Sold item being processed at customs... eBay has refunded buyer!

humblepii

Hi all - I hope someone can offer me some guidance or just reassurance. I'm a relatively novice eBay seller and am freaking out as I've just had my first case opened and decided against me.

Long story short, I sent an item of clothing from the UK to Canada via Royal Mail International Signed For. Customs in Canada has currently had hold of the parcel for two weeks, and the buyer acknowledges that I sent it and they are processing it as I provided the tracking number on request. But he seems to think it is outrageous that he paid for an item over three weeks ago and he hasn't yet received it, no matter how much I say that it's out of my hands how long customs take to process it and that he knows he'll get it, though unfortunately later than he'd hoped.

He opened an Item Not Received case against me yesterday and escalated it to eBay today since we were going round in circles as per above - he has not tried to understand it from my POV at all, and even suggested he was being generous for waiting so long to open the case! Within 50 minutes, eBay decided the case in the buyer's favour and are refunding him. So it looks like he is going to get his item AND his money back.

Naturally, I've appealed. So my questions are:
- Does eBay always automatically rule in a buyer’s favour?
- How likely is eBay to reverse its decision?
- Will this debacle have any negative effect on my rating and status?
- Am I being completely deluded - am I actually in the wrong?!

Thanks in advance for your help. I have 100% positive feedback so far and am scared of this being affected when I feel I've done everything I promised to!

soolin

This is a very difficult situation and the Canadian customs ar enotorious in their view that everything is a problem to be investigated at great length.

I am susprised though that paypal refunded so quickly, that is very unusual in that paypal usually expect the buyer to wait at least 10 days from when they open the dispute.

Can I ask what exactly the message is when you put the tracking in, was paypal aware this clearly showed as being at customs? I ask that because if paypal have tried the tracking on a UK site and it turned up nothing then they might suspect it is a fake number and that means an automatic refund.

If that has happened I would get on the phone to paypal to ask them if they could use the tracking on the correct site and re open the dispute to at least give you a few more days leeway to get the item to them.

pinkshoes

1. Did you phone up customs and try and sort out why it had been so long? Did you then post this information in the dispute?

2. I don't think RM international tracked actually tracks it all the way to the door, so you might want to claim from Royal Mail for it not having arrived. You'll have to wait a certain amount of working days to do this. If the tracking DOES update at some point to say it has been delivered, then contact ebay and insist that they reverse the refund.

They don't *always* side with the buyer, but in this case, it has been 3 weeks and you can't prove it's arrived!

alfiesmum

When you do get through to someone at Paypal, they can be quite human. And I've always found them helpful. When you put the tracking number in does it tell you it's held at customs? How did you know that info?

Paypal will give the seller 10 days to respond to an item not received dispute, so I'm puzzled as to how it's gone through in only a day? Is your money just on hold, still in your Paypal account perhaps? Once a dispute is opened, they can do that. It might not be back with the buyer just yet.

humblepii

Soolin, thank you so much for your quick response. I can't help but think that eBay ruled automatically in the buyer's favour without even reading through the dispute as, even though it was only opened yesterday, the buyer and I have sent around 8 responses to each other in the past 24 hours. Basically, me saying "you know I've sent it, please be patient", and the buyer saying "but I don't have it yet. So it's my right to ask for a refund". eBay said to expect a decision in 48-72 hours, and gave one in less than 50 minutes.

On the Royal Mail website, the tracking number generates the message: "Your item, posted on 09/10/10 with reference XXXXXXXXXX has been passed to the overseas postal service for delivery in CANADA". When the buyer tried entering the tracking number in Canada, he said he got a message confirming the item had reached customs on 15/10/10 and was still there.

soolin

OK right. Paypal will usually only work on the UK tracking so they cna see you sent it but not that buyer has it. Even the Canadian trackign shows item has not been received.

You can't win a paypal dispute in this case as you need to prove delivery but I would still suggest you phone paypal as they should have given it longer to arrive, be persistent get them to reopen it and give you a few more days.

Incidentally what was th evalue of the item sent?

humblepii

Pinkshoes, thank you. In answer to your points:

1. As I understand, two weeks isn't "so long" - is it? I know the buyer will be liable to pay additional tax/duties on the item, surely this takes a while to process?

2. More fool me, as far as I can see RM tracking only takes it as far as the handover to the Canadian mail service. So I guess I've screwed myself over there.

I appreciate that it's been three weeks and I can't prove it's arrived, but I'm not claiming that it has. I can prove it's been sent, and that the buyer knows this, so in my mind he's being incredibly unreasonable when a delay at customs is out of my control. For example, he contacted me on Saturday evening to ask me to contact RM for an update. By the time I'd picked up this request about 12 hours later, on Sunday, he'd already opened a dispute against me, saying I'd stopped responding to his emails!

soolin

3 weeks is actually quite a long time and we often have threads on here from buyers asking whether they cna start a claim for INR a week after they've paid even though the item might be coming in from the States. Even I would probably be chasing a little for a parcel after that long, it is just a shame this is Canada.

I can only suggets you try and get the dispute re opened, at least a few more days gives it a better chance to arrive.

humblepii

Does filing an appeal to eBay's decision not mean that the case has been reopened? Even if I've filed the appeal, should I try to get the case reopened anyway - is that something different? I'm sorry to be such a dunce about this.

To reiterate, I'm not saying that the buyer is lying when they say they haven't received it yet - I'm saying they know that customs is processing it, so surely they should be patient while it's processed as this timeframe is out of my control?

Soolin, the item was £89 including P&P.

Alfiesmum, thank you - I can't bring myself to look at my PayPal account yet to see whether the money's actually gone out. I got an email from eBay saying "The buyer has been refunded", though.

custardy

pinkshoes wrote: »

1. Did you phone up customs and try and sort out why it had been so long? Did you then post this information in the dispute?

2. I don't think RM international tracked actually tracks it all the way to the door, so you might want to claim from Royal Mail for it not having arrived. You'll have to wait a certain amount of working days to do this. If the tracking DOES update at some point to say it has been delivered, then contact ebay and insist that they reverse the refund.

They don't *always* side with the buyer, but in this case, it has been 3 weeks and you can't prove it's arrived!

its down to the receiving country to provide tracking
however they can now see it has made it to Canada
I wonder if Canada customs have issued a charge card and the buyer doesnt want to pay it

soolin

custardy wrote: »

its down to the receiving country to provide tracking
however they can now see it has made it to Canada
I wonder if Canada customs have issued a charge card and the buyer doesnt want to pay it

I must say I was thinking that as well. If that is the case then hopefully it had a good clear returns label and will eventually get back to the OP. Custardy, would they return it airmail or would it be returned surface ?