Item received after refund customer complaint

[alessio1726]

Hi everyone, I am an Italian (private) seller. I sold an item in UK and after 10 days from purchase the item was late for delivery because it was held at customs for checks. I used the ebay international shipping method.

The customer opens a complaint and receives a refund from ebay (310 euros). After 15 days the item is delivered. The customer doesn't want to send it back.

I have appealed against the ebay decision and was told that the customer had reason to get a refund at the time he opened the claim. So I have to solve the problem with the customer.

I have sent several messages to ebay but always get the same answer. I pointed out that the object of the complaint was the item not received and now the customer has money and object.

In the ebay rules I find nothing to support their decision.

Does anyone know what I should do?

I have already reported the fraud (improper possession of the object) to the police.

Thanks Alessio

[plpmr]

If the police are investigating others cannot get involved.

[*vyolla*]

I'm sorry that this has happened, this is a major flaw with international shipping and eBay's item not received dispute timelines - it's easy for a buyer to end up with a refund and the item and, when they do and tracking confirms this, eBay will not reverse the decision.

This is one of the reasons why I no longer ship internationally and, if I were to, I'd use eBay's Global Shipping Programme so they're resposnsible for a refund in this scenario. 

I honestly can't see a way forward here, for you to get your item or payment. 

[alessio1726]

I used their shipping program; I didn't use an external courier.

The ebay rules state that if there is an attempt to scam, the customer is not protected by their program. The problem is that the scam occurred as a result of ebay’s refund. This customer probably knows how to scam international sellers. Opening a dispute for a few days' delay in an international shipment is something that I have never seen in 20 years. For me there was no problem to reimburse the customer after returning the item (also at my cost). After the refund I wrote to the customer to refuse delivery, but he paid the import charges and kept the item. I’m not going to list how many excuses he gave me in 35 days from delivery to not send me the item back. It’s clearly a scam.

[alessio1726]

The complaint stops in Italy, the crime took place in England. I’ll have to make another one on my next trip to London. In Italy it is a serious crime and you need a criminal lawyer to defend yourself. I hope to create the same problem in England.