Ebay, WTF are you doing? Did I miss something? Return Issue

[Deleted]

This morning I woke up to an email from eBay about a return from awhile ago, the subject of the email was "An Order Update" and it says I didn't issue a refund to the buyer so they were unable to cancel the transaction.  Turns out it is because I didn't refund shipping as it was a "I don't like how it looks on me" thing and not my fault.  I just refunded the item price, which is what I normally do and never got an email like this before.

So this afternoon I get this message from the buyer:

Dear 2001_odyssey,

I was notified this morning by eBay that you failed to issue me a full refund and that I should contact you and ask you why you are charging me for shipping both ways. Perhaps you don't know that each time you keep the initial shipping charges you get a strike against your seller rating.

Buyers are only responsible for paying for the return shipping.

- <buyer id removed due to public board>

I think I'm going no returns, this is ridiculous. 

[val2525]

Perhaps you don't know that each time you keep the initial shipping charges you get a strike against your seller rating.


WTH is your buyer getting this from?

Did the item in question have free shipping on it?

[Deleted]

No, there was a shipping cost. I have no idea what this buyer is talking about and am curious what the message she got from eBay said. I am sure she really did get a message from eBay though because I got one this morning too.

[Shirley U Geste]

Sounds like your buyer is trying to work the system and thinks she can intimidate you into giving her money.

A return for buyers remorse doesn't get the original shipping back.

Sounds like you need to call ebay.

[Deleted]

May 20, 2015 0:20:17 GMT Shirley U Geste said:

Sounds like your buyer is trying to work the system and thinks she can intimidate you into giving her money.

A return for buyers remorse doesn't get the original shipping back.

Sounds like you need to call ebay.

I will call them, but it also sounds like eBay is encouraging this behavior by sending buyers emails telling them we didn't refund them "in full" and that they should contact us.   I've been on the fence about returns for awhile now but I think this is the final straw. 

The message I got from eBay is indicating that I still owe the buyer the shipping, that is why it's pissing me off.  If it's going to cost me money to take returns, why the heck should I take them?  It's not like I can get that money back from the PO and it wasn't my fault she didn't like how it looked on her.

[Deleted]

[Shirley U Geste]

This may be something new that ebay is doing, if so Ina needs to know about it.

[Emerald_Door]

I had a similar issue a while back, with eBay refusing me the fvf refund because they claimed I didn't refund the buyer. It was also getting to be impossible to charge my restocking fee.

I ended up going with the hassle-free/managed returns program. It's working well because eBay automatically subtracts my restocking fee and the original postage. So if someone buys something for $20 + $5 shipping, and I have specified a 10% restocking fee, eBay sets it up for me to refund $18. Nice and easy.

[sunsetpainter]

May 20, 2015 0:43:43 GMT Emerald_Door said:

I had a similar issue a while back, with eBay refusing me the fvf refund because they claimed I didn't refund the buyer. It was also getting to be impossible to charge my restocking fee.

I ended up going with the hassle-free/managed returns program. It's working well because eBay automatically subtracts my restocking fee and the original postage. So if someone buys something for $20 + $5 shipping, and I have specified a 10% restocking fee, eBay sets it up for me to refund $18. Nice and easy.

I am seriously considering going with the HFR just for the reason stated above.  I've been nervous about it because I don't trust Ebay to deal with my account fairly.  But since I have the same problem as odyssey going on, I might have to go with HFR.

[Deleted]

I called and got a foreign rep who didn't really understand what I was saying and I gave up. I'm going to refund the stupid $3.85 and then I'm changing all my listings to no returns. I've seen enough people say that switching didn't impact their sales/defects so I'm going to give that a try.

[val2525]

Are you in HFR? If you are not, this sounds like eBay's way of coercing sellers into it, by not honoring return policies for non-HFR returns sellers.

[Deleted]

No, I've never been in HFR and as of about 10 minutes ago, I am now a no-returns seller.

I agree though, that is probably what they were trying to do.

[jellybeanscloset412]

I had a situation awhile ago and you are correct, Ebay is encouraging buyers to contact the sellers. They told my buyer to ask for a partial refund on a Pantagonia jacket.

I really think the reps just say whatever they want. ( I am sure I have said this before so sorry for the duplicate comment).

Also, for 3.85 it's not really worth the aggravation but it is the point. Sorry you had to deal with this.

[RetroMonde]

Aren't we all supposed to be in HFR by this summer or was that something else? Maybe that's what it's about; we're being herded & coerced into the program.

[kritter]

May 20, 2015 5:03:08 GMT @odyssey said:

No, I've never been in HFR and as of about 10 minutes ago, I am now a no-returns seller.

I agree though, that is probably what they were trying to do.

Yea, another one coming over to the dark side.

I have always been No Returns and would never switch to giving returns.

[Shirley U Geste]

Makes me think of lemmings being herded over a cliff. 

[val2525]