Last week a return was opened for a pair of pants, and automatically approved. No big deal, it has happened a few times before. The pants didn’t fit, so the buyer had to pay to ship them back. I received the return last night, opened the package and found that all of the tags had been removed. Which is almost comical considering the number of tags these pants actually had on them! Five different tags, all removed, not returned.
Grrr. I mean, really? First, why take the tags off before trying them on? Second, would any other store let you return pants with no tags? And third, the return was only for $12. I was honestly tempted to just refund the money and be done, but on the other hand felt I shouldn’t just on principle. I worry that sellers who are quick to refund when they aren’t actually in the wrong encourage buyers to continue their bad behavior.
So, I called eBay last night. They said to upload photos of the pants in the condition received. I did, and called back this morning. I got transferred around a bit, but everyone I talked to was nice and seemed knowledgeable. They agreed that it was a “faulty return” because the pants were not returned in the same condition, and that I would not have to refund the buyer’s money. The case was escalated, and within about 5 minutes I got this e-mail from eBay:
eBay opened a case because of an issue with an item purchased from you. We reviewed the case and have decided to issue the buyer a refund of $12.00 without any impact to you.
This case is now closed. You are not required to reimburse the buyer or eBay, and this case will not be counted in your seller performance evaluation.
Soooo. I get to keep my $12. But the buyer still gets their refund. Which I fear will indeed encourage such bad behavior. Oh well. I did what I could.
Shannon says
March 6, 2018 at 6:37 pmI agree that refunding the buyer (whether it be eBay or seller) encourages this kind of “renting”. 🤔
Glad you came out on top of this one!
Fonda says
March 6, 2018 at 10:15 pmI won’t say this was a win/win situation. You won because you don’t have to reimburse the buyer. eBay seems to think that if they reimburse, they will give the buyer a satisfactory buying (returning) experience. And, yes…eBay wants satisfied customers, not necessarily satisfied sellers. That said, let it roll off your back. It’s the way eBay wants to run their business, even though they insist it’s your business. As sellers, we know eBay has the last word no matter how right we feel we are. Years ago, it was a different eBay.
Brian says
March 8, 2018 at 8:02 amSometimes it doesn’t have to be worth it financially to morally “fight the good fight”.
Good job sticking to your guns! I am very fast to refund and take my lumps, but not if I am being misled like in this circumstance.
Last week I accepted a return from a buyer that thought they purchased an NES game instead of a Gameboy. The title and images were very clear, but instead of wasting any negative energy on it I accepted the return and took the hit on s/h. I didn’t have to, but the buyer made a mistake. However if they would have misled me or altered the item I would have escalated the issue.
I love eBay service as a seller nowadays for reasons like this.
I love your blog and my comments here have given me a few visitors to boot. Thanks for the community here as I haven’t found an active a eBay blog as this one.
Brian recently posted…Flipping Baseball Cards For Profit – 2018 Rookie Edition.
Brian says
March 8, 2018 at 8:16 amJust a heads up, the “Beach Thrifter” link under your blogroll tries to redirect visitors. When you click on it you get pushed to one of those pages that the audio kicks on and tells you they are Microsoft. I just ctrl+alt+del and closed Browser, but other readers may have fell for the scam.
Brian recently posted…Flipping Baseball Cards For Profit – 2018 Rookie Edition.