Non delivery case help please

time2change_2

Item (toy) sold on 2nd Sept, dispatched on 3rd Sept with estimated delivery 6th -7th Sept.

No communication from buyer since note with purchase asking to "wrap securely for a safe delivery"

Case for non delivery opened on 12th September - I have until 15th (ie tomorrow) to sort.

I can see from tracking that parcel was due to be delivered on 7th Sept by the local courier, and hasn't been updated since!
 
As soon as I had the ebay notification I messaged buyer (through the request) apologising & saying I would check with courier.

Evri have actually been really good and it would appear that the issue is with the local courier. I passed on the information to the buyer (again through the request).

Buyer hasn't responded to either message.

I don't know what the issue with the local courier is but my question is do I refund today or wait until tomorrow (when I'm expecting the next update from Evri). I don't want to refund & then find the parcel is delivered anyway.

At what point will Ebay refund automatically and is it better for me to do the refund first?

olgadapolga

It's always better to refund before the buyer asks eBay to "step in and help" as that way you avoid a defect that can affect future sales.

The buyer can ask eBay to step in three days (to the second) after opening the case (according to the subject help). That doesn't mean that they will request eBay's assistance but you have no idea exactly when they will do this, you only know the earliest point at which they can do so. If it were me, I would check with Evri just before the deadline and if there was no evidence of delivery, issue a refund.

You may be able to ask Evri to return the parcel, or ask the buyer to refuse the delivery, assuming that it hasn't been lost.

[Deleted User]

time2change_2 said:

Item (toy) sold on 2nd Sept, dispatched on 3rd Sept with estimated delivery 6th -7th Sept.

No communication from buyer since note with purchase asking to "wrap securely for a safe delivery"

Case for non delivery opened on 12th September - I have until 15th (ie tomorrow) to sort.

I can see from tracking that parcel was due to be delivered on 7th Sept by the local courier, and hasn't been updated since!
 
As soon as I had the ebay notification I messaged buyer (through the request) apologising & saying I would check with courier.

Evri have actually been really good and it would appear that the issue is with the local courier. I passed on the information to the buyer (again through the request).

Buyer hasn't responded to either message.

I don't know what the issue with the local courier is but my question is do I refund today or wait until tomorrow (when I'm expecting the next update from Evri). I don't want to refund & then find the parcel is delivered anyway.

At what point will Ebay refund automatically and is it better for me to do the refund first?

Yes, the parent company distribute it out to the independent, self employed, local courier - the buck lies with him.

(As a buyer) I've recently had an item i bought not arrive (RM though not Evri), i kept in touch with the seller every step of the way, i gave it 3 weeks in all (because RM aren't great in these parts) and we were in touch several times.
She refunded me when i suggested it at the 3 week overdue point.  

With no contact from your buyer, i don't know, @soolin is the person to ask.

soolin

There is no need at all for buyer to respond at all, they have a case open and can escalate on the 15th so there is nothing they need to say. I tend to refund the day before it can be escalated to make sure I don’t miss the deadline, but I can understand you hoping to wait until you can talk to Evri again. I would express caution about waiting too long though as unless tracking shows delivery the buyer will win the INR and you will be forced to refund, and you’ll lose your FVFs and also get a selelr warning on your dashboard that is nasty. 

time2change_2

Thanks for all your comments, all very useful.

Whilst I understand the non-delivery is a problem I am frustrated the buyer didn't contact me and give me a short while to resolve before opening an INR case.

I accept the buyer doesn't need to reply but thought they might out of common courtesy but hey ho..........

Because of the consequences as a seller I will refund tonight, I have already asked Evri to return the parcel to me if they can. Maybe it is properly lost so I'll claim from Evri but I had a bit of a bad feeling about this transaction after the first message - I can't quite say why but let's just say I wasn't surprised it's this one! 

olgadapolga

time2change_2 said:

Thanks for all your comments, all very useful.

Whilst I understand the non-delivery is a problem I am frustrated the buyer didn't contact me and give me a short while to resolve before opening an INR case.

I accept the buyer doesn't need to reply but thought they might out of common courtesy but hey ho..........

Because of the consequences as a seller I will refund tonight, I have already asked Evri to return the parcel to me if they can. Maybe it is properly lost so I'll claim from Evri but I had a bit of a bad feeling about this transaction after the first message - I can't quite say why but let's just say I wasn't surprised it's this one! 

The problem with the INR being opened before any communication is more of an eBay problem, due to the way they invite buyers to contact you. The buyer sees, "I haven't received my item" then clicks on that option and voilà, a case is opened. The "contact seller" option is at the bottom of the list of options.

Referring back to your first post, I often get buyers telling me how to wrap items for postage. It's annoying as I always wrap things well but they don't know me, or how I wrap things, so I just do what I always do when packaging items and ignore the comments.

Anyway, here's hoping that the item is delivered before the deadline 🙂

time2change_2

I hadn't realised that was how ebay did that re INR cases - makes more sense now. I also probably should try to be less cynical about people!

I refunded buyer on Friday morning to avoid any issues as the tracking had not moved. A couple of hours later Evri said they couldn't find it at the depot.

Bizarrely tracking today says "entered the Hermes network" as of today so goodness knows what's going on.

Thank you everyone for your replies.