Goods returned by courier as buyer never collected from collection point.

[rosellap68]

Hello, I sent a parcel via a courier a couple of weeks ago and added the tracking info to the listing as normal.
The buyer wasn't in at the time of delivery, so the goods were taken to their local collection point. Despite several communications from me, the goods were never collected and now the courier has now returned the items to me.
What happens now please as this has never happened to me before?
Thanks

[**peaseblossom**]

You can issue a cancellation via the dropdown menu for the item on your orders page.   Use the reason "Something wrong with buyer's address" which is the nearest we have to this situation.   The refund will be issued in the process.

[rosellap68]

Does the refund come out of my account? What happens with the courier costs I’ve paid?

Thanks

[tressygirl]

The refund will come out of any Available funds you have in your Payment Summary,  if there are insufficient funds,  eBay will use your back up source,  which us usually your bank account.

The buyer paid you the courier costs for you to use that money to pay the courier, so everything the buyer initially paid has to be refunded back to them.  You are not paying any cost of it being returned back to you.

Do this as @**peaseblossom**  has explained,  cancelling the order citing Problem with Buyer's address this fully refunds the buyer without any detriment to your seller performance.

You can then relist the item,  up to you if you want to chance the buyer buying the item again,  and not being in to collect ,  you may wish to block them from buying from you again.

@rosellap68 

[rosellap68]

Sorry if I’m not understanding this correctly. Is the buyer being refunded for the cost of goods plus delivery charge or just the cost of goods? if it’s for both, then I’ve lost out on the cost of delivery as I can claim that back from anyone.

Thanks

[rosellap68]

Sorry I meant I can’t claim that back.

[rosellap68]

Sorry if I’m not understanding this correctly. Is the buyer being refunded for the cost of goods plus delivery charge or just the cost of goods? if it’s for both, then I’ve lost out on the cost of delivery as I can't claim that back from anyone.

Thanks

[tressygirl]

You need to refund everything the buyer initially paid to you.  This includes the postage charge they paid to you,  to use that money,  to pay for the postal service you selected.

It becomes a loss of postage to a seller,  if a case is made for item not as described ,  and you as a seller has to pay for the return of the item.  Here the return is being made to you for no charge.

Initial payment for postage you charged to your buyer,  you used to pay for that posting the item to them.  They did not receive their item,  so you refund them all they initially paid, that is,  the cost of the item and the postage they paid.

@rosellap68 

[rosellap68]

Hello, just so you know, your response is correct and I should never have refunded the buyer. Hence I have lost out on what I paid the courier company! That was my initial query in this post.

This has been confirmed by an actual eBay agent today and I’m really disappointed by the advice you have given. I will not be able to claim the shipping cost back.

[rosellap68]

Sorry auto correct. The advice you gave was incorrect!

[61stephenuk]

@tressygirl  response was correct,if a buyer doesn't receive their goods the seller has to make a full refund including postage.

eBay may claim attempted delivery is good enough not to have to refund but all this will do is force the buyer to open a chargeback where you would still have to refund in full and have an admin charge of £16.80 to pay as well