Getting an unused Simple Delivery postage label refunded after cancellation of sale

[aphystykqa]

Two days ago I listed several items on Ebay on a buy-it-now basis, but one of those items which was meant to be £40, I accidentally missed out the zero and instead listed it at £4.  But, someone spotted this and decided to buy it at the £4, even though I had offered Free Postage and Packing, which costs myself £5.15, so obviously no seller would be stupid enough to do this on a buy-it-now basis, as they would automatically lose £1.15 on the sale.

I cancelled the sale to the buyer, but Ebay in it's not-so-infinite-wisdom has chosen not to add the option of Sale Cancelled Due To Error In Listing, which really they should. So instead I had to choose between Three options, and picked Item Damaged Or Broken option to cancel the sale.

I immediately messaged the buyer, and gave a full explanation. The buyer said in his reply to me, that he thought that I had made a mistake, as even he had worked out the Logic and Common Sense concerning that the Free Postage option would mean that the (I The Seller) would lose money on this sale at this low price, so obviously it had to be a mistake on my part. He was very nice in his replies, and he received the £4 refund, and I then relisted the item at the £40 which it was meant to be. Oh by the way. This item was a relisting, but instead I chose the Sell Similar Item option, as then all my followers get an e-mail from Ebay saying that I have new items for sale, so may wake up a potential buyer lol. 

So, now I have explained what happened, then the refund through Simple Delivery should be an Easy process, but yet it wasn't. You see, with Simple Delivery, a postage label gets bought - regardless of whether  I offer Free Postage or Charge the Buyer for the Postage. 

So, I clicked on this link :-

https://www.ebay.co.uk/claims/simple-delivery/refund/seller

Which is supposed to help me get a Refund for this Postage label ???

As you can read at the top, Ebay says :-

( If you haven't used your Simple Delivery label, you may be eligible for a refund.
To request a refund, please submit your request within 14 days of the item's sale.

We will then verify the following conditions on the 14th day from the order date:

1. The label was paid by you (you offered free shipping to the buyer).
2. The label was not used (you did not hand the item to the assigned carrier).

Well, the criteria in which I fall into, is Option 1. So, it should be easy for myself to claim back the £5.15 unused postage label. Well, it would have been easy, if Ebay hadn't have FORCED me into giving an answer to every question it asked me on that page. 

The first question I ticked the 'Other' box, and then stated by reason below as :- 'I thought I would be automatically refunded for the unused postage label once the sale was cancelled'

Then the second and third question I ticked the 'None Of The Above' boxes

But then I get to the dreaded fourth question, where you ask me :- '

Which carrier did you end up sending the item with instead?

Well, this makes no sense, since I am just requesting a refund for the unused postage label, so either Ebay shouldn't ask me this question, or at least add the option of a None Of The Above box to tick on

So, the last three questions I just clicked on the Yes option, but when I got to the bottom of this page, Ebay won't let me click on the Submit button, as i demands that I give an answer to their fourth question. It did give me the option to click on the option of 'Other', so I could have replied by saying something, I guess ? - but seriously, it is not a Simple System, and surely I cannot be the only seller seeking a refund on an unused postage label (regardless of the reasons), so why is this so complicated.

I'd appreciate some help over this matter, as surely there must be an easy fix. I know I have 12 days left to apply for this refund, so it's nothing to do with the time limit (just in case anyone asks).

 

[jonatjonatjonat]

The system is setup for those using alternative postage. not those who cancel. I’d say just click other - does it give you the option to then enter text to explain?

on an earlier question in your post I’d say if eBay did offer an option for seller canclelles due to listing error - they should but it should be tied to a metric that marks down the seller.  Because eBay simply don’t expect there to be mistakes

[aphystykqa]

---

@jonatjonatjonat wrote:

The system is setup for those using alternative postage. not those who cancel. I’d say just click other - does it give you the option to then enter text to explain?

on an earlier question in your post I’d say if eBay did offer an option for seller cancelled due to listing error - they should but it should be tied to a metric that marks down the seller.  Because eBay simply don’t expect there to be mistakes

---

That's very strange how you say that Ebay has set their postage label refund system based solely on those only using alternative postage, when I have already set postage as only Royal Mail Postage Service as my default setting to all buyers. But as I pointed out in my OP, Ebay did give on Option 1. = 

1. The label was paid by you (you offered free shipping to the buyer).

Which is the criteria in which myself (the seller) falls under, as I offer Free Postage to all UK buyers on this and most of my other listings.

Yes, it does give me the option to add text and explain when choosing the 'Other' option to tick on. I shall do this now, and see if it all works out. But still it is strange how Ebay didn't give me the option of 'None of the Above', like it did with the other questions in asked.

As for you last point about where I suggest that Ebay should add a reason for cancellation as 'Error In Listing'.   Well, perhaps your recommendation that Sellers should be punished in some way for choosing that option, as you believe that Ebay believes that sellers don't make mistakes. Well, I'm afraid Humans do make mistakes, whether on the rare occasion (like I did here) or perhaps even more-so. Perhaps if it was in the more-so criteria, then yes that could be implemented by Ebay, but that is up to them, if they ever chose to add that option.

[jonatjonatjonat]

But as I pointed out in my OP, Ebay did give on Option 1. = 

you need to read it again

We will then verify the following conditions on the 14th day from the order date:

1. The label was paid by you (you offered free shipping to the buyer).
2. The label was not used (you did not hand the item to the assigned carrier).

they aren’t options. They are two requirements that both need to be met You still meet both those requirements of course.

of course humans make mistakes. The problem is if eBay offer that option without any recompense. You’ve got an issue, because a percentage of sellers would use that option to cancel orders for any number of reasons. Do remember - people using eBay lie, and eBay has to account for the lowest common denominator.

[aphystykqa]

---

@jonatjonatjonat wrote:

But as I pointed out in my OP, Ebay did give on Option 1. = 

you need to read it again

We will then verify the following conditions on the 14th day from the order date:

1. The label was paid by you (you offered free shipping to the buyer).
2. The label was not used (you did not hand the item to the assigned carrier).

they aren’t options. They are two requirements that both need to be met You still meet both those requirements of course.

of course humans make mistakes. The problem is if eBay offer that option without any recompense. You’ve got an issue, because a percentage of sellers would use that option to cancel orders for any number of reasons. Do remember - people using eBay lie, and eBay has to account for the lowest common denominator.

---

If you re-read my OP I said as follows :- Well, the criteria in which I fall into, is Option 1

Option 2 applies to 'Everybody', so of-course (as you just stated) :- 'You still meet both those requirements of course.'

The reason I said :- Well, the criteria in which I fall into, is Option 1, is because not everybody offers Free Postage, so Option 1. would not be applicable to everyone. So YES I did read it properly, and don't need to read it again, as you suggest...

As for your statement about how my advice of what Ebay should do in regards to adding the option of 'Error In Listing' would be abused by dishonest sellers. Well, dishonest sellers could also say an item is Broken/Damaged, in order to prevent a successful transaction from taking place. But anyway, I am not too bothered about whether they add that option or not. The choice is theirs, but at least if they did add it, then it wouldn't place sellers in a position whereby they have been forced into choosing an option which does not apply.

Anyway, I did what you initially advised, and added a reason in the area where I can input text by ticking the 'Other' box, and then clicked Submit button, so now I just have to wait and see what Ebay decides on whether I get refunded for this Royal Mail unused postage label, or not. But to be honest, sellers should not be placed in this position. It should be as simple as it was before Simple Delivery system was installed, where refunding was easy, and issues concerning postage labels was never an issue, as I simply paid at the Post Office over the counter, like the good old days.

I had a recent other problem arise where a seller requested a refund, where Simple Delivery was used, and in order for the buyer to be able to return the item to me, he required a postage label to be sent to him. But, Simple Delivery chooses to make it much more Complicated, and so I had to externally visit the Royal Mail's own website and buy a label directly from them, rather than the traditional method whereby it's all handled on Ebay. So, a lot more faffing around, which just made the refunding process that more difficult. 

Just when I thought Simple Delivery couldn't get any worse, another 'Two' problems raise their ugly head.   

[sml192]

You should have contacted the buyer first to explain the mistake and obtain their agreement to cancel the sale.  You would then have been able to use 'Buyer wishes to csncel' as the reason and that would have automatically triggered a refund of the unused label. 

By using 'Item damaged or broken', a Seller initiated cancellation, you will also now have received a 'Transaction Defect' on your account.

[aphystykqa]

---

@sml192 wrote:

You should have contacted the buyer first to explain the mistake and obtain their agreement to cancel the sale.  You would then have been able to use 'Buyer wishes to cancel' as the reason and that would have automatically triggered a refund of the unused label. 

By using 'Item damaged or broken', a Seller initiated cancellation, you will also now have received a 'Transaction Defect' on your account.

---

Regardless of whether the buyer agreed or disagreed, I wouldn't have green-lighted the sale. Especially as a mistaken listed £4 priced buy-it-now item with myself incurring a £5.15 Royal Mail Simple Delivery fee means that I would automatically lose £1.15 on the deal. Obviously with items sold on an Auction basis, then Sellers take a gamble. But with buy-it-now is totally different. It's a pity that AI (Artificial Intelligence) driven Ebay didn't flag this £4 buy-it-now price as being too low, given that my default setting for postage for this item was £5.15 Royal Mail service, so common sense and certainly 'Facts/Logic' which is what AI is meant to have above all else should realize that the buy-it-now price was indeed an error. Thankfully the buyer said in his reply that he suspected this, but yet he still bought it anyway, knowing full well that I would lose money, as I even state the £5.15 Postage price in my listing.

But, all those facts aside, what you have pointed out to myself is something I was totally unaware of, and even the buyer himself may not know this would be the procedure to follow. Also, the buyer could have been very nasty and awkward, and in that set of circumstances, then Ebay's Simple Delivery System and it's other algorithms could have made matters even worse for me than they are right now. So, given the choice, I believe that I made the right decision, despite what you highlight in your post.

I was only given the 'Three' options, so I had no choice but to choose Item Damaged/Broken, since Ebay didn't give me the option of 'Error In Listing' to choose from. If as-you-suggested I had have done what you say, then 'Yes', I believe what you say. However, as I have just said in my above paragraph - if I left it up to the Buyer to decide on whether he accepted the cancellation - or not, then he could have simply 'Refused', in order to get a £40 item for just £4, and simply say Tough Luck !! (or words to that effect). Thankfully this was only a very small priced issue. Would it be the same for (let's say) a £600 item that was accidentally priced at £60 or £6 ?? Well, you'd have to be an absolute fool to leave it up to a buyer to decide on a cancellation, when he or she thinks they can save £540 or £54 on an item, simply because Ebay puts the priority and control upon the Buyers, and not upon the Sellers. Well, not hell's chance. If a genuine mistake is made, then action by the seller has to be taken. My action was to immediately cancel, and then a few moments later I messaged the buyer, and got a speedy and pleasant reply from the buyer who even admitted that even he himself believed that I had made a mistake with the price, however, he bought it anyway, even though he suspected that I had made this mistake.

Whatever Ebay does or doesn't do over this transaction is completely out of my hands. It's too late now. But in future, I'll double-check every listing the second after I've listed it, to make sure that every buy-it-now or auction price is exactly as it should be. This is the very first and hopefully last time this shall happen again with any of my listings. It's just one of those things. Simple Delivery is certainly not Simple, and as I stated above to another person in this thread, I also had another recent problem dealing with a postage label for a refund, whereby instead of it being handled through Ebay itself, I instead had to buy a returns label (externally) through the Royal Mail website, which was something I have never had the unpleasantness and hassle before Simple Delivery system arrived as mandatory-service. Extra faff which was totally non-existent before Simple Delivery came along and ruined Simplicity.