can open a case, but I don't know if this has been extended to international deliveries, and if it has, when that came into place, nor how long the extensions are. 

[curraone]

As a side note, I see Australia Post are now sending mail to Canada only by Sea Mail.     And Canada have suspended all postal services to Australia.

[kopenhagen5]

I have an INR case open from a buyer in US.

I explained items are taking around 4-5 weeks to arrive. (from USA to Aus anyway)

He said no problem he will wait.

So I sent a reply in the case and now it is awaiting buyer's response.

If a buyer forgets it can time out, hopefully, as I am sure the item will arrive.

So perhaps make sure you are the last to respond in the case and it will be waiting for buyer's response. 

[curraone]

And I had an email query from a US buyer - not a dispute - and I told him to allow 8 weeks, and he said he would wait.   It all depends on the buyer's attitude, some people are very understanding.

[gutterpunkz05]

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@jellybirddesigns wrote:

Yeah, I know that he'll more than likely get a refund. I was just hoping that there would be some small protection from Ebay considering the pandemic ie: a weeks delay in which a buyer can open a case to take slower freight into account.

I have already blocked him and will wait until the last possible moment to refund him.

Some buyers are so unkind.

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He will certainly be refunded, one way or another,  unfortunately it would appear your buyer may be well aware that any item sent without tracking is virtually free.

Not everyone plays fair.