A dispute which has resulted in an eBay buyer now having my money AND my items - how do I resolve?

[SilvaNemesis]

I sold some Kylie CDs back on eBay in December. The buyer in Mexico, purchased the CDs. They were shipped out just before Christmas and were delayed in arriving. So rather than contact me, this individual opened a dispute with PayPal back in February. I have various charitable outgoings for which PayPal is automatically used each month and his dispute wanting a refund blocked the use of my account and meant that payments going out were held up. I issued his refund to clear my account, but I then checked again online with Royal Mail and the tracking number and the items have now been delivered!

So this thief has my items AND my money and is not responding to any e-mails. I have as a result, blocked him on eBay from bidding any further, but how am I supposed to get my money back now? I'm really rather angry! I sent a message to PayPal to which I have received no response, this has only served to anger me further, as well as further my view that eBay is rigged in favour of the buyers these days and sellers seem to have very little comeback, so now I'm in this situation where this person isn't paying up. I've sent a PayPal invoice and a subsequent reminder, both of which have been ignored and I will go further if necessary.

I want my money or my items back, they are not his as he has not paid for them - so what do I do now?

[kernowlass]

You refunded him, nothing else paypal can do for you.

Even if you waited for the dispute to end if, at that time you could not prove with a tracking number that the item had been delivered to the buyer then you would most probably have lost.

Its should not take nearly 2 months for an item to arrive even if delayed, i send all over the world and most items get their 7-10 days so your buyer had given you plenty of time for the item to arrive before resorting to a dispute.

The buyer is entitled to a refund if the item does not arrive in a reasonable time, BUT most buyers are honest so why not just contact him and see if now he has the goods he will pay you again? 

[SilvaNemesis]

I've already contacted him, the first response I got was... What CDs do you speak of? And now he hasn't got the money to pay me. It's not MY fault, the items took as long as they did to get there, they were posted in December, then we had a postal strike just before Christmas so they would not have even left the country until January. As for the Mexican postal service and why it took so long, that's hardly my responsibility. So basically I've been shafted then is what you're saying, well what a crap system this is if people can do that to you and get away with it so easily. On the plus side, I'll quite happily put his details out there for other sellers to beware of in future if he's not going to pay me which he's clearly not. Fraudster. He's also resulted in everyone else in Mexico being blocked from bidding on future auctions, I'm not going through this again. I buy and sell fair and square on eBay and I would hope others would have the decency to do the same as well as PayPal having the decency to reply to my message which I sent directly to them, apparently I'm wrong on both counts.

[kernowlass]

it happens.

if you are selling regularly you are always going to get the odd transaction go against you.

just forget it and move on.

[SilvaNemesis]

So he takes over £50 of my money AND my items and I'm supposed to move on? I don't think so. I'm not just going to accept that. Thanks for the help but it didn't really help me, I thought someone from Paypal might read this and offer some help or solution, but I've wasted my time coming here. I'm not letting it go. It's theft and it's wrong!