1st item lost, INR opened, 2nd tracked item Merry-go-round

[camerapartsuk]

Okay, so I sent an item out by 1st class and it did not arrive in a week so the buyer opened an INR case on Wednesday last week.

He stated he needed it by the weekend.

I did a tracked 48 and got it in Wednesday's post.

On Thursday the tracking states it was refused, I thought it was quick but I had said to the buyer to refuse it if the original one arrives so assumed that is what happened.

He takes a day to respond so by Friday he says he hadn't received it.

It starts to make its way back to me where I would have been happy to refund him when I get it back but yesterday it tracks as once again returning to his location and has been sitting in his delivery office for 24 hours.

The issue is, the reason I (now know) he wanted it by the weekend is he left the country today.

What should I do? It seems Royal Mail refused it and not himself, the replacement is late but might still be delivered as no signature is required for the tracked 48 service I used.

So I'm out of pocket for 2 items, 2 sets of postage and the possibility of negative feedback if I don't further refund him.

[cobwebcottage]

There is a lot going on here.

I would have been inclined to wait for  the first parcel to arrive. You sent it in time and it would not be your fault if it was a few days late. If the buyer needed it urgently, you could have arranged a next day delivery service and ask the buyer to pay a few pounds more to cover it.

It's a shame that you sent out a replacement as this will not be tracked by Ebay. Always refund for the first item ( if out of time for an INR) and ask the buyer to repurchase so you have a new tracking number.

Asking the buyer to refuse a parcel is not good practice. It means that they have forgone their rights to the Ebay MBG.

It looks like one may be return to you ( the refused delivery) and one may still be delivered although buyer could decide to send it back citing that it wasn't delivered in time as agreed before the purchase  (INAD).

If the buyer no longer wants either one, then yes, I would refund them for both parcels and yes you will lose out on the postage costs but lesson learnt.

[bravergrace]

I have had several items recently marked "refused", when no delivery attempt was made.  This may just be seasonal delivery staff pressing buttons at random.  All the "refused" items were eventually delivered correctly or returned to me.  None of them went astray permanently.

As for what to do about it: as the case is open, and it's a complicated one, your best bet is to ring Customer Support, and explain what's happened.  They may take the "refused" tracking as a delivery attempt, and close the case in your favour.  That way, you don't need to refund and it won't count against you.

Or CS may make a courtesy refund to the buyer (ie eBay will refund the buyer, and the case will be closed as "no fault on either side"). 

But it's worth discussing it with CS anyway.  The worst thing to happen is to have the case closed against you, because you have then lost 2 items, 2 lots of postage AND got a defect on your account for 3 months or 12 months.