returns during holiday (away)

[jodwoo_5]

a seller i bought from recently, I had ordered an item for around 43$, and I had asked for a return upon receiving. the seller is super close by, it took one day to ship to my door. the seller accepted a return. They sent me a prepaid shipping label (which was super nice of them) and I sent it out the next morning. Once it was in transit, it was taking longer than i expected so i checked out the sellers page, and they were marked as "away" and "on holiday". No time estimate posted. I feel kind of weird about it i wish they would have told me they were going away in the middle of the return? am I wrong to feel weird about this? anyones opinion on this? I want to message the seller and ask when they will be back but i dont want to annoy them/they might not even receive the message until their back. Thanks.

[momcqueen]

Did you go through ebay Returns process to do this? If so, it will be managed by bots and your refund will be forthcoming just as it would if the seller were not on vacation. Assuming, of course, you shipped with tracking, uploaded it, and the tracking says Delivered. 

[jodwoo_5]

My worries are that it is stuck in delivery because they are on vacation, shipping should have only taken one day. So they may have set their mail not to deliver until they've gotten back. I wish I could know how long they will be gone. I thought the process would be short but my concern is them leaving in the middle of a return (while its stuck in delivery) and it possibly taking a month or months to process instead of one day. Hope my clarification makes sense haha

[momcqueen]

Putting an ebay store on vacation does not halt Delivery of Canada Post items. 

What does tracking on the item say, specifically?

What was the last stage and timeline given to you by the Return process? As in, what does the Return say right now?

If you've exceeded that timeframe, ask ebay to step-in by calling Customer Service and requested it being escalated. 

[jodwoo_5]

You can ask your post office not to deliver an item to you until you are back from vacation, and they will hold it at the post office. On my return page it shows no time limit for delivery. Only that once package is delivered seller must refund within two days. The seller is very close by to me so shipping would've taken one day. They went on vacation once I sent the item out for shipping and now it appears as "item has been shipped". they sent a prepaid shipping label. But the tracking number doesn't seem to work on the official UPS website. It just seems odd to me.

[momcqueen]

What does tracking say on your return? No tracking means no refund.

While it’s true that you can ask Canada Post to hold your lettermail delivery, it does not apply to parcels. The solution for that is Flex Delivery which is another matter entirely.

A seller isn’t allowed to take a holiday to avoid dealing with their eBay Return. If that was the case, a million bad sellers would mail a billion garbage packages and then take permanent vacation to avoid responsibilities or refunds.

If you’re not seeing a firm deadline on your case, your Return is screwed up somehow. Call ebay Customer Service under Help and Contact.

[momcqueen]

Also, regarding Canada Post and holding parcels: Card for Pickup is a service selected and purchased by the Sender. The receiver doesn’t get the opportunity to ask Canada Post to do that. Again, that’s where Flex Delivery comes into play but it has nothing directly to do with a Vacation Hold placed by the addressee. It may achieve the same result but the action required to get there is completely different.

[jodwoo_5]

Oh okay I thought it was different, I will contact eBay thank you for your advice. Its a weird situation

[momcqueen]

Yes. Do. If your seller sent you a non-trackable return label (on purpose) this means he (willingly) voids the codicil that says the Return must say Delivered for a Refund to be eligible for refund. It’s in the fine print of the MoneyBack Guarantee. I don’t know anything about your seller but a sneaky one might try this and hope the buyer just gives up and goes away.

Also, UPS? You have to check the Canadian version of the site. All couriers have separate USA/CANADA operations and domestic labels are not viewable on a sister site, only their own.

[momcqueen]

Also, how did you mail your UPS Return and do you have a receipt to show that you did?

[jodwoo_5]

I put the tracking number into the Canadian site, and it is also showing invalid. I handed the package into Canada post and got a receipt for it. Actually after you had mentioned it, I looked through my old receipts and found the one from the post office. Thankfully!! I found a tracking number on it that works directly to the Canada post website! The website says that the item was delivered on the 21st. So I got back into contact with ebay. The seller will have to refund me on Monday, otherwise ebay is going to refund me on Tuesday. So glad to have this resolved. Thanks for your advice.

[jodwoo_5]

It was strange though because the shipping label that was sent to me had automatically updated the tracking number/carrier onto the return details. Which said ups and an invalid tracking number. But it was through Canada post with a different tracking number.

[pjcdn2005]

The label that the seller sent you was a Canada Post label and you used that to send the package..correct?  But when you click on the tracking number it says that it is a UPS tracking number?

If the number in the return process is wrong than eBay won’t know that the item was delivered. When you talked to eBay they said that they could see it was delivered just by looking at the return?

[jodwoo_5]

After I found the receipt I gave the ebay call person the tracking number from Canada post. Which shows it has already been delivered. The tracking number that was on the shipping label/in the return details was invalid on all websites.

[jodwoo_5]

Basically, I had given the package to Canada post to return to the seller. I was sent a shipping label and attached it to the package. After the package had been scanned the tracking automatically updated onto the return information page online. It showed UPS and an invalid tracking number. When I had handed the package into Canada post they gave me a receipt, and on that receipt was a tracking number different from the one on the return page. I hadn't realized that the tracking number on the receipt was the real tracking number, rather than the one which showed up on the return details. After finding this receipt, I checked the tracking today and it shows it had already been delivered. So I contacted ebay and gave them the tracking number from the receipt. Hope that makes sense

[momcqueen]

Okay. The reason I had to ask is due to the fact I spend a lot of time standing in line at my local postal counter as an ebay seller, waiting to mail my packages and get my acceptance scan like I'm supposed to and like to do. You would be surprised the number of times other customers (buyers, not sellers) are SHOCKED and FLABBERGASTED that they cannot return or pickup a shipment to or return to one of the couriers such as UPS or FedEx etc from the Canada Post counter. 

The truck drivers for Canada Post find packages with UPS and FedEx labels in the street boxes on a regular basis, or so I am told. If the tracking error was due to you mailing a FedEx label-package at a Canada Post street mail box, it wouldn't be the first time. I had to check. In your case it would be UPS. But you get what I mean. 

I'm glad you called ebay Customer Service and I'm glad you'll have your refund for the return soon.