give sellers time to respond before doing needless returns
Summary: maarsy shared an experience where they mistakenly swapped two labels, resulting in a return request via eBay. Despite offering a quick resolution by facilitating a swap with another buyer, the initial buyer chose to follow eBay's return process, ignoring direct communication. This led to refunds and extra costs for maarsy. cobwebcottage and jonatjonatjonat pointed out that the buyer acted according to the system and emphasized the importance of privacy considerations in such transactions.
its been like a year since i last had an accident switching 2 labels but my mistake it sadly happened again . the buyer contacted me and i noticed the first message within 17 minutes and had sent me a photo several minutes after the first . i responded straight away apologising and told him i would contact the other buyer and provide him with a label so they could swap the items over ( its how i solved it last time )
6 minutes later i had the label ready and messaged him again but literally a minute before that he had made a return request trough ebay that gets auto approved including a message in capitals that it was not the right item and he was going to return it . i once again messaged that he can have the item within 2 or 3 days since it can be swapped over . neither of the 3 messages i sent actually got a response it seemed he only talked to the " system " and just ignored me . the other buyer was more understanding and we waited 3 days before the tracking on his ebay return request showed as sent , i than refunded the other buyer as it would otherwise take another week to get it to me and send it out again.
while i know it is my fault it did make me wonder if he actually wanted the item as he showed no interest in having it resolved , what could be solved with 2 simple labels cost me an extra 2 refunded items and 3 times postage . however the buyer can completely ignore the seller if a resolution is offered and i have had false returns like this just because the system just accepts the return as long as the reason is right .
c_of_e84
·2 weeks agoYou cant send labels and ask buyers to swap, its against data protection rules.
jonatjonatjonat
·2 weeks agoThat's not a needless return - its the correct process from the buyers point of view. Providing a buyer with another label to the other customer is technically a GDPR breach (even if its a QR code, they could scan that and get the other persons address).
Yes its more hassle for you but it is what it is.
cobwebcottage
·2 weeks agoThe first buyer followed the system correctly.
Open an INAD, return, refund and then buy the correct item again if they still wish.
This is the price we have to pay for making a mistake and it means that the buyer is fully protected.