Item somewhere in Hungary - how long until I refund?

[Clutterfreeintraining]

Listed an item for £85 fixed price. Ebayer asked if I’d post to Hungary. I checkedcost, they agreed, sale went ahead.
Item shipped with MyHermes. After a week, tracking showed it at Postoffice. A couple of days later, tracking showed as delivered. Problem is, it wasn’t delivered to the buyer.
I emailed MyHermes and they opened a claim. Checked back three days later and they say item is being returned to me but may take 8 weeks to get here.
Understandably, buyer wants a refund ASAP.
I’m currently looking at a loss of £40 (eBay/PayPal fees and cost of shipping)...will eBay refund their fees? Do I need to action cancelling the sale?
Also, any idea how I get the shipping cost refunded? Hermes have stopped responding to me

I’m currently looking at a loss of £40
(eBay/PayPal fees and cost of shipping)

You will get your eBay and PayPal fees back, just make sure the buyer opens a not received case, if they haven’t done so already.

You should really refund the buyer straight away, you certainly can’t wait until you get the parcel back to do so.

Why was the parcel not delivered? Did the buyer provide an incorrect address? If not then I’d push Hermes to refund what you paid for postage costs.

I’ve found that if you contact Hermes by social media they are actually quite helpful.

Thanks for the reply
I’ve no idea why it wasn’t delivered.
I checked the address with the buyer and they’ve confirmed it’s correct
I emailed MyHermes to ask why it wasn’t delivered and if it’s still possible to deliver it, rather than return it but they haven’t responded.
I’ll ask my buyer to open a not received case and refund. I was reluctant to refund until I knew the parcel was definitely coming back to me and not being sent to the buyer but I realise that’s not fair to them.
Do you think I could claim a refund through PayPal for the postage costs? I’ll try contacting MyHermes through SM first though.

Do you think I could claim a refund
through PayPal for the postage costs?
Definitely worth a shot!

Saying that I’m not sure they offer protection for non tangible products / services, but I don’t know.

If you do open a case against Hermes with PayPal then I’d upload evidence, perhaps emails from the buyer and a streetview link.

Thanks again
Courier finally replied this afternoon and said the likely reason for non-delivery is invalid address. eBay buyer says it’s correct on eBay and that’s what I used so will have to wait until I get it back before I can do anything more.
Have refunded the buyer and fees were automatically refunded so that’s something I guess.
Not sending overseas again!!

If you're not sending overseas again you need to go into your settings to make sure that bids or purchases from overseas will not be accepted. It's better to do this than simply to state this in your listings but still have overseas people able to buy from you.

Thanks - I’ll investigate