Item sent - lost for while- money back-arrived after- no response from buyer after

[karcer]

I sold a sent some stuff on eBay and because COVID it took a very long time and the buyer didn't get the parcel for more than a month. It looked it lost and I sent him the money back. After a week I got an email from the delivery company he got the parcel but he doesn't answer now. What can I do now? Can I dispute somewhere? I don't see any option on eBay how to dispute my case. Thank you for your answers!

[kopenhagen5]

No, you only have the honesty of the buyer to rely on.

Hope it wasn't much but it's a lesson learnt.

You should have asked the buyer to be patient and then waited for a case to be opened which would have given more time as eBay is closing cases much later due to Covid-19. Then buyer would have closed the case without you having to refund or it would have timed out if no response from the buyer.

[karcer]

Huh.. It was $380 AUD

Spoiler

I hope I found a solution. I unclicked Item Paid and a new window appeared: Open Unpaid item case..    What do you think? It should work..

[*tippy*toes*]

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@karcer wrote:

Huh.. It was $380 AUD

Spoiler

I hope I found a solution. I unclicked Item Paid and a new window appeared: Open Unpaid item case..    What do you think? It should work..

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I don't think that will work, but you could certainly try. Reason I don't think it will work is that the system knows the item was paid for. If you were able to untick item paid and then open a dispute, everyone would be doing it to avoid paying fees. Please let us know if it does work though.

[karcer]

Unfortunately, it doesn't work...

Any chance to contact eBay and show them that buyer got the parcel? Or they don't have care after?

[kopenhagen5]

You can contact eBay but they have no way of getting the money back from the buyer.

As I said, a refund should have been the very last thing you did considering the delays in post at present.

You could have contacted PayPal to reverse a case if the buyer had opened one as PP are often keen to chase fraudulent claims.

[tazzieterror]

You've really painted yourself into a corner unfortunately.

Rather than assuming something is lost, you should contact the post office/courier company, and ask them to investigate the status of the item. If they were to offically declare the item lost, only then would you refund your customer, and seek compensation from the carrier (you should be insuring something of that value).

Because you've refunded without establishing that the item was actually missing, you're at the mercy of the buyer, and it sounds like they're not feeling merciful.

eBay won't do anything (you can try jumping onto eBay chat support to ask their advice, but they'll just tell you to contact the buyer and negotiate with them), so your only hope is to appeal to the buyer's conscience, or try some bluff.  I'd take a look at the buyer's feedback profile, look at how long their account has been registered, the sorts of things they've purchased, and see what you might be able to determine about them from that.

The other thing you can try is finding them on social media, and "accidentally" posting a public request for them to either return the received items, or make payment again. The "right" kind of person might respond to a bit of public shaming in front of their peers & family, but you'd want to be really careful with your wording

[karcer]

Hi

I got this answer from buyer:

Hello again, I picked up monocular on Friday, and it’s absolutely wonderful ! However I can’t seem to confirm that I received a refund. It should have gone to a credit card ending in 1700. Messages from eBay indicate it went to my PayPal account, I don’t have PayPal account. I’m searching for answers from my end. I don’t know if I owe you repeat payment or not. Can you provide info? I’m certain all will end well. Thanks again, Pat

I can see my money was refunded on his PayPal email address but he is telling me he doesn't have PayPal account. Is possible to buy and sell on eBay without Paypal account? Thank you guys!

[padi*0409]

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@karcer wrote:

I can see my money was refunded on his PayPal email address but he is telling me he doesn't have PayPal account. Is possible to buy and sell on eBay without Paypal account? Thank you guys!

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If they've paid through a credit card it will have gone through Paypal as a "guest account" refunds back to the buyer first go to Paypal and then to the buyer's credit card account but it can take a few business days to finalise.

To add, take a screenshot of the Paypal details and send it to the buyer.

[dontmissthese]

Did you simply 'send money' or refund through ebay ?