Dispute Fee

[darnat]

Hi, I listed an item and sold it mid last year, the item was a set of tables and I listed as buyer to collect. The buyer paid and asked me if they sent through a shipping label would I post out which I agreed, however, the shipping label never arrived and I messaged the buyer chasing this (messages are still in my messages file). I had zero contact from the buyer there after. Being totally honest I then forgot and have earlier this month had a dispute claim filed against me saying the items were never shipped, I was happy to refund the item but have also been charged £14 for the privilege from Ebay which obviously is quite annoying being as though I chased the buyer with no response. Any advice would be appreciated.

[jckl1957]

This is part of their terms and conditions.

If you are liable to pay the buyer when a payment dispute is started, you also have to pay Ebay.

It seems unfair, but you agree to all of these terms when you sell on Ebay.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/selling-policies/payment-dispute-seller-protections?id=5293&st=...

Dispute fees, payment holds, and reimbursements

Dispute fees

When a buyer files a payment dispute, the seller will be charged a dispute fee if they are found responsible for the disputed amount. eBay will waive the dispute fee if the dispute is eligible for payment dispute seller protections.

[*vyolla*]

Sellers have 90 days to refund their buyer via eBay.

Your buyer wouldn't be able to make a claim via eBay after all this time, so they've turned to their payment provider, which gets them a refund and hits you with the admin fee. There's no avoiding that fee. 

[red_magpie]

had a dispute claim filed against me

This must have been a credit card chargeback, in which case it wasn't filed against you, it was filed against eBay. Remember that buyers now pay eBay, not the seller - so any chargeback is also issued against eBay.

You accepted in the user agreement that when eBay is required to repay the buyer's payment provider, you will refund eBay and also pay their admin. fees for dealing with the chargeback.

This should be a warning to other sellers that when a buyer pays, but does not collect, they can still file a dispute to claim their payment back. In the old days, when the buyer paid the seller direct, the chargeback would have been filed against you personally. You would have had a right to contest it, for example to point out any selling, storage charges or other losses you had suffered as a result of the buyer failing to collect your item. But the claim is now made to eBay, so the seller is not even a party to the dispute and has no rights. eBay isn't going to incur staff time and possibly even legal expenses in contesting cases; they generally just accept the chargeback and require the seller to refund them, plus their admin. costs.