Return request - buyer sent item back without me agreeing

[joan_peplou]

Hi,

A buyer opened a return request for a Playstation 4 game saying that the game is not suitable for his young kids (has an 18 rating). I have the option to decline the request as I am a private seller with no returns policy for change of mind return requests (the buyer does not claim this is not as decribed or faulty). I explained to them that the listing photos clearly show the rating at the front and the back cover of the case (a big red 18) and he should have read the listing and check the photos before buying if he was worried about the violence. Anyway he immediately came back after that with a message saying that he posted the game already. Like that,no warning and without me agreeing. He didn't mention tracking so I guess he probably sent it via standard delivery.

Note sure what to do now. I called CS and they said that his money back quarantee is void as I did not give me authorisation to return the item so I don't have to agree to the return/refund ( I guess he could still use chargeback or open a Paypal SNAD case). If I agree to the return then I have to provide full refund including postage so I am out of pocket for the postage plus the paypal fees ( I think final value fee will be refunded). I could also not do anything (either accept or decline) and refund him when/if the items comes back, although in this case the buyer could ask eBay to step in which will probably complicate things. The item is cheap at about £11 so there is not much to loose in this case. 

I don't worry so much about negative feedback as I very rarely sell on eBay. 

Thanks.

[m25jet]

Under normal circumstances I would have said that if you had declined the request it probably would have backfired on you, as the buyer may well have opened a false Item Not As Described case to get his money back.  However, given that he has already returned the item to you, you could, if you felt like standing your ground, reiterate what you said before to the buyer and state that you will not be issuing a refund, as the buyer no longer has the item to return to you if he were to contemplate opening an Item Not As Described case..  However, if the buyer went ahead and opened an Item Not As Described case just say something along the lines of "Please return the item to me and I will issue you with a refund", then issue an eBay Returns Label.  Given that the buyer no longer has the item he can't return it to you, and the buyer only gets a limited time to use the label.  Therefore, once eBay see that the label has not been used they will probably assume that the buyer has changed his mind and decided not to return the item, in which case you may well find that eBay decide the matter in your favour.

In the event that the buyer tries to get his money back via PayPal use the same tactics there.  Buyers have to pay for a return label when opening a PayPal case to return an item for a refund, so he's unlikely to buy a return label to return something that is no longer in his possession.  In addition to that, PayPal tend to investigate cases far more closely than eBay do, so if you sent the item to the buyer via a fully tracked postal service that proves that the item was successfully delivered to the address on the PayPal confirmation of PayPal e-mail the buyer would not win a case if he tried to open an Item Not Received case instead in order to get a refund.  If, however, you just posted the item to the buyer via an untracked means of postage then you're a bit stuck, as you would not be able to prove successful delivery of the item to the buyer, which would weaken your case.

At the end of the day the final decision as to what to do in relation to this matter rests with you, but personally I'd advise you to stand your ground.  If timewasters keep on getting away with wasting sellers' time and causing them problems, whilst also getting refunds for the lamest of reasons, then there would be nothing to deter them from continuing to do it to other sellers.

[joan_peplou]

Thank you for the really informative reply. eBay CS told me that the case cannot be reopened after I declined so they can't open another ebay return request for Item not As Described (they could do it on Paypal though). Anyway, I received the game today in its original condition via recorded delivery so I thought I will refund them as it doesn't feel right to keep their money. Probably it would have been too much hassle if i didn't and not worth it. I can easily resell the game and I only lost the fixed paypal fees which was a very small amount (eBay refunded me the final value fee as the case was not escalated). Buyer is now blocked from my list and I will also report them for misuse of returns system.  Thanks again and many many kudos for your response:)

[ruby*tuesday]

Nightmare Buyer you have there! I will leave the decision for you to make!  As a Private Seller you don't have to accept Change of Mind Returns, unless you feel it is the easiest way out ???