Simple Delivery Refund On Item Not As Described But Not Returned

[dml123]

Hi everyone,

I've had weeks of conflicting information from eBay and been told to do things other advisors have said to no do etc etc, so I'm going to ask on here!

I purchased a record from a seller and it arrived scratched. I told the seller it wasn't as described, they apologised and said they'd give me a full refund and told me to keep or dispose of the record and not return it. She refunded me the item amount but wasn't able to refund the postage as it'd been paid for using eBay's Simple Shipping (so the money went straight to the courier, not to her).

We opened a "return" in the hope that she could select to refund me the full amount but pick the option to not have to send the item back (this used to be an option once upon a time when refund/return claims were opened). This didn't get us anywhere unfortunately.

Both of us spoke to various eBay assistants on the chat and on the phone and all contradicted themselves. Several said they'd put requests in to "back office" which according to assistants after them, they didn't. Another said they'd set up a PayPal refund which didn't happen (despite me using a card to pay). One of the last advisors said to cancel the return and he'd request that I had a refund for the shipping in 7-10 working days. Nothing happened and I didn't hear anything from eBay.

I called them today and was told basically everything else was nonsense and that I wouldn't get a refund, especially on a closed return. Due to being incorrectly advised to close that return, she's escalated it as a complaint so that I hopefully get a refund.

However, I was basically told if an item arrives that's "not as described" or "faulty" etc and wasn't damaged in the post, a postage refund cannot be sent if the item is kept, unless it's damaged in transit (therefore the courier's fault). The only way to get a postage refund is to return an item. 

This seems crazy because eBay will be paying a courier twice (I know they probably have a deal with them but for all the 1000s of cases a year, that's still a waste of postage) and by me keeping the item and myself and the seller being happy and amicable about it, that saves us a load of hassle too. 

I wanted to see if this truly was the case and if anyone's experienced anything similar? The last few issues I've had with eBay have taken over a month to sort, when they're simple common sense problems but either the staff aren't knowledgeable about how the system works or people aren't doing their jobs properly/don't care so tell you what you want to hear.

To summarise my issue as a question - can you be given a full refund including eBay simple shipping on an item that's "not as described" when received, and keep the item without returning it?

Thanks in advance. 

[jckl1957]

When did you open a return case?

Was it after the seller had refunded you and told you to keep the item?

Or, did you open a return case and get refunded through the case?  I am assuming this is not what happened because the case was closed.

[papso22]

I don't know the answer but I suspect ebay would be in trouble if a buyer did not receive a full refund for a 'not as described' item, which includes the outbound postage, even if the item is not returned. 

It may well be that this can only happen if a case is opened.  The seller refunds the item cost without requiring a return and ebay refunds the postage.

dave@ebay can you help with this?

[dml123]

Hi,

The seller refunded me the item amount (they weren't allowed to refund anything more than that) and then we thought we'd open a return case to see if she could select some sort of option for a postage refund as well (thought it may be the "official" eBay way to do it now due to them controlling the Simple Shipping side) and in the hope she could pick some kind of "buyer keeps item" option.

I was told by an eBay advisor we couldn't open a return after a refund had been sent, but they were wrong as that's literally what we'd done. I was told at a later date by another advisor that the postage couldn't be refunded whilst the case was open, so was told to close it. I was very hesitant to do so as I knew it was good to have it in place, but did as advised. They said they'd manually send the postal refund (which they never did). I spoke again to another advisor (and this isn't accounting for all the other eBay staff on route!) who said that by closing it, we didn't have a leg to stand on, but since the advice was incorrect, she'd escalate the situation to get a refund send through as an apology. 

As far as I'm concerned, it shouldn't be sent as an apology, it should be sent because I purchased as item, including postage, expecting it to be as described and it arrived NOT as described! It's crazy how convoluted this is because of their anything BUT Simple Shipping. Whether the item is returned or not (that's up to the seller) it wasn't what I ordered. The seller admitted fault so a full refund should be provided. Then if they chose to penalise the seller by charging them that initial postal cost or if they cover it themselves, that's up to them. We did several things as advised and were told not to, then to do them, then told we couldn't but we had. It's been a total farce and almost a month now!

[dml123]

You'd think but they just refuse to refund the postage. Every conversation I have with eBay contradicts the advice I got from the advisor prior. We've spoken to about 10-15 people now and still no refund. Always some "we're contacting back office and they'll look into it, please wait 7-10 working days" or "I'll get this manually refunded for you, please wait up to 72 hours" and nothing. There's never a log on the system of my prior conversations or what they've said has been "filed" with back office. 

I had a similar thing a few months back when a seller wanted to combine shipping for several items I'd won on eBay auction style listings. He couldn't combine them as it was Simple Shipping again. He asked advice and they said I should pay for all of the labels and will get refunded in a few weeks for the ones he didn't have to use (I wasn't happy with this as it seemed ridiculous to be out of pocket but could see it wasn't the seller's fault - we believed prior to me winning that combined postage would be an option). I paid and they told up both various contradicting lies about what to do and what was happening for a month. Some eBay advisors were really trying to help and didn't know why I hadn't been automatically refunded after x amount of days. It was a total trial but eBay has my money, admitted that I should have it refunded and just outright refused to do it for so long. It was a big chunk too as it was for 11 larger purchases. 

It's such a useless system in place when things go awry. I loved avoiding this as a seller by choosing my own postal services but now that's gone too. I can only hope my customers don't have any problems along the way.

[john1297576]

The big mistake was seller making any sort of refund, BEFORE the case was opened.

Case should have been opened to start with and I think this would have generated a full refund, but who knows, if ebay staff do not understand the system, what chance have “simple” members got of getting anything right.

I am not sure which definition of the word Simple ebay is using, but it is certainly not easy.

[61stephenuk]

Your seller needs to send you a payment for the original postage amount,this will have to be done outside eBay via Paypal,Bank Transfer etc however you decide between you.

In a standard NAD case the seller would lose both the outward and return postage,here by refunding you outside of eBay they are saving having to pay for the return.

The seller will not be able to get a refund of the original postage as that has been paid to the courier and completed successfully without any isssue.

[dml123]

Hi,

I feel that may be the case and perhaps there is the option of providing a refund without the item being returned, should the seller wish to not have it sent back. It's so hard to know as we've spoken to so many people and half of them haven't a clue and the other half come across as knowing everything, only for the next person to say we were told incorrect information and/or that they didn't do what they said they would! So many people are leaving eBay as buyers & sellers and I see why!

[dml123]

Hi,

The problem is, a seller can't be relied upon to pay out of their own pocket as they may refuse to do so. Since they're at fault but eBay can't make them send me the money (and I'm obviously still legally entitled to the refund since the item wasn't as described so I purchased under false pretences) it's eBay's overseeing contractually to sort the issue. eBay have agreed with this throughout but have just lied each time about getting it looked into properly and sorting it. I went through a similar situation with them recently which took a month to sort where again, they'd sided with me in my situation, but just did not resolve it until about the 20th time of being pushed.