How should I handle buyer?

[elitepowersales]

Sold a new in the box camera accessory. Buyer receives. A week later receive email that buyer dropped her camera and no longer has need for opened accessory and would like to return for full refund. What do?

[Thankful]

You have my sympathy.

EBay is so biased in favour of the buyer that people here tend to advise refunding on return, regardless of the circumstances.


You should at least be aware that eBay buyer protection does not cover something that was damaged by the buyer, so if they are truthful about this they ought not to win a dispute.


The problem is that buyers can tell any lies they want, e.g. that items were broken on arrival, and unless the seller can prove otherwise eBay will take the buyer's side. Buyers have been known to use things for up to six weeks and then claim that they were marked or damaged on receipt!


It's really your call how to respond to this. To make things worse, a dispute will damage your seller performance record and even if you win eBay will allow the buyer to leave negative feedback in retaliation.

I personally would refund them.... not worth the hassle as seller for myself.

Being a seller on eBay today is not a bundle of fun.

[Sandy D]

Originally Posted by elitepowersales

Sold a new in the box camera accessory. Buyer receives. A week later receive email that buyer dropped her camera and no longer has need for opened accessory and would like to return for full refund. What do?

The email itself would need to be posted in claim.

They will try to file the claim if you do not refund and threaten negative but most "professional buyers" on ebay would never tell you they dropped the used item.

Since you got this email stating this I would fight this one.

In most cases all they needed to do is say it did not work.

This is why I always put in listings--- 3 day return policy. If the item is not mailed back to me within 3 days of receipt I will not accept the item back.

[rsot]

@Sandy_D - you have to keep in mind that YOUR return policy can still be trumped by eb...that's a sad sucky fact about the platform.

Yet another reason to 1) spread sales across diff accounts and 2) avoid using pp when possible...

[golden_monkey]

if the product is still in perfect unused condition and you can get it back perfect you might as well just go wtih a refund and resell.

sometimes its not with the squeeze.

[KingRay]

Yeah if you can resell it then just eat the return shipping and go on. Then relist it.

Im pretty sure you can still cancel the transaction after and get your final value fees back

Email the buy and tell them something along these lines:

I have no problem taking the item back but I need to cancel the transaction so I get my fees for the auction back. Otherwise ebay charges tons of fees on an auction that was returned back to me anyway. One thing though is we both need to hold off on the feedback since they have a rule that I cannot cancel a transaction after feedback is give by either of us.(be on their side)

Then go on to say you read there is a way to cancel an auction by way of Mutual agreement to cancel the auction so it doesnt make me the seller look bad. Ebays rules nowadays make it to where when an auction is refunded it looks bad on the seller. Tell them you only get so many a year and since everything is going so smooth on our transaction it wont be categorized with the bad ones that some buyers tend to do.

lol

Not exact by any means but something along that kind of explanation is all.

If you make it look like you and the buyer(no matter what the situation) are on the same side. Against the Dumb rules and hoops that ebay has now then you are golden.

Stuff like this works EVERY time I use it. Gotta make them feel like you are doing everything WITH THEM. Talk bad on ebay if you want. Most buyers know how stupid their rules are.

some may not agree with this post but It the way ebay rules are now we are lowered to stupid kissing up to people for meaningless amounts of money to get a tiny star rating. what a joke.

Good luck on what ever you decide.

[golden_monkey]

^

PS - do that EMAIL to EMAIL, don't use the eb4y messnager to send such messages

[KingRay]

You can but it really is telling the truth. You pay fees, you need to cancel the auction and cant if feedback is left.

Its all real stuff.

I wouldnt dog on ebay too much but I use the ebay email system for just about everything. Its too hard to keep track of everything on there and through regular email with multiple accounts.

Just tone it down some but still do the "we are on the same side" routine.

[newjerseymax]

It depends on value of accessory...

I would tell them they can keep it and you value them as a future customer,

Then include a little request to please leave feedback and move on...

[digi]

Originally Posted by elitepowersales

Sold a new in the box camera accessory. Buyer receives. A week later receive email that buyer dropped her camera and no longer has need for opened accessory and would like to return for full refund. What do?

Such decisions are easy to make when you think long term.. You get what you focus on.. a small batlle or the War(long term benefit).. He will return the item anyway, if not will hurt ur dsr..I would deal him in such a way that leave me 5stars and relist

[SUVE]

I like newjerseymax attitude & approach to this.If the item value is small & relative in the grand scheme of things, I'd give his suggestion a serious thought.

A toned down friendly approach of KingRay suggestion is also viable as is digiapproach to this issue.

[veentic]

Originally Posted by rsot

@Sandy_D - you have to keep in mind that YOUR return policy can still be trumped by eb...that's a sad sucky fact about the platform.

Yet another reason to 1) spread sales across diff accounts and 2) avoid using pp when possible...

I disagree with that one. I mean sometimes it's good to sell outside of eBay, very good actually. But what the point to sell outside PayPal and get scammed? I mean when you sell outside eBay:
(#1) funds are available right away(no 21 holds etc.)
(#2) buyer can not open "not as described" case, I mean dispute yes, but for PayPal review it's not enough. Only non-receipt cases buyer can win, trust me on that one:D
(#3) buyer can not leave negative feedback on eb.

so what the point to not use PP, when you sell outside of eb?

Please correct if im wrong on this one. Thanks

[jamblix]

How much money are we talking here anyways? A brand new camera accessory I mean if it's less then $50 why even bother just get the item returned and resell. More then $50 I would go with one of these options:

1: Tell them to **** off, well not stated exactly like that. Say you will not accept opened items in a professional manner. Worst case scenario they go ape **** and you can fall back to option number...

2: Just refund them for a return I mean it's not THAT big a deal, stores like Best Buy have 30 day return policies open box or not. You can resell it for probably the same you did before or at least 80% of the original price, I mean it's still brand new in essence.

[auctionman]

my advice is take back your camera accessory, issue a full refund and relist to sell it again. simple.

[bansheezone]

I agree, the account is more important for future sales then to complain about the loss and issues not giving in to the buyer, I found myself having to find this out over time the hard way.

[Sandy D]

Originally Posted by rsot

@Sandy_D - you have to keep in mind that YOUR return policy can still be trumped by eb...that's a sad sucky fact about the platform.

Yet another reason to 1) spread sales across diff accounts and 2) avoid using pp when possible...

I agree.

But for a buyer to out right tell you in an email 2 weeks after they received it and they dropped it I think I could win this one.

Most cases I would just have them return and issue refund but the info here tells me he has a shot.

[biggunn]

I would just do the refund. Not worth putting yourself on the radar.