Lost international order lost 2+ months buyer claimed not received and I refunded then delivered

[dafern65]

So around mid-late of June 2025 a buyer from an Eastern European country ordered something and I sent it tracked International via Royal Mail UK and on the tracking around, then end of  July 2025 the buyer contacted me stating that they had not received it. He and I did some investigating and the item was showing as stuck at Heathrow for 5+ weeks and the destination country had not moved, the destination country was not showing any progress for the parcel either (i.e. they had not received it and this was not normal as I had sent items to that country before). So after 6-7 weeks the buyer sent an aBay 'Item not received' refund request an I gave him a full refund.   I contacted Royal Mail several times to see where the item was and they couldn't tell me, they reckoned that they had sent it, they advised that I should put in a Royal Mail UK claim which I did do, showing the eBay invoice with the refund amount I paid the buyer etc).

Fast forward to late August 2024 and the item suddenly appears on the tracking on the Hungarian side i.e. 'received by customs' etc. and it was delivered to the buyer just under a week ago (he kept very quiet about it).

The question is now what do I do ? the Royal Mail UK claims process takes around 3 months to 'complete' but it's obvious what has happened now, I know last time an item disappeared in England via Royal Mail and I put in a claim I had to put in a complaint to get anything done after a month of them not lifting a finger or communicating with me. I suspect Royal Mail will now dig in their heels about this claim as it was delivered'

Before I contact either eBay or Royal Mail could anyone advise me on the proper procedure in this case ? I will be about £190 out of pocket in total if Royal Mail UK or eBay UK refused to return the money to me.

Obviously if eBay return the money from me from the Buyer then I will stop the claim on the Royal Mail side.

What do I do regarding eBay ? Do I have to contact the buyer first and try and establish whether they received the item ? Then what is the procedure via eBay from that point (if any) ? How will the buyer even pay me ? or do I have to raise some sort of dispute ? maybe it's Royal Mail UK who are liable to pay in this case ?

I just don't know as this is uncharted waters for me.

Thanks for your help.

(Also it was 'an official' EBay 'Item not received' dispute that the buyer raised so I did follow procedure according to eBay way of issuing refunds for 'lost / not received items').

[jimthing]

Politely ask for the refund money back from your buyer first. Then take it from there. They may simply pay-up then the whole issue is moot. 

If they fail to respond, say you'll be opening a case against them if they fail to respond. If no response, call Ebay and ask them. 

Likely, you'll have to pursue via the RM claim, and/or may have to put in an additional RM complaint to get them to refund. But there is no clear answer in these cases, as RM will initially likely say its a customs issue (UK or Hungary), and nothing they could do, so you'll have to push them further with the communications record you have had with them previously, to see if they'll pay-out under a complaint. All takes time, unfortunately. 

[4_bathrooms]

eBay are not going to get involved. Once a seller has volunteered a refund that's the end of eBay's involvement.

You need to ask your buyer to pay for the item they have now received but you have absolutely no way of forcing them to pay you. I doubt you'll receive anything more than a token amount from Royal Mail; that is if they cough anything up at all. 

[jimthing]

Still call Ebay as worth asking, so they're aware of issue, even if they tell you to pursue via RM. 

RM have paid me out on complaints (after repeated chasing over couple of months!), so that'll likely be the final way forward. If your buyer refuses to refund, call RM and make them aware of the delays issue again and make sure they add that to your claim#. 

If RM reject claim, then put in RM complaint. 

[tea_and_tortoises]

The buyer has the item and the refund so they should repay you. This is tricky if they are overseas but there are ways around it. 

eBay won't do anything and will say it is between you and the buyer.

You can't claim from Royal Mail for an undelivered item because it has been delivered. If you had claimed earlier before it was delivered, they might have paid out.

You can make a claim for late delivery as it was more than 20 days late so should get your postage cost back.

[dafern65]

Well for one of the packages the buyer kindly returned it and it's in perfect condition and I paid the expensive return postage once I had received it (it was £30 !!).

last week Royal Mail sent me an e-mail for the item that had been delivered which was basically a 'it's been delivered' have a nice life, if you want to complain, complain to us at this address. There was no offer for compensation for the months of delay for postage. If I press them for the refund of the original eBay sale postage and then the other return postage back to me (with proof and threat of the Obudsman if they refuse) what are my chances of getting all or any of the postage back ?

The other item which was more expensive and the buyer didn't seem to pick up (as it was held in customs) and he either forgot about it because there was a delay of months or there was a communication problem between him and customs seems to have arrived back in the UK today so maybe it's getting a return, we'll wait and see on that one.

But as stated before I have  Royal Mail claims on both of them that were initiated 1 month after they went missing or so and there was no progress.