Sold brand new and sealed item, buyer claiming faulty

[Pasicel]

Giving the buyer a hard time, just wait till It's the other way around.

You have the item back, nothing seems missing, refund the buyer.

[slim jim]

Why not just refund the customer and send it back to the manufacturer since its under warranty ?

[MM78]

Just give them the refund already!

[GreenBean]

Amen.

Refund.

Move on.

Sell more.

Rinse and repeat.

[golden_monkey]

Originally Posted by slim jim

Why not just refund the customer and send it back to the manufacturer since its under warranty ?

DING DING DING

i do this with hard drives all the time, oh sorry your hard drive crapped out on you in under 6 months. let me slap a new one in here you go have a nice day.

then i send the broken one back and get a new replacement.

that's how manufacturers' warranty stuff works.

[slim jim]

Originally Posted by golden_monkey

DING DING DING

i do this with hard drives all the time, oh sorry your hard drive crapped out on you in under 6 months. let me slap a new one in here you go have a nice day.

then i send the broken one back and get a new replacement.

that's how manufacturers' warranty stuff works.

Exactly and that's how you can get repeat customers. Customer service.

[WinterIsComing]

This is the nature of selling cheap electronics. You should already expect this to happen occasionally as the cost of doing business. Let the customer return it, and you can send it yourself to the manufacturer to get a replacement. This should help cut your losses.

[arpichelago]

^ well I'm not sure if you read the whole thread, but yeah, definitely refund him... that should go without saying!!!

As far as faulty stuff, it's not really the nature of "cheap" electronics BTW. Unfortunately a fair share of new Dell, Lenovo and HP business grade laptops (usually expensive and high end machines) show up with defects. Though this is probably because there is so much assembly - and, an identical model and config may be assembled with any one of 3 or more different (but similarly spec'd) screens, hard drives etc manufactured by different companies.

You don't see many faults with Apple products, and generally individual parts such as RAM and HDDs are very consistent. But herein lies your other problem: even if you're selling a clock radio, some idiots can't figure out how to use the snooze button. With individual PC parts, and I'm guessing a lot of cheaper stuff from China, the item will be more susceptible to a buyer wrongly opening a SNAD case because they can't figure out how to use the damn thing, and we all know whose going to win there...

[Sandy D]

Originally Posted by mynameis

I've received the item, i must say it was nicely returned with padding and all. But i cant find anything wrong with it. I have informed the customer however will still like to hear back more before i issue the refund. Any suggestions on what to do in this case in terms of sorting the item out or reselling it in its current state (who knows if its actually faulty).

Refund and re sell the item.

Just to remove the hassle of it and move on.

I get this once in a while and just refund people and move on. I always look and see they turned around and bought the same item cheaper and lied about it but for me, I refund and re sell.

Not worth hassling over.

I buy a lot of closeouts, shelf pulls etc and get boxes with some minor edge damage and always show pictures etc and explain in detail but I always get that one idiot who believes if the box is bad the item inside is also.

[crafty1]

Refund straight away, keep him happy and you are more likely to receive a positive feedback.

Any delays might result in a negative feedback.

As others have said re sell it or send it back to the manufacturer.......

[newjerseymax]

Refund! Return to MFG and move on with life (and sales) and it will eventually balance out again. That is our job as a seller to get the item replaced. Now if it was beyond return date that is another story.

I advertise 14 day return policy, however in reality it is as long as 45 days...

[jeffweico]

Accept the return and offer a FULL REFUND, including the REASONABLE cost of shipping the item back to you. No need to pay for overnighting a return.

The thing is, upsetting the buyer will only earn you a negative feedback and draw scrutiny to your account. eBay/PayPal/Amazon will give the buyer their money back and tell them to return the item anyway, so you gain nothing by making a big deal about it - in fact, YOU LOSE!

That is just the way it is. And I don't really disagree with it. As a buyer, I don't want to be stuck with someone else's problems. If the listing says an item is in working condition, then it needs to be in working condition. I never complain about small stuff, but if I bought a laptop in working condition, and when it arrived it was DOA, I'd be upset if the seller refused a refund.

When I list used items, I always list EVERY SINGLE DEFECT and try to use as many pictures as possible. I am also PAINFULLY HONEST in my descriptions. That avoids a lot of these problems. And I NEVER refuse a refund or a replacement request, unless the item was bought a long time ago.

I advertise 30 days but will stretch that to 60 days when necessary. Remember, CHARGEBACKS are a possibility for up to 180 days! And you want to avoid those like the plague. PayPal will debit your account for the amount of the chargeback and may even charge you a fee if they feel you were at fault. On Amazon, your "defect rate" will skyrocket under their new points system. A chargeback or A-Z claim is considered a SEVERE problem.

Nobody likes refunding money or accepting returns. I know I don't. But, if you are operating professionally, you just have to deal with it sometimes.