Funds on Hold to a Decision in 3 minutes!!

[brock_and_roll]

Hi All,

When I receive "item not received" notifications, I immediately contact the customer and refund, send out replacements or investigate further. So far so good...

However on occasions like today, I get the following:

10.01am Customer Contacted Customer Support

10.02am Your Funds are on Hold Due to a Case

10.03am eBay has made a final decision (and refunded)

Obviously there is no way I can do anything in 3 minutes and in todays case I had sent out replacements. several days previously which the customer will have received.

Can I administer this better somehow to prevent this happening? Not sure in this case whether customer scamming me but in any event I am down two lots of product and 2 lots of postage.

Thanks

[vintique*violet]

Ahhh the ( not so )  joy of A.I. 

This is where eBay ( and many other places) are going, automated decisions applied universally? The human touch all but a long lost dream 😉 

This seems very unfair...Can you not appeal? 

[papso22]

How did you know the customer needed replacements?  Didn't they open a case then, or did they just message you?  

By today's date, how late were the original items?

You should appeal and also ask for the defect to be removed.

[myriad*seller]

If a buyer opens a case do NOT send replacements

Send a refund and ask the buyer to buy the item again and then send the item again

This is the only way to prevent refunding once a buyer opens a case

When a buyer opens a case AI checks if tracking shows delivered or not

There is no mechanism to send a replacement, plus that would not even match the tracking number you uploaded for the item, so would not prevent a refund.

[brock_and_roll]

Yes thanks I understand. I guess might as well refund straight away - obviously as most of my (low value items) go out untracked I just have to suck up the cost of those that scam me. Luckily in my area of business the scam rate is relatively low.

[papso22]

That might be the answer to the quick decision, with no tracking you were never going to win the case, so no need to wait.  However, they should have let you refund or you get a defect for 'case closed without seller resolution', assuming it was only opened 3 minutes beforehand.

[brock_and_roll]

Thanks for your help.

In this particular case:

Customer ordered on 25/11

Product Dispatched on 26/11

Customer Messaged on 2/12

Customer asked if wants Refund or Replacement on 2/12

Customer Requests Replacement: 5/12

Replacement Sent 1st Class: 5/12

Case Close in Buyers Favour: 10/12

It would seem that in cases like the above I am wasting my time messaging customer and might as well refund straight away.  I did like to have a dialogue with customers and sometimes it is useful to smoke out scam attempts.

[myriad*seller · Accepted solution]

If you have no tracking and the buyer doesn't close the case then you WILL have to refund

So why delay, and why get a defect as eBay had to refund for you? 

Buyers know they can get a refund on untracked items so of course they won't close the case

If you send without tracking, you have to accept that you will give a lot of these items away to scam buyers for free. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of items that I have not received. Most items get delivered. But at this time of year, funds are tight, so people will scam anyone they think they can get away with it. eBay even tells them on the purchase page that the item was sent untracked! So sort of "suggests" the scam! 

[brock_and_roll]

I guess you are right, sadly.

In my business (seeds) luckily its not the kind of thing scammers are targeting.

For a £3,99 pack of seeds its just not worth going for a tracked service given the addition £1.80 or so cost. Its all about volume and speed for me. Just have to suck up the one in 200 that is either a scam or lost by Royal Mail

Regards

[signs_and_vintage]

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I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of items that I have not received. Most items get delivered. 

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Not sure I've had a couple recently. However, one I have a feeling that since the seller was using up old 'collectors' stamps (unlike the old definitive stamps, these weren't banned were they?) and handwriting envelopes, that they may simply have never sent it. Must be very easy to sell a cheap volume product and let one slip, if you're not buying online labels.

The other claimed that his local post office depot had been subject to some sort of arson attack, he certainly seemed a bit stressed out, and when the item arrived the replacement postage (gone from 2nd Class to slightly bizarrely Parcelforce 24!) was twice what the product was worth!

The oddest one I ever had was I bought some postcards of a guy years ago. His account went NARU and the negatives piled up (this is in the days before MBG etc...) for 'never received camera', 'DVD player box had a brick in it, where is my player' etc... It sounded dire. But my 3 postcards arrived Special Delivery!?? Looking back now, I wonder if he used me as a patsy to quote an SD delivery code against another item? Back before these things were so specific in terms of actual delivery location?