INR case opened, I received the item back, buyer wants refund

[mrsmisfit]

After initially shipping an item out (which had free shipping for buyer), the following day I received a message from the buyer stating the address is incorrect and that they moved & are now living at different address & provided the new address. I told them I’m sorry but unfortunately I already shipped it the day before. Once the item was delivered to the old house, the buyer opened an INR case, and told me they will have a friend go to the house to see if they can retrieve the package. The friend ended up obtaining it, and buyer told me they are marking it “return to sender”. I told her I’d keep an eye out for it, but also said that if I receive it back then I would unfortunately have to charge her to ship it to her a second time since I already paid to ship it once. She said “I’ll just get my money back & cancel.” I told her once I receive the item back I can issue the refund. So now I have received the item back. My question is- do I issue the refund through the INR case? Or do I ask her to close that case and just cancel the order requesting a refund? Will I get dinged for this? And do I lose my initial shipping cost?

[jerseyboymusic]

I would just refund the buyer once you get it back. I think once Ebay shows it was delivered to the address on the order, you're good. JUST MAKE SURE you upload that tracking number to the INR

[kensgiftshop]

Since you got the item back, I'd refund through the INR case and be done with it.

[chapeau-noir]

This should not hurt your metrics as it was an INR case that you will resolve - not a NAD or an unresolved case.

[caldreamer]

Yes, if you received item back...you must give customer a refund through EBAY and this will automatically "close the case".    Since you offered "free shipping" (you cannot deduct shipping money from customer).

FYI...you cannot "cancel order" that was already shipped.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Yes-you have to refund.

The only open question is whether you want to accept another order from this buyer with the correct address or whether you want to block this buyer.

I, personally, would not block this buyer unless their messages were disrespectful. But some would block them for stupidity.

[mrsmisfit]

Thank you all for your responses! Yes I understand I need to refund them either way, but I just wasn’t sure if I needed to do it through the INR case and if I would be dinged. Thanks again!

[inhawaii]

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@caldreamer wrote:

FYI...you cannot "cancel order" that was already shipped

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 Actually, I believe you can.

Not that it makes a lot of sense...

[mam98031]

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@mrsmisfit wrote:

Thank you all for your responses! Yes I understand I need to refund them either way, but I just wasn’t sure if I needed to do it through the INR case and if I would be dinged. Thanks again!

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 I'm not at all sure you even need to refund the buyer per the ebay rules.  You shipped to the address given on the purchase and it came back to you because it was a bad address.  You should be covered under Seller Protection for this.

With that said, I would refund the buyer for the price of the product LESS the original shipping charged to the buyer on the listing and any additional postage if any that you paid when you got the item back.

I would contact Ebay and see if they will Close the INR in your favor because of what I said in my first paragraph.   If you are successful in getting them to do this, then go refund your buyer from the transaction less any out of pocket expenses you have.  But get the INR closed in your favor first.

[mam98031]

On each Ebay page there is a link to contact Customer Service at the top of the page and again at the bottom of the page.

I would suggest that you contact Ebay for Business on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter for the better trained CSRs.

Here are your options for contacting Ebay Customer Service. Please be aware that for social media CS, you send them a Private Message and briefly explain what your problem or issue is. Feel free to leave your Name, address, phone number and/or your email address in this message. It is private and secure and it may help to speed up the response for you.

https://twitter.com/askebay

https://www.facebook.com/eBay/

https://www.instagram.com/ebayforsellers/

Your options will be on the left. If you use the link below you can only get to the Automated Assistant or Chat box type AGENT in the box and hit enter. You will then get more options. Not all options are available 24/7. It will depend on staffing available. So sometimes you can request a call back and sometimes you can't. Sometimes you have the Chat option available and other times it won't me. If it is important to you to use one of those options, just try back later.

If you use a cell phone or other mobile device, you may need to turn off your Spam filter so that Ebay can call you.

If you are a seller outside of the US or Canada, you will need to use the Chat Option.

https://www.ebay.com/help/eua?id=5275&mkevt=1&mkpid

https://www.ebay.com/help/home

[mrsmisfit]

Well unfortunately I jumped the gun and already refunded the buyer before you had posted your replies. I didn’t subtract the shipping in the refund because it was originally shipped with free shipping for buyer, and I was afraid they would leave me negative feedback (even though I didn’t do anything wrong), and I’ve heard a lot that it’s really difficult to get eBay to remove negative feedback. I’m still a newer seller with just over 100 ratings and really don’t want to risk having a negative. Luckily the item was a fairly cheap item ($9.99 and only 4oz), so I only lost a few bucks. Annoying but I’m willing to just take that small loss over a possible negative feedback.

But anyway thank you SO much for all of your helpful information! It will be useful for any future issues I may run into. I very much appreciate all of your help and advice!

[mam98031]

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@mrsmisfit wrote:

Well unfortunately I jumped the gun and already refunded the buyer before you had posted your replies. I didn’t subtract the shipping in the refund because it was originally shipped with free shipping for buyer, and I was afraid they would leave me negative feedback (even though I didn’t do anything wrong), and I’ve heard a lot that it’s really difficult to get eBay to remove negative feedback. I’m still a newer seller with just over 100 ratings and really don’t want to risk having a negative. Luckily the item was a fairly cheap item ($9.99 and only 4oz), so I only lost a few bucks. Annoying but I’m willing to just take that small loss over a possible negative feedback.

But anyway thank you SO much for all of your helpful information! It will be useful for any future issues I may run into. I very much appreciate all of your help and advice!

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You are very welcome, but I understand, Ebay currently is sometimes supporting policy on the FB rules and sometimes not.  It is confusing for all of us.  

I am actively objecting on how FB is currently handled by the CSRs of Ebay.  My fellow mentors are likely tired of hearing me go on and on about Ebay not supporting published policy in some cases.

If you had the INR closed in your favor, the buyer's FB should be blocked.  But in today's Ebay rule, you are right, it is a roll of the dice if they are going to support policy.

[a_c_green]

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@mrsmisfit wrote:

And do I lose my initial shipping cost?

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Unfortunately yes, if you offered Free Shipping, then you cannot deduct a Shipping cost from the refund. This was reiterated by kyle@ebay in a post of his on a similar topic from June of last year: 

"It seems there has been some conflicting information provided in this thread, so I'm happy to help clear this up.  For remorse returns, the refund will be the total purchase price of the item minus original postage charged.  For items listed with free shipping, there is no charge to the buyer for shipping, and therefore there is no deduction allowed."

Ref: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Returns/Am-I-Allowed-to-Deduct-My-Original-Shipping-Cost-from-Refund/m... 

[slati_2013]

Buyers like this drive me crazy. They are determined not to pay for shipping. She could easily have asked the friend to ship the item to her. 

[toomuchstuffagain35]

I think you CAN deduct original shipping even if was FS as this isn't a "remorse return" it's a return because the buyer supplied an incorrect address and ebay doesn't even hold a seller to refunding at ALL in those cases.