Buyer confirmed item worked then stopped working - what do i do?

Question

Hi recently sold a vintage radio (about 30 years old) I had plugged it in and checked all worked before photographing and selling. Buyer has messaged today with the below. What should I do? It was working when they received it and now they say its not.

"Hi, I'm really sorry to say. Package arrived fine, well packaged and it worked perfectly at first. I set the time twice, radio was great. But I then walked into my room later and found the time not appearing, turned it off and turned it back on. The time flickers and changes, I cannot do anything with it as even the radio stopped working. I changed the fuse and all, but unfortunately I think it's gone."

Appreciate any advice.

tressygirl · Accepted Answer

Vintage or not, if you listed it as fully working and it is not now, and all within 30 days of purchase, the buyer is entitled to a full refund.

Ask them to open a case for item not as described.

Accept the case within 3 days and send a prepaid label, I'm presuming you want the item back first.

Only on receipt of the item do you refund. You have 48 hours to do so.

Stick within the timelines above and your seller performance will not be affected.

@rachael7009

*vyolla* · Answer

Buyers have 30 days to return an item that they consider is not as described under eBay's Buyer protection/Money Back Guarantee, and if your buyer has already opened or opens an eBay item not as described return, they'll be required to send it back to you for a full refund of their original payment, and you'll need to provide them with a pre-paid returns label (if you don't provide a label, the buyer can escalate the dispute and get one from eBay, who will re-charge you for it).

You will get a defect against your selling account if you don’t accept the return and the buyer escalates the dispute to ask eBay to step in, which they can do after 3 business days.

Once you get your item back, if you feel that your buyer has misused eBay’s Money Back Guarantee you can use the Report Buyer link next to the item in your My eBay. This won't affect the outcome of the return case though.

Guidance for responding to a return request can be found on this eBay page:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/handle-return-request-seller?id=4115&st=12&pos=2&query=How%20to%20handle%20a%20return%20request%20as%20a%20seller&intent=Handling%20return%20requests