ebay refunding $405 for an item still in transit

[retro-boho-and-co]

Hi, I am hoping someone can help me! This is completely crazy!!

I sold an item (in Australia) listed with air mail delivery but with sea mail as a delivery option in the description.

Buyer (in USA) chose sea mail delivery. This takes 8-12 weeks. Item lodged March 17.

Item is due for delivery May 18-June 18. Buyer was informed of this. Buyer questioned where  the item was in early April and I again explained estimated arrival date is May 18-June 18 and that sea mail takes between 2 to 3 months.

In mid April buyer opened a dispute item was not received. I again explained the item is not due until mid May at the earliest. Buyer indicated they were happy to wait until June 18.

However, buyer did not close the case. I escalated the case to have it closed. Instead, ebay closed it with a refund to the buyer as the item had not been received. This is despite me saying it was not scheduled to arrive yet. Tracking shows the item was lodged on 17 March and on 20th March was loaded at the dock.

Ebay has said - there is no update in tracking (there are no updates in tracking while the itme is in the boat), item has not been received, my appeal was rejected and they will not reopen the case.

So $405 was refunded to the buyer, who will recieve the item in the next week to month.

Ebay has said to ask Australia Post to return the item (this isn't possible) or to email the buyer and request payment. I have emailed buyer with no response.

Surely this is not the only way to resolve this, I can't believe that despite multiple phone calls and emails stating delivery schedule and  date, that ebay has refunded the buyer.

Please help! I was selling things to pay for my kids birthday and I don't want to cancel it. It's incredibly stressful dealing with ebay help as they seem unable to actually use common sense and it appears once a case is closed there in no method to re-open it.

I would not mind if it was less  than $100. This is $405!

[lornnic]

I had exactly the same problem back about 5 years ago with a buyer who ASKED me to use sea mail, then opened a case on me. Same result - ebay didn't care at all, just removed the money from my account. I am also in Australia and the customer was in USA. In the end (because the case remained open) I could get the money refunded when I could show that the item was "delivered" on the tracking status. This whole situation was completely crazy - I had written messages stating the buyer wanted sea mail and me telling them how long it could take. But eBay does whatever eBay wants to do and always favors the buyer. Even though the seller no longer has the item (it is in transit) and also does not have the money. In my case it was a few thousand dollars too so it hurt!

And again this has just happened to me in 2021.... I sent a parcel to USA, then Australia Post sent it back to me because it was overweight - I stated 4.7kg but it was measured a whopping 149 grams heavier. So when the buyer sees "delivered" pop up (actually delivered back to me) he opens a case. I explained what happened and that the item has been resent - Australia post in THEIR almighty wisdom uses the same tracking number again, so the buyer leaves the case open. I asked them to close but the smart **bleep** says he "will close the case when he gets the item". Like I am suddenly all untrustworthy because I made a simple mistake using bathroom scales instead of the ones I keep in my meth lab....

So now I am waiting on another $1300 that I may or may not get depending how the customer feels on the day his item arrives. I suppose we ARE at fault - after all we are a country that came from criminals...why should anyone trust us? Why should ebay trust me when they just made about $130 off me being a seller?