Mistake and Moving Forward

[ricecakesaks]

Hi all, hope you had a nice Christmas if you celebrate it.

I’ve had a challenging situation and would appreciate your thoughts. A buyer made an offer in an item and I accepted without noticing a request in the offer to send via Royal Mail (the listing only had evri as an option).
Not realising, I sent the order the same morning by evri and received a fairly abrupt message saying we agreed on Royal Mail and that evri do not give accurate and small delivery windows so the delivery was going to be a problem, if it arrived at all. I assume the buyer has had a negative experience of evri. 
I apologised and asked if I had missed something. This is where they told me about their request. Again I apologised and said that I had learned a lesson. I also said that in future purchases it might help both parties if they send a full message so sellers don’t miss their request as I did. Offers that are accepted vanish, and I have no record of the request (which granted, I missed in the first place).

I said that I had faith in the item arriving and when it did I would gladly accept a return.
The buyer took this as me being patronising and rude. I could tell they were angry. They said they will not accept the item after being spoken in such a way. I genuinely cannot see any rudeness in any of my correspondence. I’d be happy to post our full convo but obviously won’t.

The item was successfully delivered ahead of time, and has been immediately sent back to me. I will refund as soon as it arrives.

Should I refund the buyer for the return postage? I happily accept I made a mistake, but the buyer’s approach is difficult to swallow. The item made it safely in good time. They only paid the evri price which is less than RM’s. 
I am certain I will be receiving negative feedback no matter what I do. 

Thanks for reading!

[plpmr]

you should only refund through a case.

Sticking to the rules -

You made no mistake as offers are for the item price only with whatever is in the listing, P&P, carrier etc. There's no option for a buyer to force a seller to accept any alterations to the listings.

[**peaseblossom**]

Wow, that's one unpleasant buyer.   Sounds like they had buyer's remorse and wanted an excuse to send back,  maybe to themselves if not to you.     Have they paid return postage or "returned to sender"?   If they have paid they seem to have done without question.   Obviously nothing wrong with the item so you don't have to pay return postage. 

[tressygirl]

If the wrong postage service was given then the buyer can open a case for item not as described to receive a full refund,  which is all the money they initially paid.

I believe everyone reading this can nod in sympathy saying ' I've been there' !  That is,  be it writing a text, a  letter  (OK kids will probably nowadays say what's that?)  or emails and the totally wrong meaning / intonation is received by the recipient!

This is probably what happened here.  So all I can suggest is to profusely apologise again, that there was 100% no intention of being patronising,  and you accept an error was made ,  and you are happy to refund if they wish to return the item.

Do an over the top apology,  and you may just appease this buyer,  for their fingers to stay away from that negative feedback.

@ricecakesaks 

@ricecakesaks 

[ricecakesaks]

I’ve apologised multiple times about you can tell this person has made their mind up.

I honestly believe negative feedback is coming no matter what. I’ve read that you can appeal to have it removed which I will do, though I have no idea what my chances would be.

They will be refunded the instant the item gets back to me. So it comes down to whether I refund them the money for their return postage. 

Does missing a request in an offer for a particular postage carrier that was not in the original listing really constitute the item not being as described?

As mentioned, the offer disappears after acceptance, so I have no record of their request. Which is why I (politely) suggested in future sending a direct message. The buyer has said in a couple of messages ‘I have paid for Royal Mail…’ suggesting I’ve done something underhanded, but they haven’t and I haven’t, they’ve paid for evri as the listing stated.

I did say that I had faith the item would arrive upon which they could decide what they’d like to do, but they said ‘it’s coming back to you no matter what’. Just felt so extreme.

[vintagechinashop]

I would agree that you will probably get negative feedback. Totally undeserved but this buyer seems like they wouldn’t be happy no matter what they did 

unfortunately there are buyers out there like this that’s why I don’t get too upset about negatives as I did in the early days. At least you have the right to reply now 

[ricecakesaks]

Agreed, sigh. So it all comes down to whether I cover the costs for the return post. I'm happy to if I have to, but if I'm going to get negative feedback either way, I'd rather not if I don't have to!

Has my mistake made me liable for the return postage? Its already been sent, so they've already paid out of their own pocket.

[plpmr]

"Does missing a request in an offer for a particular postage carrier that was not in the original listing really constitute the item not being as described?"

No.

As I previously said, best offer is regarding the item price and nothing else.

[ricecakesaks]

Thank you, plpmr. I suppose offering to refund the original postage would be my last roll of the dice to avoid negative feedback.

Do you think I would have a chance of appealing to eBay if such feedback arrives? 

[dch2112011]

'Tis' the season to be jolly ! 

Refund happily what they paid but only when you have inspected the goods - when a grinch gets mean they might just be vindictive as well !

As for the remorse return costs smile and totally blank the cost - unless you feel particularly benevolent and charitable at this time of year ?

Without going into detail the delivery arrived in good time and by the method offered in the advert - technically by accepting a conditional offer you may have accepted the delivery request but in the season of goodwill a simple and non harmful oversight was made at no detriment to the customer - the fact that they feel privileged and entitled  is not your fault.

When you refund use cancellation - problem with buyers address  or buyer requested cancellation - which there is or they did based on not being able to accept delivery - I think this will stop negative feedback - some of the experianced members can confirm this ?

[plpmr]

It would depend on what the comment said.

If it was about the postage then you should have a good chance getting a neg removed, on the grounds that the buyer wanted something that was not offered in the listing. 

[*guinevere*]

Do you think I would have a chance of appealing to eBay if such feedback arrives?

It is always worth appealing to ebay, they can only refuse.

But you have done nothing wrong.

It cannot be counted as a Not as Described case on the basis of the wrong postage being used because you used the postage stated on the listing.

If your buyer wanted a different postage he should have asked before placing his offer, far too late afterwards. He doesn't know your circumstances, for all he knows your nearest PO could be 30 miles away. You were under no obligation to use RM.   If you'd seen the message in time you could have refused to change and could have asked your buyer if they wished to cancel. As advised this is NOT a NAD case, it is simply a remorse return for which you just refund what he has paid.

As your buyer has gone and bought the return postage, ebay will NOT make you refund, and as you are probably going to get a negative anyway I don't think it matters if you do or don't.

Please remember to add this buyer to your blocked list, he sounds like a total nightmare and you definitely don't want them to come back!

[ricecakesaks]

Sadly I never saw the comment but, knowing what I now know of the customer, it wouldn't surprise me if it said something along the lines of 'on no accounts will I accept delivery by evri, do not accept this offer if it is not possible to send by RM'.

I suppose the specific language of the comment is irrelevant to how eBay feel about it in regards to removing negative feedback. 

[*guinevere*]

See my post above:  The time to ask about changes to postage is before placing an order, not after.

Edit: I think @plpmr  was talking about the feedback comment your buyer  may leave, not the message your buyer sent.

[dch2112011]

Unless I misread this post Did the buyer not make an offer with a condition attached which was accepted by the seller ? 

If so there may be a technical acceptance of delivery method but as the method of delivery was timely and theoretically more secure - they would have no acceptable legal argument 

[*guinevere*]

As far as I can see the OP accepted the offer without seeing the message.  So logically the buyer has accepted the conditions stated on the listing.

[ricecakesaks]

Can you put binding conditions on orders or is it just requests?

I would've gladly changed the postage on the listing had I seen the message, it makes no difference to me. Which is why I suggested sending DM's in future offers so there's a recorded paper trail. But that just infuriated the buyer. 

[dch2112011]

You have done nothing wrong, basically yes a buyer can make demands when placing an order or offer which you can accept or reject by cancelling an order or rejecting an offer and in ebay world you should be able to have fedback removed and under report a buyer ebay can sanction a buyer  for leaving negative feedback in these circumstances.

You are obviously an honest and thoughtful seller do not let the entitled get to you - they are thankfully few and far between 

[ricecakesaks]

I really appreciate everyone's help and will let you know how it goes. 

Have a great night

[magpiecorner1]

Hi - my sympathies, but all may not be lost.

As I discovered just yesterday, when you get a message with an offer, if you accept the offer, you cannot reply through messages.  Furthermore, if you are using your phone, you cannot see the username, do you have no idea who bought until they pay, or until you go to your computer.

The buyer asked you to change your conditions, which you didn't agree to do.  And what you can't agree to do via an offer .  Pretty much impossible to do anyway if it means increasing postage rates.  I think this is the reason that eBay doesn't allow buyers to request changes to sellers conditions.

So eBay should have your back on this one.

Now, is the item refused at delivery or delivered and posted back?

If refused, a case can't be opened as not received or not as described.  Well, I say can't because this is eBay land, at least you might have a chance if you contact a rep.

If the item is a sufficiently low value, lower than the worth of no neg feedback, look at cancellation and refund options.  Try changing 'despatched' to awaiting despatch first, and if you can change that choose 'buyer asked to cancel '. Fairly sure that option means buyer can't leave feedback, someone here might know for certain.

If you get a neg (haven't they changed it that buyer has to wait 7? days to leave a neg?) get onto customer service, early morning hopefully to Dublin and get confirmation that buyers can't request changes to sellers terms, pointing out your terms meant an 'on-time' delivery, ask for a reference number and wait for the feedback.

Best of luck, if you end up with a neg that can't be removed, that's fine.  Spend some time composing a worthy reply describing how the buyer was completely out of order.