Delayed Orders and Refund Window

MR1988

Hi everyone,

How long do you wait before refunding a buyer for a delayed order?

I have 2 orders that are delayed past the 7 days mark now and buyers are getting impatient. I want to refund them but there's no resolution to my lost item claim yet.

What would happen if for example I refund them now, and next week the item gets delivered to their address, upon which my claim would be turned down? Would I be out of pocket with the item and refund or eBay would go back on a refund if proved the item was delivered?

I've asked eBay support but they don't have a process for something like this. They suggested for buyers to open a case and upload Tracking information to the case and then wait until case is resolved. Apparently they are taking into consideration delays and leaving cases open for a longer time. They also offer support for these delays by removing any bad action on our accounts.

While I do like that, I'm also not happy having to put my customers through that. I do understand their frustration and would like to sort it out for them but don't want to end up being out of pocket because of delays and refunding too early.

How do you handle these situations?

soolin

Buyers can open a claim the day after the last estimated delivery date, and a seller has 6 days now (someone please correct me if that's wrong) to refund before buyer can escalate and force a refund. A seller should look to refund, assuming a case is open, the day before escalation, that gets the seller their FVFs back and avoids a defect.

Sellers should never refund without a case being opened.

That however is a much shorter time frame than RM give for a claim to be made as they do not allow a claim to be started until 10 working days past the last estimated delivery date - so it is usual for sellers to have to refund before receiving their cheque from RM.

However, allowing 7 days before hassling a seller is IMHO a bit much - do buyers not realise there are strikes on? As sellers we can't stop them hassling us for an update, but I would certainly resist refunding until the last moment, once a claim is open- due to these strikes. If an item arrives once a refund has been made there isn't a mechanism for sellers to force the buyers to repay, so sellers could well lose out as RM also won't refund if an item arrives.

Personally I stay in touch with buyers once they contact me to let me know there item is late, most seem reasonable at the moment so you are quite unlucky to have come across 2. I am sympathetic and reassuring, but I would definitely not refund until a case is opened and nearing escalation. There is no way I would be refunding after a week.

diystarter7

Hi OP

Please advise the reason seller has given. (You have contacted them?)

Personally, I would not be happy if the seller was not coming back to me but if they were and we are all aware of postal strikes and Xmas crush, I'd take it on the chin, chin.

Good luck

soolin

diystarter7 said:

Hi OP

Please advise the reason seller has given. (You have contacted them?)

Personally, I would not be happy if the seller was not coming back to me but if they were and we are all aware of postal strikes and Xmas crush, I'd take it on the chin, chin.

Good luck

OP is the seller not the buyer.

MR1988

One of them is very reasonable and has agreed for me to get in touch with Royal Mail so I don't think he/she would be a problem in the end. I just managed to file a claim for his item today and I will instruct them to open a case today. And if by next week it won't arrive I'll just assume it's lost and refund before the claim would be escalated.

The other buyer is a bit more uneasy. Bought the item on the 29th right before the strike days. I did message buyer on the day they have placed order and told them about the strikes. I had the item collected on the 2nd of December and Monday the buyer already was starting to complain about how they bought it as a gift and now they are angry because the item has not reached in time. There's a case open now for item not received to which I added the tracking details and offered buyer to refund upon return if they do not need item anymore. Tracking number for this one updated yesterday saying "Item Received" (Not delivered though so I assume item received by Royal Mail)

soolin

MR1988 said:

One of them is very reasonable and has agreed for me to get in touch with Royal Mail so I don't think he/she would be a problem in the end. I just managed to file a claim for his item today and I will instruct them to open a case today. And if by next week it won't arrive I'll just assume it's lost and refund before the claim would be escalated.

The other buyer is a bit more uneasy. Bought the item on the 29th right before the strike days. I did message buyer on the day they have placed order and told them about the strikes. I had the item collected on the 2nd of December and Monday the buyer already was starting to complain about how they bought it as a gift and now they are angry because the item has not reached in time. There's a case open now for item not received to which I added the tracking details and offered buyer to refund upon return if they do not need item anymore. Tracking number for this one updated yesterday saying "Item Received" (Not delivered though so I assume item received by Royal Mail)

As above do not refund 1st buyer unless they open a case, you need your FVFs back and at least if there is a claim you can support your own claim with RM. However if RM have allowed a claim then this is later already than 7 days so perhaps it really is looking like it might be lost. 

The 2nd one should show an escalation date in the case, just be mindful of that and make sure you refund before you reach that date.

What postage method did you use? 

MR1988

I used Tracked 48 unfortunately. I have only started upgrading to T24 after December and even those are being delayed now.

The case that is open says to resolve by 13th of December.

ciderboy2009

I had a Tracked48 item delivered on Monday which took 16 days to get me.

Normal post is regularly taking 3+ weeks to arrive.  This is in Bristol - not sure how bad it is elsewhere.

I think there are going to be a lot of presents stuck in the post this year.