Buyer claiming they never received item despite canada post tracking saying delivered.

[ninjitsuworm648]

Auction ended Feb 13, shipped the next day, tracking says it was delivered( via the canada post site, not eBay’s buggy tracking) feb 21.
Buyer waited until March 31 to message me and asked where the item was.
I opened a ticket with canada post, they tried to contact him and he never replied.
I tried to contact him about the ticket, no answer for weeks.
Now he’s messaging me again…
What can I do with this buyer?

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

You are covered by eBay's seller protection because the item was marked as delivered. 

You also were a great seller who went above and beyond to help the buyer, even know it was of no benefit to you since it was marked as delivered. You did the right thing already. 

In a polite way, tell him you have exhausted your ability to help him, and that it is in the hands of Canada Post. Provide him with the ticket number, and encourage him to call Canada Post to resolve the issue. 

[msau4301]

As ilikehockey has said you've done all you can, it's out of your hands. Send one more short and sweet message to that effect and leave it.

It is quite suspicious that he waited five weeks after delivery to ask about the item. Could be he had it all along and suddenly noticed the eBay tracking show it wasn't delivered and thought he'd try asking you about it. Not realizing Canada Post had shown it delivered. If he was serious about getting a lost item he would have co-operated with them (and you) much earlier. The auction itself ended Feb. 13 so it's over 90 days and won't even be showing any more under his purchases (or your sales) on eBay anywhere. Too much time has passed.

[femmefan1946]

You are basically covered, but he has three ways to try again.

He had 30 days from the delivery date to open a Dispute with eBay.

That has passed.

If he uses Paypal he can open a dispute (not delivered) for 180 days from payment.

Your defence is to promptly put the tracking and delivery information into the PP dispute.

Promptly.

Or he can go to his credit card, whether he used it alone or with PP.

While card policies differ, many allow the same 180 days from payment for chargebacks.

Your defence again is to promptly supply the tracking and delivery information.

These chargebacks are usually seen as "not recognized" and showing that the delivery was made to the address of the cardholder is your defence.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Additionally, if you are worried about negative feedback, you should be able to get it removed by contacting eBay. While negative feedback isn't a huge deal since eBay doesn't rate sellers based on feedback, I understand that when you have a low volume of sales, you don't want your number to drop by a few percent based on one negtive feedback. 

Negative feedback is the only thing that hasn't been mentioned yet in this thread, which is the only reason I bring it up. 

The fact that he never responded to Canada Post either means he is trying to scam you, or he is not willing to do his part to resolve the issue. When you have already gone out of your way to help strictly because it is the right thing to do, and likely spent an hour helping set up the Canada Post ticket for him, it is difficult to have sympathy for the buyer at this point. Because you only have 34 feedback scores, you have a higher chance of being targeted by scammers, who will assume you don't know eBay's policies.

[38e_avenue]

Here an important story to learn from. It happened to me just one week ago. I ordered an item from a seller in Vancouver.  It has been "delivered" to my box a few days later. However, my box was empty. I talked to my postman - he told me he put the parcel into my box, and he is 100% sure about this. I decided to open a dispute with Canada Post. They called me and asked, if I checked with my neighbors. I told them "yes", even if I did not. Now imagine, one of the neighbors being on vacation found the parcel in HIS box (next to mine!) after he came back home 2 days later! Now just try to imagine, something like this happens to your buyer .....  

I contacted the seller, asking for help. No answer. I contacted Ebay support - they did treat me like a thief and they warned me they will start their own investigation. That was a very unpleasant experience. At least, I got official apologies from the Canada Post and the postman next day ....... 

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Stuff like packages being wrongly delivered as you mentioned does happen, which is why it is always important to treat a customer like they aren't a scammer....because there is a good chance they aren't. 

The thing about the OP's situation is he went out of his way to do the right thing and assist the customer by opening a Canada Post ticket. The customer was allegedly unwilling to cooperate with Canada Post, or at best ignored Canada Post because they didn't feel like dealing with it. 

If I had to bet money, this isn't a scam and the customer either didn't feel like dealing with Canada Post or their contact information from eBay may not have been up to date. With that said, I did mention the possibility of it being a scam since low feedback sellers are often targeted because they are less likely to understand eBay's seller and buyer protection policies.