UK to US Delay

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Auld Argonian:

As I'd mentioned in my previous post, I'm a few days ahead of you in the waiting. I've been in touch with the seller a couple of times, and he says he's certain that the delay is in US Customs, which is likely the case. He has assured me that he will refund my money in the event that the item never arrives.

My question is this: At what point would you (anyone chime in here) open a case with PayPal? I know I have 45 days to do so, but I don't want to take any action that would damage the seller's credibility unduely.

The seller has stated that he prefer that I not open a case, but give it a bit more time...

I'm inclined to give it 40 days at least... I figure if I open a case, I'll get a refund from PayPal, then the item will arrive, and I'll have caused the seller grief for nothing. (I've never found myself in this situation, and don't know the ramifications to a seller, or exactly how the process works...)

What would you do?

SM

UPDATE: Not 30 minutes after I posted this, my wife called to tell me that the jacket had arrived, but that the packaging seemed to have been damaged in transit... I'm hoping the contents are okay!

I see that the jacket has arrived, but just in case it is damaged, I thought I'd give my advice on your above question, from the point of view of a seller who uses PayPal.

If the seller is willing to communicate with you and address any issues you have about your order, be it non-delivery, or a damaged item, or whatever, I would strongly encourage you to go that route before you dispute the charge with PayPal.

What happens when you do that is that PayPal puts a "hold" on that dollar amount in the seller's account. You don't get your funds back right away, but the seller can't transfer those funds into his account, either. Then PayPal reviews the process and asks the seller to document the transaction, providing delivery confirmation numbers, etc, if applicable. PayPal determines if the buyer is owed the money or if it should be released to the seller.

I've had this happen to me on occasion where it would have been a very simple issue for me, as the seller, to resolve for my customer if I had been given the opportunity to deal with it directly. But if the customer opens a dispute with PayPal, then I am prevented from doing anything other than going through PayPal's system and following their protocol. So long as that dispute is on file my hands are tied until it gets resolved. It may be a situation where I would have been glad to refund the customer, or supply a replacement item, etc., very happily had I been contacted directly.

I would view a PayPal dispute as a final option to take if your seller is not willing or able to communicate with you about the matter.

[ShaunMaxwell]

Matt:

I appreciate the explanation.

I felt certain that the seller was being forthright with me, and was hesitant to open a case with PayPal as I didn't know the ramifications for the seller and didn't want to cause him problems unnecessarily.

Good to know not to use that option unless it's a dire situation.

Fortunately, it turned out to be a moot point in this case, but I, and hopefully others, will benefit from your comments.

Thanks,

SM

[Downunder Kilt]

If you go to the Royal Mail site on the web there is a alert section which shows that the US is under mail restriction and that mail packages mailed to individuals in the US are being shipped by sea. This eminates from the situation last year with the photocopiers. So I guess your homeland security is the one to blame. This situation, at one stage involved all packages but according to the site, the US have relaxed the rules on commercial shipments and hope to be able to solve the individual delays shortly.

[auld argonian]

Guess what just showed up in today's post?

Pics and details later...

Best

AA

[Mikilt]

AA,
I waited just about 2 months for an item I ordered from the STM that had to come from Scotland. Apparently, the delay wasn't in transit, but rather in manufacturing.
Still, waiting 8 weeks for something that I expected to take 4 weeks did not sit well with me. Regardless of who was at fault.