I am at my wits end with a transaction I had on May 11th, with a New Zealand customer, who outbid at last minute, when I only sell in North America right now.
The difficulties started with trying to get a label, Paypal would not work for New Zealand destination, and my own business account with Canada Post, only gave me one choice, surface shipping and I could get a tracking service with that. I warned the buyer that it would be expensive even if it was a small item. The cost was $30USD, and the total was $60.USD,
I also made sure the buyer knew New Zealand had airmail restrictions and surface by ship was the only way to go, the average delivery period was 2 to 3 months, in normal times. The parcel was mailed and tracked to our West coast province BC, and sat there for a few days, till it was reported in transit (by ship).
In the meantime the buyer kept emailing and telling me there was something wrong and felt he did not trust me, and why was it taking so long.?... I kept explaining over and over again. Till 6 weeks after shipment when he started a non receipt claim, I was outraged at his impatience. Long story short, he got his money back, tracking still says in transit, and Ebay says parcel is lost.
I appeal a week later, they refuse to change their decision in spite of tracking info being updated, still in transit. This was before 2 months were up. I decided to wait till the parcel arrived and it was documented as delivered on the tracking result on Aug 7th, and the buyer admitted by email he received my parcel that day and would refund me when he could next week....
Still waiting for the refund, called Paypal, they said in person on the phone, if buyer has the item and the payment, Ebay has to refund you. I call Ebay we are now on Aug12th, they take the appeal information by their chat messaging system, I write to 3 different agents, and they open another appeal for this situation, I was quite sure I would prevail, next day I get an email from customer service saying the appeal was denied because I exceeded their 30 day limit rule. I replied I wanted to speak with a supervisor or executive and told them it was unacceptable during this pandemic period to quote rules based on normal times.
Today I got Jake the supervisor who pretty much repeated the same message I already got. I am in a fury with this automatic pilot kind of service and wrote again to escalate further for someone senior to examine the detail of what happened, and there is no way the buyer should keep the money too.
I am writing all this here because I am curious if anybody else has ever gone this route, and should I talk to Paypal again?
Thank you.
