buyer not received goods

[adaball]

I sold some used items to a buyer in another country, and they have not arrived after 4 months, (untracked)  I have dealt with this buyer before and do not doubt him.  I am willing to refund.  What is the best way to do this in the hope that Ebay will refund commissions etc. Should he initiate a non delivery complaint?

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Because the transaction was four months ago, he may not be able to open an item not received case. If he contacts eBay's customer service directly, they might be able to manually open one for him. 

I have been told in the past by eBay CSRs that as a seller, you are allowed to exchange personal info with customers for the purpose of handling a refund or the buyer re-paying for an item that was perviously refunded. That means if he cannot open an INR case, you should be able to exchange Paypal or other payment info.

I would encourage you to contact an eBay CSR with your item number prior to exchanging contact info since the transaction was so long ago. You wouldn't want to get wrongly flagged for exchanging personal info with someone who is not a buyer.

With that said, you will be out the eBay fees if you go that way. So it might be best to contact eBay's customer service and see what is the best way to refund the buyer that will also allow eBay to mark the item as refunded and return the fees you paid on the transaction. The quickest and easiest way to contact eBay is usually through their eBay For Business Twitter account with a direct message: https://twitter.com/ebayforbusiness?lang=en (You can register a throw-away Twitter account, it doesn't have to be a personal account with the same info as your eBay account. eBay's Twitter account sends you a link when you initiate a direct message to verify your eBay account.)

[msau4301]

You are probably too late as ilikehockeyjersies has said and has left great advice!

The only way it would be simple (automatically get your fees back) is if you still have the "Refund" option showing with the order. Depending on the estimated delivery date, the clock(calendar!) starts from estimate delivery so you can see what the date was and if that option is still with your Orders page.

[rocketscollectibles]

The only way is to make a refund on ebay. Otherwise as said you will be out selling fees.

I personally wouldn't refund an order past ebay money back guarantee. Buyers has a defined time to make a claim. I'm following it as a policy. Claiming after is out rules and you are not forced to refund. Someone claiming 4-months later is also suspicious to me. 

[recped]

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@adaball wrote:

I sold some used items to a buyer in another country, and they have not arrived after 4 months, (untracked)  I have dealt with this buyer before and do not doubt him.  I am willing to refund.  What is the best way to do this in the hope that Ebay will refund commissions etc. Should he initiate a non delivery complaint?

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Since this is a repeat customer I would suggest that if you check the order and the Refund option is NOT available anymore perhaps you can offer them a credit on a future order.

If they make another order and you refund part of their payment then you will get a fee credit.

Although the limit for Buyer Protection INR claims is 30 days from the last estimated delivery date it is sometimes possible to still open an INR claim (seller can refuse to refund since Buyer Protection is no longer in place). I'm not sure if eBay will still refund your fees in this situation.