eBay

kelly-sells · ‎09-28-2015

Hello, I have a feeling that a recent buyer is claiming that their item has not been received when it has or should be soon. See, I shipped their item the next business day, which was a Monday. They file their claim Friday through ebay. No contact through ebay whatsoever but they were explaining since they didn't get a tracking number they believe I will never ship the item. I have a decent number of seller feedback (around 40) total feedback is 71, and my AVG rating is 5 starts for everything. On that same Friday I kindly explained that 5 days in Canada Post lettermail from where my location is to theirs can take upwards of 1 1/2 weeks and should not be surprised if it takes a few more days to deliver. Fast forward Monday and they escalate the claim.

Without tracking proof, I know it's hard to determine whether or not the item was actually delivered. Will provide some sort of support considering this is my first item not received claim when I have good ratings?

femmefan1946 · ‎09-28-2015

Sometimes it depends on the product.

Your 'free coffee' cards*, I suspect, would tend to attract the kind of person who might think this was a good scam, because in his tiny mind, you are selling something you got free.

Pssssh.

Well, eBay will delay the claim until the item has a chance to be delivered. But if the ~~entitled scammer~~ buyer still claims non-delivery, your best move is to refund voluntarily asap, and write the transaction off as a business expense. Much as you may want to, punching a hole in the drywall won't help.

I hope the voluntary refund will help you avoid a defect.

The cost of refunding the payment is not what the ~~entitled scammer~~ buyer paid. It is actually your cost for the cards + your eBay fees (some of which may be refunded) + the cost of postage. Hope that soothes the pain.

Sometimes when we sell inexpensively procured items with minimal postal costs, the best move is to refund when the buyer asks, adding a note politely reminding him that when the item arrives, he can refund the refund using Paypal's Send Money service. YMMV.

*And what an imaginative product! Good on you!

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dmil8030 · ‎09-28-2015

Hello 'mcdonalds...',

<<Without tracking proof, I know it's hard to determine whether or not the item was actually delivered.>>

Without tracking proof, aka Delivery Confirmation, - it is impossible to whether or not the item was actually delivered.

As such, you will lose your case and the buyer will get refunded. I hope it was not expensive.

All that wonderful feedback and stars will not help you wriggle out of this.

If you mailed it Monday and the claim was opened Friday, - 5 days? Is that right?

That is way too soon for any reasonable person do open a claim. The buyer knows you cannot prove

it arrived and may well be hoping for a freebie. Or maybe the person simply has no patience whatsoever.

Your best hope is to send the buyer a message through the ebay message system and calmly and

sweetly try to ensure him it is in the mail and should be arriving very soon.

If the buyer is not receptive, you may as well kindly refund him because you will have to anyway.

You can also call ebay if you think the buyer is taking advantage of the system. Have you seen this:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/seller-protection.html#reporting

A dodgy buyer may have numerous complaints against him. If a claim for refund has been opened after

only 5 days, that seems a bit early. From the above link you will also see it clearly tells you:

"If you ship an item within your stated handling time and provide tracking information to the buyer before

you or the buyer asks us to step in and help with a request, you're protected."

In other words, without tracking, you're out of luck. Try to sweet-talk the buyer into waiting so he'll feel

bad attempting to cheat such a kind and terrific person such as yourself.

When all the dust has settled on this one, be sure to add the person to your list of blocked bidders:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/manage_bidders_ov.html#block

Good luck.