Problem Buyer

[sarahsammi]

Hi All,  I recently listed a new item, all seals still intact.  A lady purchased the item and I sent it off to her the next morning.  She received it the following day and then wrote to me stating that the item was used and had been broken.  I responded to say this was not the case at all as the seals were still in place and I had purchased it new myself but did not require this particular item (daughter received 2 at Christmas).  I wrote to Ebay explaining what was happening...... no response.  I have now received a returns request - which I have no option but to agree to.  There seems to be no way of alerting Ebay to issues like this?  I will shortly be receiving the item back - broken/used by the lady that purchased it (or did she already have a broken one and she has swapped it with my brand new item?  I'll never know) and I'll be required to give a full refund to this person also.  That can't be right, surely?    

[**peaseblossom** · Accepted solution]

No, it's not right.  I would contact ebay about it in the morning.  Use callback on here:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/eua?id=5275&mkevt=1&mkpid

If you end up having to refund you can appeal here:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/appealing-decision-seller?id=4369

[red_magpie]

Good luck, and I hope that peaseblossom's advice works, but we often hear from sellers that buyers have returned items that they have damaged, removed parts from or even switched for another one.

In theory, eBay's conditions of returned items policy should protect sellers, see: https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/member-behaviour-policies/condition-returned-items-policy?id=47...

In practice, this is often rendered meaningless because the seller can't prove what the buyer received, or its condition. Typical responses that other sellers claim to have received from eBay include "Although we understand that you received your item back in a different condition than it was in when you sent it, we unfortunately couldn't determine that this was caused by the buyer" and "As we did not see the item, either as received by the buyer or as returned to the seller, we are not in a position to determine who has the valid case, or take sides".

eBay's idea of not taking sides was to give the benefit of any doubt to the buyer, and make the seller refund them.

Whether anything has changed I don't know. It would be a great help in replying to similar questions if you could let us know the outcome.

[sarahsammi]

Thank you for this advice, it is much appreciated.  I will do as you suggest.  It's really upset me, I'm usually a buyer, it's dented my confidence with regards to selling.  Thank you 

[sarahsammi]

I will, thank you.

I am hopeful that I will have some protection and will follow the process as you and peaseblossom have suggested.  I will update this page once the process is complete.  Hopefully the item will reach me within the next few days and I will then appeal the refund.  Thank you so much for the advice.

[sarahsammi]

Hi peaseblossom and red_magpie, as promised I have an update.  Via the Ebay returns process I was asked to send a postage paid label to the buyer, which I did at a cost of just under £7.  I have been waiting for the item to be returned to me so that I can then follow the remaining part of the process.  Today I have received an update from Ebay saying that I have been found to not be at fault but the buyer has been issued a full refund (which included just under £7 it originally cost me to send the brand new item to the buyer) and Ebay will cover the cost of this refund.  My feedback will not be affected apparently.  So, in short, I am down just under £14 - the postage to send the item originally and the postage cost for the buyer to return the item to me - which I have not received and the tracking number indicates has not been posted back to me.  The original item cost of £15 is sitting in my account.  Therefore I am left with £1 plus no item.  I think I'll leave the selling to the pro's from now on, one scam is enough for me.  Thank you both very much for your assistance, I really appreciate your time.

[*guinevere*]

If your buyer hasn't sent the item back the label  won't have been used and will not have been charged to your account.

[sarahsammi]

Hi guinevere, I didn't use the Ebay postage option because the cost was just under £10.  I went to the Parcelshop website and purchased the label there.  However, I hadn't considered the possibility that I may be due a refund if the label wasn't used - I'll try to find out tomorrow - thank you.

[*guinevere*]

You could void the label but sorry, I have no idea how you would go about it.

[red_magpie]

Thanks for letting us know the outcome. But if eBay is paying for this refund  don't understand why you say you will still be out of pocket for the original postage?

It's good news that eBay is treating you as not being at fault, and encouraging that they do still sometimes do this. 

The frustrating thing is that eBay has agreed to this before the item has even been returned, so their decision isn't based on the actual facts. And the buyer still gets a full refund as a green light to probably try the same thing again. But well done for persuading them to consider your side of the case, as we hear of so many cases where eBay simply accepts the buyer's word against the seller's.

[sarahsammi]

Hi red_magpie,

The original total cost of the item was £15 plus £6.41 postage, I received £21.41.  I then issued a returns postage label to the buyer which cost another £6.90.  My outlay at this point was £13.31 plus the £15 value of the item sold.  Ebay refunded the buyer £21.41 and left me with £15 in my account - they did not refund me the postage price.  The buyer has had 8 days to post the item back to me, they haven't even started the process.  I have just written to Parcels2Go to explain that I have been scammed and can they cancel and refund the service I purchased.  At least I will then have only lost the original cost of sending the item £6.41.

I agree with you, I immediately notified Ebay and explained what was happening, they could see I had issued a returns label and that the buyer hadn't done anything in response.  Yes - it isn't fair but I have learned a valuable lesson.  I'll stick to selling locally - cash on collection 🙂

[sarahsammi]

That was a great idea guinevere and I have written to Parcels2Go - hopefully they will issue me with a refund - thankyou for the suggestion.

[john1297576]

You say you received from buyer £21.41 and received a refund of £21.41 from ebay, so younlost nothing.

The label you bought £6.90 would only be charged for if used, but you say buyer has not returned so not used, so you are not out of pocket.

 Congratulations on winning with ebay, it is a rare occasion this happens, it is possible that it was based on buyer being out of time to return, but ebay never gives explanations.

[sarahsammi]

Hi john1297576, thank you for your response.  The buyer received the refund of £21.41 (which was the total amount they paid) not me,  at this point I have only received £15 from Ebay.  The total postage costs were £13.31 and I am hopeful that Parcels2Go will refund me the £6.90 I paid regarding the return that I have not received because the buyer has not posted the item back to me.  So, in the hope that they are kind enough to refund me, I will have only lost £6.41 - the cost of sending the item to the buyer.  It is still a loss though.  The buyer had until 2nd Feb to return the item to me.  Now they have a full refund from Ebay I very much doubt they will be returning the item.