Credit for Final value fees where buyer gives wrong ship address and item returned to seller

[bil21]

Buyer wrote 2 days after I’d shipped that he’d given the wrong shipping address on his order. Tracking shows the package is on its way back as undeliverable. This is actually the first time this has happened to me.

I’ve told buyer I will refund the item price once I have the item in hand (but not the shipping) and that he can then place a new order.

But what about a credit for Final Value Fees? How do I go about requesting them  from eBay? the order was large enough that the fees are not small. Would rather not deduct them from the refund if possible.

TIA for any suggestions-

[inhawaii]

This happened to me twice last month.

This appears to be a "gray area". There is no official ebay policy that covers this.

Does your customer still want the item or not?

If yes, is the customer willing to pay another shipping charge?

[bil21]

Thanks very much for your reply. Yes, he does still want the item.

Should I just invoice him for the postage to reship? While there’s a paper trail re the new address, I’m leery of shipping to any address that’s not on the order.

[wastingtime101]

Starting May 23rd those fees will be pro-rated. As of today, those fees are non-refundable. I supposed you could appeal to CS to see if they'll do a one-time courtesy credit, but I wouldn't count on it happening. Find out before you issue the refund.

This is the advice I typically give sellers that are dealing with a RTS package:

You have a few options. You should decide which route you'll be taking and communicate with the buyer, but wait until the item is returned (and delivered) to you before you take any of the following actions.

• You can refund the buyer the item cost minus original shipping and minus your eBay fees which won't be credited on a partial refund. Go to your orders page, find the transaction and select "send refund." On the next page enter the amount. After that, relist the item and tell the buyer to repurchase it with the correct name/address.
• Have the buyer sort out their address issue then pay for re-shipping. Send them an invoice through PayPal or give them your PayPal e-mail. This is post-sale so it's OK to exchange e-mail addresses. It's also OK to ship to a different address because it's technically not tied to the original transaction. You would not purchase the shipping label through eBay or upload tracking to the transaction. You would purchase it from an alternate site like pirateship.com or paypal.com/shipnow and you can send the buyer the new tracking # through e-mail or eBay messages.
• A different way to accomplish buyer payment for re-shipping is to create an eBay listing for the shipping cost (bumping it up to factor in eBay fees) and having the buyer purchase it, entering their correct address at checkout. You could purchase a shipping label through eBay for that transaction.
• You can cancel the transaction "problem with address" which will trigger a full refund to the buyer and your FVF would be credited.
• You can do nothing. The buyer's MBG protection is voided when there's a package delivery attempt. I don't recommend this because even though you'll win an INR (item not received) claim on eBay, there's nothing stopping that buyer from going to their credit card to file a dispute which would grant them a full refund from your account. I also think that handling it before it gets to this stage with a partial refund is the "right" thing to do if you're not going to make reshipping arrangements.

[mtgraves7984]

You'll still find 'Cancel order' in the drop-down menu to the left of your 'Paid and shipped' order. When it is returned to you, can't you cancel, citing 'Problems with buyer's address' and still get an FVF credit? The buyer will be refunded, too, no?

Then, sure... your buyer can re-purchase and fill in the address correctly. You'll sell to 'em again! Good luck.

[inhawaii]

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@mtgraves7984 wrote:

You'll still find 'Cancel order' in the drop-down menu to the left of your 'Paid and shipped' order. When it is returned to you, can't you cancel, citing 'Problems with buyer's address' and still get an FVF credit? The buyer will be refunded, too, no?

Then, sure... your buyer can re-purchase and fill in the address correctly. You'll sell to 'em again! Good luck.

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This will work but the seller will be out the original shipping charge.  When you cancel the order the buyer will get a full refund. 

I had to get the buyer to pay another shipping charge through paypal before shipping it out again.

[bil21]

Thanks all for the helpful and really enlightening replies.

Given that the ship charge was also not small, I’d rather not do a straight cancel, but I’m glad to have learned here that that can be done in these situations with a credit for FVF.

I’m going to try the PayPal invoice route, which I assumed wasn’t possible under eBay managed payments.

amazing to learn that I could actually create a listing for return shipping-!?!?

thank you all, again.

[mam98031 · Accepted solution]

@bil21 

You are correct.  On a partial refund you will NOT get any of your FVF refunded until AFTER May 23rd when the new policy kicks in.

So doing it via the method you have suggested will cost you more in fees.  But there is another way.

When I get one of these, and believe me I get a few of those every year, I send my buyer an email similar to this.

Per USPS your purchase is on its way back to me due to a problem with the address you gave me at the time of purchase.  We can handle this one of two ways.  For myself both options are fine, I just want you to pick the best option for you.

1.  When I receive the item I can refund you for the Purchase price of the item less the shipping and any non refundable selling fees I have.

or

2.  If you want to send me your Email address I can go to PayPal and issue you an invoice for the reshipment of the item which would match what you originally paid for shipping.  So you would get an invoice from PayPal.  When you pay that invoice, please make sure your ship to address is correct.  Then pay the invoice.  I will then reship your package.

The thing to make absolutely sure you do is if your buyer wants you to reship the item is to create your shipping label from the PAYPAL payment.  Do NOT come back to Ebay to generate that label on the original transaction.

If you do that you will overwrite the tracking and you will lose the history on the original shipment because the new tracking number will take over.  And you will get a Late Shipment defect because of it since the system is now seeing that you are just now shipping.

[bil21]

Thank you for the excellent and generous help! Although I had written my buyer a second time prior to posting here to advise that non-refunded seller fees would likely be deducted from any refund issued, I had not distilled it nearly as well as your sample letter. I will make use of it now. Much thanks and thanks, too, for the roadmap of what I needed to do to get an invoice issued through PayPal!

Don't know that I'd have the fortitude to deduct the FVF from a refund, so if the invoice isn't opted for, I'll likely just cancel and take the hit on the original shipping.

Good to know this will all change re FVF later tis month.

[mam98031]

I'm glad I could help.  This just doesn't have to be a big ordeal or a bunch of work for either the buyer or the seller.  

If your buyer opts to have you invoice them through PP, you don't have to add anything to that shipping bill except what your PayPal fees will be.  You do NOT need to add anything for Ebay fees because being refunded those fees is not an issue with this method as you are keeping all the money the buyer paid for the item originally.  So the ONLY additional fees you have are Paypals.  It is really so simple, just different than you are use to.