eBay

wize_buys · ‎17-01-2025

I sold two books to two separate buyers. Unfortunately the boxes got mixed up and they each received each others book. I told them to send them back and I would forward the correct book on but Ebay put my funds on hold. I sent the correct books out and informed Ebay that they could now release my funds. I sent Ebay messages from both buyer to confirm they had now received the correct item and asked Ebay to release the funds they were with holding. The next message I got from Ebay was to tell my they had refunded one of the buyers even though they had the correct item. No doubt they will refund the other buyer as well. I have tried ringing ebay but just get sent back to Ebay.com/help. What can I do?

*vyolla* · ‎17-01-2025

The returns process is largely automated - when the return tracking shows that the seller has their item back it triggers a refund.

What you should have done is to then relist the book for the buyer to repurchase.

You're outside of eBay now, so will need to contact the buyer, explain that a refund has been triggered, and ask them to pay again (perhaps via PayPal or bank transfer). Obviously, there's no way to force them to pay now though.

jma2815 · ‎17-01-2025

You did the right thing asking the buyers to return the books to you but that, quite rightly, got them a refund.

You could now contact the buyers asking them to pay you again outside eBay but I think they would consider that cheeky at best, and I highly doubt either would pay.

At this point if I were you I would consider the decision to resend the books to the correct recipients (rather than relisting them) a goodwill gesture to make up for the inconvenience caused by your mistake. If you apologised at the same time you might even get out of this with some positive feedback.

*vyolla* · ‎17-01-2025

@jma2815 wrote:

At this point if I were you I would consider the decision to resend the books to the correct recipients (rather than relisting them) a goodwill gesture to make up for the inconvenience caused by your mistake. If you apologised at the same time you might even get out of this with some positive feedback.

The OP says that they've already sent them.

johnwash1 · ‎17-01-2025

Well, it's a bit late now, but in case it helps anyone else faced with this scenario, here's how it went for me.

In the middle of the pandemic, having recovered from Covid shortly before, I did something I'd never done before. You've guessed, of course. I had two sales the same day, and I muddled the labels. First I knew was a nice message from one of the buyers. The other buyer hadn't even opened his package yet.

They were both understanding, they forwarded the parcels to each other. I refunded them for their postage and effort generously and both were happy and left good feedback. No interaction with ebay needed at all.

If you send nice personal messages to buyers from the very outset of a sale, most people are really positive if there's a pothole in the metaphorical road. Wish I could say the same about real potholes.

papso22 · ‎17-01-2025

While I am glad that worked for you, it is considered a breach of the GDPRs to send one buyer the address of the other.

What should happen is that both are returned to the seller, refunded, and then listed again.

johnwash1 · ‎17-01-2025

@papso22 wrote:
While I am glad that worked for you, it is considered a breach of the GDPRs to send one buyer the address of the other.

What should happen is that both are returned to the seller, refunded, and then listed again.

Thanks for pointing that out. Of course I didn't do it without prior discussion with each of them. I would have supposed that would come under the heading of "Bleedin' obvious", but these days I guess one can't make assumptions about common sense.

papso22 · ‎18-01-2025

Getting prior agreement will make a difference.

selective_distribution · ‎18-01-2025

I think that at some time nearly every seller has had two buyers and has sent the wrong item to the wrong buyer. Usually when you contact the buyers one is understanding and helpful, the other is as difficult and demanding as they can possibly be. I learned that it`s easy to have a system in place to avoid this mistake. I simply mark on the returns address label that I put on every package as it is prepared, with just the initial of the item to indicate what it is , so that when the buyer address label is put on you know that it is the correct package for that buyer. For example I am sending out the vinyl album Stevie nicks `Bella Donna` this morning, so I have just marked `S N` on the return label.....simple but effective.

johnwash1 · ‎18-01-2025

@selective_distribution wrote:
I think that at some time nearly every seller has had two buyers and has sent the wrong item to the wrong buyer. Usually when you contact the buyers one is understanding and helpful, the other is as difficult and demanding as they can possibly be. I learned that it`s easy to have a system in place to avoid this mistake. I simply mark on the returns address label that I put on every package as it is prepared, with just the initial of the item to indicate what it is , so that when the buyer address label is put on you know that it is the correct package for that buyer. For example I am sending out the vinyl album Stevie nicks `Bella Donna` this morning, so I have just marked `S N` on the return label.....simple but effective.

Yes, after my fiasco I modified my workflow in a somewhat similar fashion. As I pack each parcel I put on it the initials of the buyer and the weight band, e.g. ">2kg". Haven't had a clash of identical initials... yet!

It's worked well for me, even the weekend when I sent out a dozen parcels! Nowadays? I'm lucky if I get two orders the same day and many days are zero. Either I've already cleared out the more desirable of my items, or the national belt tightening is really having an effect.