Royal Mail signed for delivery - item I posted has not been delivered - what do I do?

[balel]

Hi,
I posted an ebay item 10 days ago, using Royal Mail first class, signed for, service. The buyer has not received the item. The transaction was completed through Paypal.

The Royal mail website states they have the parcel so neither myself nor the buyer are at fault. The parcel was sent signed for delivery, the buyer has checked their local sorting office but it is not there. With my agreement they have now opened a dispute to claim a refund. Do I just refund and lose the money and the item (RM compensation will not cover the whole cost)? At the moment I have replied to the dispute by giving postage information but not the refund, are ebay involved at this point and looking at our case or am I just sending my buyer the information she already has from me? If I refund do I have any way to claim money back from ebay? I realise it's not their fault either but do they have insurance to cover situations like this?

I have just had another thought, am I not covered by Paypals 'seller protection'?

I have now asked the buyer to open a case through Paypal but the system wont let her as she has already opened the case through Ebay so does this mean I lose any protection I had with Paypal?

Thank you so much for any advice!

[kernowlass]

Seller protection covers you if a buyer files a claim for item not received and you can provide proof that they received it.

When you send an item it is up to you to make sure you send it with enough insurance so you can refund the buyer and pay yourself back via a claim from RM if it goes missing.

Ebay and paypal provide buyer protection so if a seller refuses to refund then the buyer does not lose out but then paypal put the sellers paypal account in neg until the seller pays them back again.

When I sell as a general rule i tend to take the risk on items under £25 and if they don't turn up then i just refund the buyer...does not happen much.....if over that amount then I always send trackable with insurance if the item price requires it then if it does not turn up i can claim from RM etc.

BUT RM does not consider an item lost until 15 working days have passed so I would ask your buyer to wait at least that long.......if the dispute is still at the dispute stage then its just dialogue between you and the buyer but if the buyer escalates the dispute to a claim then you have 10 days to provide paypal with a tracking number that proves delivery of the item to the buyer or you have to refund.

But as I said if it is still a dispute I would ask your buyer to be patient and wait until 15 working days have passed.

Ebay own paypal so a dispute can be opened on "either" paypal or ebay and is much the same.