I sold a pair of trainers second hand at the start of January this year. The buyer lives in Tahiti and I’m in the U.K. Having never sold further then the US, I I initially considered declining the sale but as money was tight I went for it. I made a mistake with shipping costs but the buyer was kind enough to send me the difference by PayPal. I shipped the trainers out after packaging them well on the 4th of January and saw they left the U.K. on the 7th. I was quoted as 2 weeks for the item to arrive and that date went and passed with no issue. I assumed the item had been delivered as I have had more than one tracked item be delivered but not show as on the tracking site.

Today I received a notification that the buyer had opened a missing item claim, and sure enough the item had not yet arrived. As of now I have messaged him back to assure him I’m looking into this and I’ve gone through the missing item form on Royal Mail’s website. I don’t have the receipt any more as I assumed the item had arrived, and I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to provide further proof of what I need, I don’t know how to do right by this customer and worse still is I don’t know how to refund him or sort out getting refunded myself as my financial situation is bad.

Has anyone been here and can advise next steps? I’m kinda rattled by this as someone that’s sold maybe a handful of items over the years.