advice please on whether to refund

traceya89

i recently went to Florida and returned with an unused disney ticket which expires on 23.l2.07. i put it on ebay starting at 99p or buy it now for £25 for 7 days. The auction ended Friday evening but payment was not made until 10.30 a.m saturday by which time i was at work and unable to go to the post office to post. i charged £3 for first class recorded delivery as not sure how much i would cost. the ticket sold for £11. anyway as the post office is shut sunday I posted the ticket monday 10.30. tonight i have received an email from the buyer to say it has not arrived and he goes to florida at 6.30 a.m in the morning and will expect a full refund when he returns from his trip to florida and sends me back this ticket. It was paid for by paypal!

I am loath to offer a refund because if he wanted it quicker he should have used buy it now at £25 was reasonable for disney tickets as at the gate they cost £35-£45. he could have paid for it friday night to ensure it was posted saturday giving an extra day to get to him.

i would expect i can track to ensure it has not been delivered but if he is on holiday when the post arrives where will the ticket end up.

on reflection i should have done special delivery at ? £4.95

obviously the ticket is worthless now as use by date is 24.l2.07, which is why i put it on a 7 day listing and also a buy it now price.

i was going to send an email back to him saying no refund and he should have paid sooner or not bid knowing that he was going away very soon after auction ended. He was quite abrupt in his email.

Any advice?

freddysmith

Did he ask if the tickets were guaranteed to arrive before Wedensday 19 ?.
As this question should have been asked before he bid.

sparvar

You did your best, I suppose it depends on how you feel, in hindsight it is always better to have a shorter listing to ensure it will be delivered on time, why not refund his price but keeping back any costs of listing and postage so you are both happy?

Contains_Mild_Peril

Undelivered recorded mail will be returned to the sender one week after attempted delivery. Unfortunately, since the customer will probably not be there to accept the delivery, you'll probably get it back unopened and the customer will probably win an Item Not Received dispute and get a refund through Paypal. if you know when they'll be back from holiday you could try sending it back Recorded (but don't tell the customer) in the hope that it will be received and signed for, in which case you should win a dispute.
For future reference, yes, Special Delivery is the correct service to use for urgent mail, and for time-sensitive items like this it should be the onnly postage option offered in an ebay listing. Recorded won't get there any quicker: it's just regular mail with a tracking nuumber and a signature.

traceya89

when buyer paid for item on saturday at 10.30 he asked could it be posted asap as going on holiday wednesday. i posted as soon as I could which was monday as at work saturday.

the seller has emailed me tonight to say he will send the ticket back to me for a refund on his return from holiday. this may mean someone is in his household when he is away.

if the letter is returned to me as an unopened undelivered recorded delivery letter and i resend it when he returns from holiday could he not say to paypal that i posted too late?

traceya89

i think he is being unreasonable in that he expects this item to be delivered within a very short time scale for his holiday departure date, bearing in mind the xmas post. i am sure the ticket will arrive tomorrow but he leaves at 6.30 in the morning. I do not think i will give a refund as others could have won the ticket and their departure date may have been the end of the week. i do not see why i should lose this money cos 1st class recorded post has took more than one day to arrive.

mum2one

I personally wouldnt refund, at the end of the day if he was that desperate for the ticket he should of usedbuy it now, as longlas yourlisting covered the relevant info.

You started it off at 99p you gave every buyer on ebay chance to buy it/

At the endof the day we have a life, I do not check my emails every hr incase someone haspaid, at the end of the want and c what happens when he gets back. x

jackieb

If he'd paid on Friday evening would you have managed to post it on Saturday morning before 10.30am?

meester

there is no reason to post on Saturdays..... Working days only.

Friday evening end means Monday morning posting.

Monday morning posting means Wednesday arrival at this time of year by first class.

Absurd to expect Saturday posting, especially when you didn't even pay until Saturday.

No refund.

If I want something time-sensitive I will contact the seller and confirm deliverybefore buying, arrange special delivery if necessary.

steviebabes

There were errors of judgement on both sides of this transaction. If you started at 99p with a BIN of £25 this option would have gone after the first bid was placed. As your buyer won the ticket for £11 he was a later bidder so may never have seen the buy now.
As this was a time sensitive sale you should have only offered SD and charged the appropriate postage.
The buyer may have been out on the Friday night and paid at the earliest opportunity.
On reflection you would have been better just putting it in a post box with a first class stamp on Saturday morning. The whole transaction was too tight time wise at this time of year. I would refund and learn by your mistakes.

Hintza

Have to agree with stevie, having a sale end so close to expiry was pushing your luck a bit. Add in the Christmas post and you are potential on a hiding to nothing. Whilst meester also raises good points.

Buyer should have made themselves available to pay as soon as auction ended on a time sensitive item like this.

!!!! up all round and you can argue both sides wirh equal conviction.