Help!
I sold items to someone in India. They were very grateful cause they told me they can not find any other member to sell and ship to them on Ebay. I now understand why. I shipped their items on 1/20/15. On 1/29/15 the package made it to their country and was going through customs. A month later the buyer contacted me for an update.
I ended up contacting USPS about it. They opened up a case. Due to international laws and it being India customs told USPS that they were launching an investigation. It will take up to 24 days. Until then there is nothing we can do. On the 28th day USPS can contact back. Per the laws USPS must give them 3 chances to locate package before anything can be done.
In the mean time the buyer gave me a lot of garbage and told me it's my responsibility to make sure they get the package. They acted like I am supposed to get on a plane and personally deliver it to them. They also tried to argue with me about the tracking number and wanted the tracking number that they would give once in their country. I had to explain at the USPS international tracking number never changes. So they will see all available informatiion with the number they were given by Ebay.
Well the buyer put in a claim. I responded back with all the shipping notifications and also stated that USPS has opened a claim but nothing can be done for 28 days due to their countries procedures. I insisted that the buyer should call customs or his postal service there in India to see if they could find something out but the buyer didn't bother to do a thing.
Despite notifying the buyer Ebay days later favored the buyer and refunded their money. I contacted USPS and let them know that Ebay refunded the buyer. So they contacted India to let them know and told them if the package is found to not deliver it but instead ship it back to the "shipper" seller in the US.
India did not listen and they went ahead and delivered the package anyways. The buyer was refunded on 3/16/15 and on 3/24/15 the package was delivered to them. So the buyer has my money and items leaving me with nothing. USPS told me Ebay should have never issued a refund knowing the package was in customs and that EBAY/Paypal knows the procedures and know it can be a lengthy process. In this case it was.
I did everything right. I shipped promptly and it got to India in 8 days and then from there it sat in customs for 2 months. There is no set time on when customs has to deliver an item and because it's not the US they can do whatever they want basically. I stressed the issues lied within their country and there wasn't much we could do at the moment but wait.
I have went all over Ebay and Paypal to see how I can appeal this cause rightfully I should be given my money back as it is documented with the tracking number that the buyer has received their package. However I can not find anywhere where I can put in the appeal. I have read you can go to Paypal and go to resolution center and go to closed cases and start an appeal there but it shows 0 cases when I click on All Cases and Closed Cases so I can not put in an appeal.
This has been a huge nightmare and definitely have learned my lesson not to ship internationally. However Ebay/Paypal need to to do better research before issuing refunds. In my case Ebay said I didn't upload tracking to Paypal in the resolution center. That is true but that is because I printed the label right from Ebay's site and the tracking information was automatically uploaded to both Ebay and Paypal so they have had that information since day one.
Like I said I have proof the package was delivered but it was delivered shortly after Ebay refunded the buyer their money back. I just need help getting the money back now that they have their items. Yes I already contacted the buyer to let them know I see they got the package but they have not responded back and why would they? I mean the way I see it they got free items and got almost $200 back that they paid for the items so why would they contact me back.
