I recently refunded a buyer, but now know item was delivered. How do I get my money back?

[claire5513]

I recently sold an item.  The buyer did not inform me that it hadn't arrived, and instead opened a claim for reimbursement. 

I refunded her money immediately because I had mislaid the Certificate of Posting and couldn't check. 

Less than an hour later, I found the C of P and checked Royal Mail Track and Trace.  It showed the item HAD been delivered, 2 days prior to the buyer opening her claim.  I was unable to contact the buyer, and so made a report to eBay. 

Now I can't find out what, if anything, is going on?  If the item had been delivered, then it's no longer the seller's responsibility to refund and the buyer needs to take it up with Royal Mail if, indeed, she does not have my item (which I have no way of knowing).  Try as I might, I can't contact eBay to ask if my report will result in action, and the website makes it impossible for me to contact the buyer (the system will not allow me to send her a message, l assume because of her claim against me?).

What's my next move, or should I kiss my money goodbye?

[m25jet · Accepted solution]

Did you upload the tracking number to eBay after you posted the item?  If you had done so then even if you had misplaced the receipt you could have referred to the tracking number on eBay, in which case you would not have had to refund the buyer in the first place, as the tracking would have proved to eBay that the buyer had indeed received the item you sent her, in which case you would have won the case and would not have had to refund the buyer.

If you have not already done so add the tracking number against the item in your Sold Items section, as once you've added the tracking to eBay PayPal should also be able to access the information.  Once you've done that contact PayPal UK's Customer Support Team on 0208 080 6500 or 0800 358 9448 and explain that the buyer opened an Item Not Received case against you on eBay and so you refunded the payment, yet when you checked the tracking number after finding the receipt that you'd misplaced you found out that the buyer had actually received the item she had claimed non-delivery against.  Make sure that you've got the receipt to hand so that you can give PayPal the tracking number in case they can't find it on their systems, then ask them to put a trace on the tracking number.  PayPal tend to check cases far more closely than eBay do, so once they check the tracking number and see that the item was successfully delivered to the buyer at the address given on the PayPal confirmation of payment e-mail ask them to reinstate the refund back into your own account given that the buyer has fraudulently claimed a non-receipt related refund for the item, despite having received it prior to opening the Item Not Received case on eBay.  PayPal should then revoke the refund and reinstate the funds back into your account, in which case you won't end up out of pocket as a result of this dodgy buyer's behaviour.

Finally, make sure that you add the buyer's User ID to your Blocked Bidders List so that she cannot purchase anything else from you in the future and cause you any further aggravation.

[claire5513 · Accepted solution]

I'm new to selling and didn't realise I had to add the barcode number on the certificate of posting to the item and that this serves as tracking info (I do now!).

Thank you for suggesting I contact PayPal. I would never have thought of this and will give it a go.

Good advice all round. Much appreciated!

[claire5513 · Accepted solution]

Turns out PayPal won't help because the money has already been refunded. 😕