Intl Customer bought an item after I shut down intl shipping - PP but no ebay record for sale

[darak10]

Just got a weird message from a customer in south east Asia about an item he said he purchased off me two days after I shut down all international shipping when COVID was just beginning to wreak havoc with postal systems.  There is no ebay record for this sale on my end, but there is a record of me delisting the item at the end of March though, after he allegedly bought it.  Quick PP check listed a record of the sale of the item dated the date he quoted me in an email.  

Has this happened to anyone else?  How did you respond?   

Weird coding glitch or update delay given the 16 hour time difference between me and him - who knows, never experienced this before. 

[femmefan1946 · Accepted solution]

Paypal does not penalize you for cancelling sales.

I would suggest a polite note giving your reasons for not shipping- that the long wait time would probably make him unhappy, because you are doing this for HIM not for you, right?- and then refund his money.

You could offer to get back in touch when the pandemic is under control.

I agree it probably has something to do with a lag between the two companies and perhaps the time difference.

[lady.stark]

How can you receive a payment in PayPal if the item was not sold on eBay? He must have gotten your email address somehow... is he a past customer?

[darak10]

I suspect it was a glitch of some kind having to do with him being all the way across the world a day or so after I blocked international shipments.  Something didn't get updated in time or he had put it in his basket before I blocked intl shipments.  Other people mentioned in the forum earlier on in COVID times that international buyers were somehow able to purchase items despite sellers defaulting to no international shipping rules for their items, it was a bit of a schmozzle, but this one was a bit different in the sense that I described.