Locked
Discussion interactions are currently paused.
Complaint for item not received: eBay refunds and then it is delivered to the buyer
Good morning everyone, I should preface this by saying that in 20 years of experience on eBay, I had never had something like this happen to me.
Item sold on Sunday, September 1 on ebay.it to an English customer; Monday the 2nd in the morning the SDA courier booked through eBay's shipping manager picks up the parcel;. it is tracked and insured for the full value, estimated delivery in 6 days.
On the 3rd the parcel is in customs.
7 days later the buyer asks me where the parcel is and from the tracking I see that it is stuck in customs. I open a ticket to follow up and ask if it has been lost.
3 days later (10 from the purchase) the buyer tells me that the 300-euro action figure of an 80s character was for a child's birthday and he doesn't want it anymore.
In his feedback I see that he sold a similar one not long before.. so I assume it was for him.
I tell him not to accept the parcel when it arrives and as soon as it comes back to me I will refund him. He opens a claim with eBay which in 24 hours refunds him 310 euros. eBay also leaves me charged the fees since the claim was closed in the buyer's favor because he did not receive the parcel within the expected time.
Meanwhile I update the ticket and ask for the shipment to be sent back to the sender (me); they tell me it is too late now and I have to wait 30 days to know whether it has been lost. I write again to the buyer not to accept it or to pick it up and send it back to me if he doesn't want it anymore.
After 30 days the parcel is released from customs and goes straight out for delivery. The buyer does not refuse it and says he doesn't have the money to pay for it; second delivery attempt is unsuccessful because he is not at home; on the third delivery it is collected after paying customs duties and VAT.
I wait 5 days just to see if the tracking has any other updates and I go in person to SDA, which confirms delivery to me. In the meantime the buyer no longer gets in touch.
I open an appeal by sending the tracking from 3 different pages where all the steps of the shipment can be seen (even THE FACT THAT IT IS BLOCKED FOR CHECKS) and I receive this reply within 24 hours, which I will translate for you below.
Unluckily for me, soon after packlink from the ebay.it shipping manager replies, sending me a photo (which I attach) of the exact moment the courier leaves my parcel in the person's hand (you can't see the face for privacy) and the claim is closed since the item has been delivered. I attach the photo.
I immediately send it to the buyer who replies in a few seconds and claims to be abroad and not know who the person in pajamas in the photo is (it looks like an elderly woman).
So I send a photo taken from Google Maps showing that the door of his English house is the same one to the right of the elderly person.. so he changes his story, saying he recognizes his house but doesn't know who was inside.
Leaving aside the fact that I have almost 2000 feedback against the buyer's 36, I am furious because the claim was handled by the UK in English when the transaction took place in Italy. ebay.it tells me that the handling is assigned to the country of the customer who paid.
I called eBay Italy again and threatened that I would have to file a police report and have a lawyer write directly to eBay Italy and not to eBay UK. So today they reopened the claim for me.
But judging by their useless response, it seems I have to sort it out with the buyer, and as a matter of principle I will first go to the postal police to file a report for misappropriation.
Then I will decide how to act against eBay
has something similar happened to anyone?
Here's how they closed the appeal (translated from English):
After checking the details for you and I can see that there is no information regarding the item held at customs, the tracking only shows in transit on 30 September. I recommend that you communicate with your buyer through eBay messages and try to resolve the case mutually and arrange postage, asking them to return the item.
Just so you know, when we are asked to intervene in these cases, we make our decision based on whether the buyer confirmed receipt through eBay messages or by using the tracking provided. In this case, neither of the above was available so this case was closed with a full refund to the buyer. However, I am optimistic that the issue will be resolved by contacting the courier company and the buyer.
