Hi I sell via my established online shop and received an order in February from a customer in Germany. The order was duly dispatched the same day. At the end of March I received a message from the customer via a PayPal claim as the item hadn't been received and he wanted the tracking details. I responded next day and advised that after checking the tracking, I found the order had been refused and that another would be dispatched using a different tracking service in case that was the issue (first went tracked and signed for, second simply went tracked). We received the returned order back the day we responded to the claim. A photo of the returned order's packaging was included with the claim response. Tracking reference numbers were provided at all stages during the sale and claim. Contact was made by the customer via PayPal again approx 10 days later asking for tracking details again. I repeated the tracking number for the second dispatch. I shortly after received notification from the PayPal Resolution Centre advising that a refund had been given to the customer because it was not possible to determine that the order had been delivered. I checked the tracking and found that it was in customs in Germany. There was a full timeline of the order's travels. PayPal's notification also stated that I couldn't appeal their decision but if I had further proof I could provide it. So I wrote a further response with screen shots of the tracking information for the second dispatch fully detailing that the item was in Germany and in customs. I queried what more could have been done by a Seller in such circumstances as the second order was dispatched at our cost. Today I was told that the decision to refund would not be changed - no explanation other than the proof of delivery wasn't provided. So the long and the short of it is £160+ of goods have been sent to a customer for free without any hope of being paid because PayPal deem items stuck in customs as being missing and therefore refund the customer if they claim. Let's face it it's highly unlikely that the customer will pay for them once they are released from customs.
Has anyone else had experience of this and did you find a way round it? This is going to be a huge issue for PayPal customers who sell outside the UK.
Thanks
