I sent a tracked item to a buyer, item was delivered and signed for, buyer claims not received

[flumphead1402]

I sent a tracked parcel to a buyer, the item was delivered and signed for by someone using the buyers name (this is what the buyer claims) but she claims she has not received it. I have made all the attempts to locate the delivery address and am told it was the buyers address, have seen a signature (which in all honesty could be a drawing by a 4 year old). I have made a complaint to Royal Mail and am waiting to hear back from them.

The buyer is demanding a refund, claiming I can get my money back, but I can't because the post office deems the item deliverd and signed for.

Am I in the right or do I give her a refund, losing the payment for the trainers and the trainers themselves?

[m25jet]

If the tracking shows that the item has been successfully delivered to the address provided on the PayPal notification of payment e-mail and you have a signature to prove delivery of the item then there is no way that the buyer will be able to win an Item Not Received case.  If she has already opened a case then ask her to escalate the case for eBay to step in and make a decision upon, but before you do that make sure that you've already added the tracking number next to the item in your Sold Items section on your All Selling page.  eBay will need to be able to see the tracking number so that they can put a trace on it and determine for themselves whether the item has been delivered or not.

Once the matter is escalated to eBay and they see that the tracking proves successful delivery of the item to the address provided on the PayPal confirmation of payment e-mail the Item Not Received case will be closed in your favour, in which case you will not be required to refund the buyer, either in part or in full, and the buyer will not be able to leave you any feedback in relation to the transaction.

If the buyer does end up escalating the case to eBay but leaves you negative feedback prior to the case being decided in your favour then get onto eBay Customer Services as quickly as possible after the case has been closed and ask them to remove the buyer's negative feedback, emphasising the fact that eBay decided the Item Not Received case in your favour.  If you do that then any negative feedback left by the buyer prior to the case being decided in your favour will be removed by eBay and it will not have any damaging effects upon your account.