Listing showed as sold out, but customer was charged in error

[ResurrectionEclectic]

Spoiler

Spoiler

A customer has messaged me that when she attempted to purchase an item from my shop, she was notified by Etsy that it was no longer available. So she purchased something similar from another shop instead.

She didn't realize until my item arrived this week that she had been charged for both my "unavailable" item and her 2nd choice-- and mine is now unwanted.

I do accept returns, and would normally refund less the amount I paid to ship to the customer, once an item is returned to me.

However, if this is an error in the Etsy system, I think neither the customer nor the shop should pay costs to resolve it.

It's not a very large amount of money, but I am curious about the best way to resolve the situation.

TIA for any advice or insight!

[Amaradorn]

This issue has been going on for a couple of weeks now (at the least). I recommend contacting Etsy support and ask them what they intend to do about it. Their bug (of sending these Out of Stock emails to the last buyer) is now costing sellers. Luckily for me, my buyers contacted me first to ask why it was out of stock since they just purchased it. I'm sorry you have been caught out by Etsy's incompetence.

[PrimFun]

The item was not unavailable.  She bought the item which if you had the order, you could have responded back that you had the order and was shipping it if she asked right away about the email.

This is a glitch that has reappeared.  The item is for sale when the buyer purchases and then some old programming is cutting in and issuing a sold out email when it shouldn't.   It will get fixed eventually.

If she wishes to return the item then I would accept the return and refund her.  If you are in the US send her a prepaid return label.

This is another reason to have self insurance fund set up for glitches like this.  In the computer age it is going to happen and any seller needs to be prepared.  You can contact Etsy, explain the situation and ask them to consider reimbursing the buyer.  They just might.