Ebay support lying

[edd-wood-motorcycles]

So, here is a new subject for me.

Yesterday I had an different item returned, I contacted ebay support and they said they would cover the cost and refund the buyer with no impact to myself. Great, I thought. Nothing happened.

Today I contacted ebay again to find out what was happened. They looked again, no action had been taken, the return was showing as delivered awaiting refund. Again they told me that they would refund the buyer with no impact to myself.

10 minutes later I received a message telling me that the item had been refunded at my cost.

Anybody else had this kind of issue. .i.e. Customer support telling you one thing and then doing nothing or taking a different action entirely?

I don't have many problems with ebay, most of my returns are remorse returns and are refunded without problem. The last time I had a different item returned was July.

Thanks

[4_bathrooms]

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@edd-wood-motorcycles wrote:

Yesterday I had an different item returned, I contacted ebay support and they said they would cover the cost and refund the buyer with no impact to myself. Great, I thought. Nothing happened.

Today I contacted ebay again to find out what was happened. They looked again, no action had been taken, the return was showing as delivered awaiting refund. Again they told me that they would refund the buyer with no impact to myself.

10 minutes later I received a message telling me that the item had been refunded at my cost.

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Unless you're lucky enough to have Concierge you cannot believe anything an eBay customer service representative tells you. Unless these were live chat sessions and you have transcripts of them there is likely nothing you can do now. There is a process to follow if a buyer returns a different item but it's too late in your case now.

This is far from the first time someone has reported a customer service rep giving wholly incorrect advice on these boards and it certainly won't be the last.  

[edd-wood-motorcycles]

The annoying thing is, I did follow the correct process.

Support have completely disregarded this and done something entirely different. The advice they gave was correct. I have been through this process before, the problem is that they then did something entirely different and impacted the account while doing it.

 Now their advice is to appeal the case that they opened, completely against their own advice.

They just seem to be railroading the issue.

[suelel1968]

Hi @edd-wood-motorcycles on the couple of occasions ebay have said they will cover the cost i received a credit rather than me not refunding so you should check your payment screen. Also it didn't happen at the same time. 

[edd-wood-motorcycles]

Thanks but they have already informed me that they have taken the money from my funds.

[4_bathrooms]

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@edd-wood-motorcycles wrote:

The annoying thing is, I did follow the correct process.

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The correct process upon receiving a different item back is:

1. File a report with Action Fraud and obtain a reference number
2. Click the "Report a problem" link in the case and select "Returned a different item" as the reason
3. File the eBay report including the AF reference number from #1 and attach the report AF gave you

Obviously you wouldn't bother with Action Fraud if it was a <£5.00 item but I certainly would for anything over about £25.00.

The odd thing here is you state you received the item back yesterday. Normally, once the return label tracking indicates delivery the seller has three days (excluding Sundays and Bank Holidays) to either refund the buyer or use the "Report a problem" link. What does it state happened? It should state something like "We have decided to refund your buyer because <reason>. The funds for the refund will be deducted from the payment method you have on file" (or something like that).

[suelel1968]

What I was trying to say is that it is two separate transactions. You do the refund. Ebay give you the funds back at some point in the near future. 

[4_bathrooms]

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@suelel1968 wrote:

Hi @edd-wood-motorcycles on the couple of occasions ebay have said they will cover the cost i received a credit rather than me not refunding so you should check your payment screen. Also it didn't happen at the same time. 

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Where MBG cases are concerned mine have always been closed by eBay stating "We have decided to refund the buyer at no cost to you" (or something very similar) when eBay have decided to refund the buyer out of their own pocket. At least, it has always been made perfectly clear eBay are covering the cost of the refund and that I am not being held liable for anything.

[edd-wood-motorcycles]

That is what I did. I've been through a few of these over the years. I always inform action fraud if there is a theft and I always give ebay the crime reference number when I report the buyer.

What happens normally on these rare occasions is that ebay tell me they will take care of it and refund from their own funds. This is exactly what they told me this time. Then they did nothing. I contacted them again and they confirmed that nothing had been done. They then told me the same thing, i.e. we will take care of it and refund the buyer from our own funds with no impact to you. Then they open a case and informed me that the item had been returned and they had refunded the buyer from my funds.

[edd-wood-motorcycles]

I see.

That's not what has happened. traditionally in these rare cases ebay will simply refund from their own funds. I've never seen them force me to refund and then repay it later.

[edd-wood-motorcycles]

That's what they would normally do with me. In this case they have done something completely different. What bothers me is they told me on two seperate accasions that they were refunding from their own funds.

I'm wondering if this is one of ebay's shifts to a new policy and a new way of dealing with things.

[4_bathrooms]

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@edd-wood-motorcycles wrote:

That is what I did. I've been through a few of these over the years. I always inform action fraud if there is a theft and I always give ebay the crime reference number when I report the buyer.

What happens normally on these rare occasions is that ebay tell me they will take care of it and refund from their own funds. This is exactly what they told me this time. Then they did nothing. I contacted them again and they confirmed that nothing had been done. They then told me the same thing, i.e. we will take care of it and refund the buyer from our own funds with no impact to you. Then they open a case and informed me that the item had been returned and they had refunded the buyer from my funds.

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That "no impact to you" is exactly what they state when they're not holding the seller liable (the exact wording escaped me earlier). As there is an option to appeal eBay's decision they are obviously holding you liable for the refund in this case.

Out of curiosity what reason did the buyer select for wanting to return the item?

[edd-wood-motorcycles]

The reason was 'just didn't like it'.  Ebay have definitely taken the money from me.

[4_bathrooms]

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@edd-wood-motorcycles wrote:

The reason was 'just didn't like it'.  Ebay have definitely taken the money from me.

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Oh, OK. That is a remorse reason; i.e. it is not an item not as described/Money Back Guarantee reason. These might be handled differently.

I would advise appealing eBay's decision and providing the Action Fraud reference number and report again. What sort of value is involved here?

[edd-wood-motorcycles]

£24. I've had remorse theft before, they are handled the same in my experience.

I've appealed the case but you can't report the buyer twice for the same reason. I'll have to wait for the appeal and then speak to ebay again. I hope this isn't signalling a return to the bad old days when buyers could simply do as they pleased.

[4_bathrooms]

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@edd-wood-motorcycles wrote:

£24. I've had remorse theft before, they are handled the same in my experience.

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It's unusual for someone who is deliberately going to engage in this kind of theft to choose a remorse reason for returning the item. Doing so means they have to pay to return something whereas if they chose an INAD reason they wouldn't need to pay anything at all. I suspect eBay's fraud protection measures are geared towards INAD returns; especially as although business sellers have to accept remorse returns very few private sellers choose to do so.

It's possible the buyer is an innocent party here and the item was switched in transit. It's also possible eBay removed the buyer's ability to use the MBG due to previous abuses so a remorse return was the only type of return case they could open; you'll never know.

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@edd-wood-motorcycles wrote:

I've appealed the case but you can't report the buyer twice for the same reason. I'll have to wait for the appeal and then speak to ebay again. 

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If eBay do not decide the appeal in your favour their response will almost certainly state something like "This is our final decision in this matter". If their response states that it is their "final decision" it is pointless contacting eBay's customer service representatives (which it almost always is anyway). That response is required to file a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman Service.  

[edd-wood-motorcycles]

The buyer is a business, the account looks like an account used solely for buying. It's possible ebay have stopped him using INAD returns or it could be a mistake. I know the company has many employees. I'd email them to discuss but I know from experience that they won't bother to answer the email.

 I've tried complaining to ebay, they say their required complaints system is over the phone. I've tried that before, it's a waste of time.

 At least it's not for £hundreds.