can someone give me advice on a return Thank you

[gamu-4184]

Hi There

I Bought a bonnet for my car and it arrived with dents in it . Seller apologised and offered a partial refund that we agreed . I said I would cancel the return when the partial refund was back in my paypal account .He is asking me to cancel the return so he can make the refund via ebay as option isnt there for him whilst retrun process is ongoing .I thought anyone could make a partial refund to a buyer through paypal and then the return is cancelled . I do not want to make a mistake and end up with this item at full price as it will do until I can order a better one but car is off the road without it . any help appreciated thank you  

[red_magpie · Accepted solution]

NEVER agree to cancel a return opened through eBay, until you are satisfied with the outcome. Once closed, it can't be reopened if the seller don't refund you.

What you should have done was open a case under eBay's money back guarantee, but if you've already opened an ordinary returns case you won't be able to do this now.

If you're happy to accept a refund, hold out for this.

Otherwise, if it all goes pear shaped, you can use Paypal's 180 day buyer protection policy to return the bonnet for a full refund, see: https://www.paypal.com/uk/smarthelp/article/what-if-i-didn%27t-receive-my-item-or-it%27s-not-as-adve...

Unlike eBay, PayPal requires the buyer to pay for the return postage. To avoid this, first register for their (free) "Return shipping on us" service, see: https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/refunded-returns

[gamu-4184 · Accepted solution]

thank you for your kind and informative reply

[m25jet]

When you said that the seller offered you a partial refund and you accepted it, was this as a result of an agreement reached via eBay Messages or was the partial refund offered via a case opened in the eBay Resolution Centre?  If it was the former then the seller may be trying to run you out of time so that he/she doesn't have to refund your money; however, if it was the latter then you should have seen a message from eBay via the case to make you aware that the seller had offered you a partial refund.  You would then have had the chance to accept or reject the seller's offer via the case.  If you'd accepted the offer of a partial refund via the eBay case then once the money had been returned to your account the case would have closed automatically; however, if you'd declined the offer then the seller would have had to come up with another option that you found acceptable, and if he/she hadn't come up with an acceptable solution to the problem you would then have been offered the chance to escalate the case to eBay for them to make a final decision upon the matter.

If the seller offered you a partial refund via an opened eBay case then if you accepted the partial refund via the case don't close the case down if the money has not yet been returned to your account.  If you still haven't received your partial refund by this time next week then escalate the case to eBay.  If eBay have to step in and sort the matter out then they might even force a refund of the total amount that you paid for the item, as opposed to the partial refund offered by the seller.  If you did receive a forced refund courtesy of eBay they would more than likely tell you that you were under no obligation to return the bonnet to the seller, in which case you could use it as a stop-gap option until you could get a decent bonnet and you wouldn't have to SORN the car in the meantime.

Finally, it would be worth remembering that the length of time that it takes to receive the refund is to some extend dependent upon the means of payment.  If you paid for the bonnet via your PayPal balance then once the seller refunded your money the partial refund ought to show up in your PayPal account straightaway.  If, however, you financed the payment with a credit card then the payment could take up to thirty days to show up again, whereas if you financed the payment via a debit card then the refund could take up to seven days to show up as having been returned to the card.

[rusticrye]

Once you open a return request or case, an immediate hold is placed on the PayPal payment. That is why the seller can't make a partial refund through PayPal.  He unfortunately can't make one through an Ebay return request either - only full refunds can be made though these.

If you're both determined to go down the partial refund route, rather than return for full refund, there are two options: 

1. The seller refunds you in full through the return request, and trusts you to then send him a PayPal gift payment or bank transfer to cover whatever you owe.

2. You close the return request and trust him to action a partial refund.

Neither are ideal, obviously, as one of you has to fully trust the other, a person who is a total stranger.  You are in the better position, though, as you can still open a case in PayPal if necessary.

The only other option is for you to return for full refund, using the return request. The tracked postage label Ebay will supply you with at the seller's expense will not cover you for the return of a car bonnet (max label weight is 2 kgs).  So when you receive it, you will have to contact Ebay so that they can make alternative arrangements with the seller. Do not bypass this step - you must involve Ebay in this process, to ensure that you're fully refunded.

@gamu-4184