Advice on Refunds with Proof of Arrival

[thenewswapshop]

Hi,

This is a long shot but I am just curious about any advice.  I refunded a buyer (highly rated, clearly active) in March, and long story short I received proof of arrival of the item from a third party after I refunded the buyer.  I also evidently provided the refund without having the buyer submit a claim (that is what I was told by an eBay help rep).  My mistake and I was told there is nothing that can be done.

That being said, I do have proof of arrival and a message from the buyer claiming he would refund me the price through etransfer but he appears to have ghosted me since.  I figure this is hopeless but I was just curious if there was any other option available.  It is a shot in the dark, but I figured I would reach out before giving up.

[brettjet38]

It is always better to have the Buyer open a claim when an item does not arrive, and then if it gets delivered after the fact, you stand a better chance of getting repaid.

You could contact the Buyer but this time include a reminder and a link for repayment.

If they do not reply again you can creatively use the feedback to explain the situation, being professional of course, and staying within policy.

[thenewswapshop]

Thanks for the advice - it seems I am kind of stuck, but hopefully the buyer does the right thing

[brettjet38]

The fact that they have already said they would repay, they may just do so with a reminder...

Good Luck

[flipistics]

You're pretty much just out the money. Also, NEVER refund the buyer the full amount without them opening a case. Chances are VERY high that you'll receive an out of stock defect.

If the shipment was late, you can try opening a late delivery case with the carrier. You might at least get the shipping cost refunded.

[thenewswapshop]

Yeah, that's a good lesson to learn.  Also, the package wasn't technically late, it is just that the buyer lied to me that it hadn't been delievered - it was delievered on time.

[ricarmic]

It might not hurt to call them, assuming you can still see the phone number.... you can tell them you aren't sure they were getting the ebay messages you recently sent and they had mentioned they'd pay if it did arrive...

[marnotom!]

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@thenewswapshop wrote:

Also, the package wasn't technically late, it is just that the buyer lied to me that it hadn't been delivered - it was delivered on time.

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Well, I think this puts a different spin on the buyer's promise to pay for the item should it arrive.

[msau4301]

As others have said it's too bad you didn't wait for them to open a claim. The fact that he reached out to you when it had been delivered as marnotom says does put a different spin so at this point it comes down to a matter of conscience, and might he actually feel bad.

Never say never though, I once refunded a US buyer (that didn't open a claim) because he had reached out to me first and I could see tracking hadn't moved for over a week and I had asked if he would wait a few more days (he was good with that), I opened a claim/ticket with Canada Post, it was still in limbo so I refunded him after the few days he waited. Couple of days later it showed delivery, I reached out to him and he said he had my return address from the package and would "mail me the money". He actually did and since it was US dollars I made a little extra! Good luck, let's hope he thinks about karma.