Returns long past 30 days

[cleanycloth]

Hey all,

This has probably been discussed a bunch of times but I'm having an issue with a buyer at the moment.

I sold a 2012 Macbook Pro on the 11th of December. Buyer contacted me on the 14th to say all was well. But on the 5th of February they stated it was no longer charging. I kindly offered them a return and refund, or a partial refund to buy a new battery. Two days later they responded and asked where to buy batteries. I mentioned here on eBay. At the same time I also mentioned about trying an SMC reset (basically a power management reset), to see if that would work as that would save us both time and money.

I had no response until the 20th of February, when they stated they were trying that procedure, among some other things unrelated. I replied back with the instructions just in case. They then replied 5 days later on the 25th saying they would do this.

There was then no response again until today, 31st of March, over a month later saying it now keeps freezing and doing strange things.

Bearing in mind it was working when I sent it, the buyer acknowledged it was, and it was already outside of the 30 day range when it started having battery problems, I am not obligated to provide a return, right? I know I offered one on the 5th but the buyer never stated they wanted to return until today.

Thanks for your help.

[*vyolla*]

eBay's return policy for not as described items is 30 days, as is PayPal's.

If your buyer funded their payment with a debit or credit card they'll still be just in time to issue a not as described chargeback (120 days).

It's difficult to know how to play this. 

[cleanycloth]

The thing is, it absolutely was working and the buyer said so themselves, but then messaged after the return window to say the battery had stopped working. Received 14th of December, battery bad on the 5th of Feburary, that's almost two months.

My point being really is that they had issues past the 30 days return window originally. Then when I offered a partial refund for a new battery, a return, or trying out this SMC reset (which takes all of 10 seconds to do), I wasn't expecting them to drag it out for nearly two more months, especially with the 1 month gap between the previous and current message. It's been nearly 4 months since it was purchased.

[cleanycloth]

(Can't edit on to my previous post again)

The other point is that if I provide the seller a label to return it, I hope eBay won't come down on me like a ton of bricks for providing a refund outside via PayPal or wherever. If I go down that route then obviously I won't refund the payment until I receive the laptop back and confirm it's the right one and not been swapped out or changed in some way.