Return badly packaged so received damaged.

[555njp]

Sold a brand new grass trimmer. After a few days the buyer requested a return as they didn’t realise that once assembled it would not fold away therefore it was too large for their storage space.

No problem at all, but when returned it came back in a bin liner!
On inspection there are now several marks and scuffs from the lack of protection, they destroyed the original instruction manual and had put it together so it cannot now be disassembled without breaking the security seal and voiding the warranty!

I’m not overly concerned about the assembly as I can fix that and offer our own warranty instead. However, because of the scuff damage, the item can now only be sold as second-hand or at best a grade A refurb or shop-soiled item which of course reduces the value.

In line with eBay’s guidance (15-30%) I have applied a 25% reduction to the refund. I’ll still lose out when re-selling though, but I’m trying to be fair.

My questions are:

What happens if the buyer disputes the deduction? I did attach photos and EBay say I’m protected implying that my deduction is reasonable?

Can the buyer still leave negative feedback? and if so can that be removed?

On completion of the refund, I got a message saying eBay had reported the buyer for abusing the returns process? I didn’t ask to report them, just to reduce the amount refunded because of the damage. The report was automated because I ticked “received damaged”.

You can probably tell I’ve never had to apply a deduction to a refund before (don’t get many returns at all but have had two this week).

Usually refund in full for the odd low value INR, or change of mind, but these have always come back in the same condition as sent.

This buyer was so careless in returning my item I thought it more than reasonable to deduct for damage on this occasion but now wondering if I’d have been better off just writing off the loss?

Anyone had a similar experience?

[w79805]

Buyer is a thoughtless tw@ who doesn't respect you as a human being. I would have deducted more.

[555njp]

Believe me I thought about it but figured a higher deduction would certainly cause a dispute, end in the buyers favour (as it usually does) and guarantee me a neg…!

[dch2112011 · Accepted solution]

Going on past experiance, assuming you have the business seller enhanced protection you can  make a deduction up to 50%  - there is a scale published on ebay.

If you use this protection and the buyer remonstrates with ebay generally ebay refund the amount deducted from their own funds however their is a rub.

if ebay decide  it was buyer fault-  which in your situation is covered by the condition of returned items policy -  then any negative feedback is removed and you suffer no penalty however if ebay decide it is seller fault your metrics take a hit and negative feedback remains which is the rub.

Private sellers do not have this business seller protection but can offer a partial refund which has to be accepted or rejected by the buyer - if rejected ebay will force a full refund

[555njp]

Thank you for the reply, yes that makes sense then. I have the enhanced business protection and had the option of deducting up to 50%, eBay’s scale as you say, but parts had to be missing or the item had to have been used to deduct the full 50%.

That also ties in with eBay’s comment on the case “once you complete your refund, that’s it! we’ll do the rest and don’t worry you’re protected” Or something like that.
I did wonder if the buyer did put up a fight, eBay might just refund the difference to keep the peace.

It’s not a lot of money anyway so hopefully that’ll be the end of that one.

Thanks again for clarity.

[4_bathrooms]

Something that might be worth pointing out is that when you make such a deduction the fees associated with the transaction are not credited back.

[555njp]

Yes, rather annoying but I had spotted that. No doubt eBay want to keep them as a partial offset in case they have to refund the buyer?

Basically on a hiding to nothing as a seller. Already lost outbound postage, listing fee, re-listing fee and the value difference between New and Used just because buyer 1/ Didn’t read the description, 2/ Didn’t understand the product and most importantly 3/ Couldn’t be bothered to return it safely….!

Have blocked in case they try to buy again.

[555njp]

In case anyone else finds themselves in this position, I thought I’d update.

It took eBay 14 days to release my funds (the 25% deduction) and the day afterwards I get a neg from the disgruntled buyer.

I’ve requested the neg be removed but I’m not holding my breath…!

In hindsight and given that fees are around 15% anyway, financially, time wise and account damage wise! I should have just refunded in full, blocked the buyer and wrote the cost off rather than deducting a meaningless 25%.

This is clearly what eBay want us to do which is why they don’t offer even a partial fee refund if any deduction is made.

Fingers crossed for no more bad returns!

[555njp]

Well 10 out of 10 to eBay, they’ve agreed to remove the Neg so in this case at least seller protection did work.