Do I have to refund postage the buyer originally paid on a what became a change of mind purchase?

[eht1eht]

Hi, just checking if I've done this right.

A buyer bought some shoes from me, she said they didn't fit and she wanted to return them.  I'm a private seller and have no return on the listing and she wasn't doing a SNAD, just that they didn't fit or she'd changed her mind, whichever.

I don't want any trouble or stress so I agreed to the return and back they came this morning.  Perfect.  I refunded immediately but have now had an e-mail from eBay saying that they have been returned and I should refund - I thought this was just that everything hadn't caught up with itself but it says the refund should be £5+ which would be the postage amount that she paid in the beginning.

Why would I have to return that?  I haven't got that money as it was spent, very clearly on the postage, and I'm certainly not to be out-of-pocket for what is her change of mind - surely?  She chose to buy the shoes, presumably in her size or she wouldn't have bought them, I am not a shop, and as far as I am aware, I don't actually have to accept a return so surely I'm not supposed to be out-of-pocket too?

Advice would be most welcome, thank you in advance. 

Helen.

[john1297576]

It doesn't sound right, if a proper return was opened then there would be no option for a partial refund, you would have had to refund in full.

If done properly you would have had a refund of your selling fee, has this happened?

If you had the fee refunded that would in many cases cover the postage which you had to pay out, but if you somehow did a partial refund then the fee would not be refunded, and if ebay has got involved to get the buyer the rest due, you may not get the selling fee refunded., then you will be worse off.

[eht1eht]

in reply to John1297576 HI, and thank you for your answer. I refunded through PayPal and the option was there to refund all or part so, as eBay had advised me of the amount of the refund - the price paid for the shoes, nothing mentioned about the postage, I just refunded the amount of the shoes that eBay had initially stated. I then got a message saying I had to pay more and then realised this was for the postage too but, as I said, the postage has been used up sending the item to her and I didn't see how her change of mind became something I had to pay for so I queried it and eBay refunded her instead but, of course, I didn't get my fees back as you surmised, so it's a no win, as usual with eBay. Whichever way you turn, you get to pay for every cheat, every thief and every change of mind.