Warning to Sellers if Buyers use Simple Delivery and want to return items

[lifeslittleluxuries3]

I have been an eBay Seller and Buyer for 23 years. I am a private seller and over the course of the 23 years I have sold in excess of 1,000 items.

I have never had a request for an item to be returned until last week. The item did not meet the buyer's expectations and I immediately offered a discount which they rejected. I then tried to work out how to issue a return postage label to the buyer for a full refund to be issued upon the item's return.

It was not clear how to do this on the App (it was actually very confusing and the FAQs were useless) and unfortunately I inadvertedly issued a full refund with immediate effect.

I immediately rang Customer Services and spoke to a helpful lady who said she was able to issue a return postage label to the buyer but could not share the correspondance with me??

I asked for a tracking number which she provided me. She advised me to wait 3 business days for the buyer to return the item and to contact them again if the item had not been returned.

I messaged the buyer immediately asking them to return the item in its original packaging and I waited 5 days before messaging the buyer a second time to ask them to confirm they have returned the item.

Both messages generated an auto-response stating 'Your buyer has reached out about their order. Since you used Simple Delivery, we'll work with your buyer directly on any delivery related questions.'

So it seems I am unable to converse directly with the buyer at all.

I have tried to track the item with the tracking number and it states it will not update until a delivery is attempted so I am unable to see if the return has commenced.

I have had four email conversations with eBay customer services representatives today who generally do not understand that I need help contacting the buyer and asking them to return the item.

I requested a call back from an eBay customer representative who talked a lot about the platform's policies and generally inferred how they protected eBay from getting involved and no she would not contact the buyer and encouraged me to carry on messaging them, and ultimately she actually stated 'I am not willing to help you....' That led to my response that that was exactly what my issue was 'that nobody from eBay was willing to help me'. She then hung up on me.

So my warnings are that the Simple Delivery service appears to block / redirect / prevent correspondance with a buyer.

eBay customer services are 'unwilling to help' if you have completed a refund inadvertedly due to the policies that prevent them helping you.

And if you are unfortunate enough to have to deal with an unreasonable buyer you are likely going to find yourself in a loss situation as I have. 

[john1297576]

Buyer dhould in the first instance have opened a return case, you do not say the reason for return,

but if not as described seller provides a return label, if a change of mind return, then buyer pays for return postage.

As you have a no returns policy you only have to accept NOT AS DESCRIBED RETURNS.

Unless both buyer and seller use the systems supplied by ebay, then they will not help.  Any case opened would have automatically closed once refunded, even if in error. Cases cannot be reopened and ebay will not in any case be able to force buyer to return their purchase. 

[lifeslittleluxuries3]

I know. It was all done through the eBay systems, the case was
automatically closed when I refunded them in full and there is simply no
recourse for a mistake. It was a very minor reason the Buyer gave for
wanting to return the item - it was described as imperfect and I accepted a
Best Offer from them to discount further. I was more than willing to accept
a return. Ultimately it was my own fault for not understanding how the App
worked when dealing with a return situation. Ultimately I am very
disappointed that no-one was willing to help me by contacting the customer
and asking them to return the item with the return label. Customer Services
did not have to do that for me so they wouldn't. A simple message to
the buyer was not a lot to ask.

[lifeslittleluxuries3]

Hi john1297576

Thank you for taking the trouble to read my post and respond.

It was all done through the eBay systems, the case was automatically closed when I refunded them in full and there is simply no recourse for a mistake.

It was a very minor reason the Buyer gave for wanting to return the item - it was described as imperfect and I accepted a Best Offer from them to discount further. I was more than willing to accept a return.

Ultimately it was my own fault for not understanding how the App worked when dealing with a return situation.

And I am disappointed that no-one was willing to help me by contacting the customer and asking them to return the item with the return label. Customer Services explained the case was closed therefore they did not have to do that for me so they wouldn't.

A simple polite message to the buyer was not a lot to ask. 

[papso22]

Your problem is not simple delivery, it is that you refunded before getting the item back. 

You would have exactly the same problems if it was not simple delivery. 

[red_magpie]

It's not just simple delivery. Buyers often end up keeping both the item and the refund. This can happen for numerous reasons. Sometimes, as in your case, because the seller makes a mistake, or refunds a buyer and trusts them to return the item. Or probably the most common, because the buyer claims a refund when an item is late for delivery, and then keeps the item as well when it arrives.

eBay gives sellers absolutely no support in any of these situations. I have said many times before that this is tantamount to condoning buyer on seller fraud. eBay's excuse would be (correctly) that the user agreement gives them no power to claw money back from buyers. But they could easily amend the user agreement to require buyers to return either the item or the refund. It's hard not to feel that eBay simply doesn't care about the seller.