Need advice dealing with shady buyer

[sunflowers652016]

Hi all, so I sold an item, been selling for many years, feedback & stars are perfect, and they were not acheived easily. 

Buyer puts in a return request, reason is  'just didn't like it'. A $40 item and I cannot resell for sanitary reasons. It says I have the option  to decline request and it will automatically close.

Obviously I would get negged if I did that and I decided to message buyer and offer a partial refund (and she keeps item). She jumped at that and asked for $30 of the $40 back, while keeping item. 

Now, I'm a bit peeved. I'm trying really hard to be nice, but I really don't like being taken advantage of, it's the principal of it. 

So, I message back, tell her that I can offer her $15 if she wants to keep it. She messages back and says $20 is 'fair' and 'we both lose $20'.... 

No, I lose $20, she gains it and keeps her item. She says she has 'no use' for it but then why not push the return?

I don't care about the 20 bucks, I just don't like scammers, or being bullied because she knows she can neg me. It's taking everything I have right now not to decline request and close it.

Advice please?

Thanks 🙂

[tellmemama]

So you're throwing money away to avoid possible negative feedback?  It's your right I suppose, but why?  You have a "no returns" policy, the messages are clearly buyer's remorse, and you have to option to deny the return.

Sure, she could try to open a false SNAD case but until then, you haven't done anything wrong but feed the partial refund beast.  And it's always hungry.  The only way to stop it is not to even suggest partials.  To quote an old board saying, "if it's good enough to keep, it's good enough to pay for."

I probably would like more of my stuff if I got 50% of my money back too.

[mistwomandancing]

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sunflowers652016 wrote:

Hi all, so I sold an item, been selling for many years, feedback & stars are perfect, and they were not acheived easily. 

Buyer puts in a return request, reason is  'just didn't like it'. A $40 item and I cannot resell for sanitary reasons. It says I have the option  to decline request and it will automatically close.

Obviously I would get negged if I did that and I decided to message buyer and offer a partial refund (and she keeps item). She jumped at that and asked for $30 of the $40 back, while keeping item. 

Now, I'm a bit peeved. I'm trying really hard to be nice, but I really don't like being taken advantage of, it's the principal of it. 

So, I message back, tell her that I can offer her $15 if she wants to keep it. She messages back and says $20 is 'fair' and 'we both lose $20'.... 

No, I lose $20, she gains it and keeps her item. She says she has 'no use' for it but then why not push the return?

I don't care about the 20 bucks, I just don't like scammers, or being bullied because she knows she can neg me. It's taking everything I have right now not to decline request and close it.

 

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In this day and age of online retail, buyers expect to be able to have *returns* be a part of their buying experience.  So when they want to return something, my answer would always be, Yes.. return for complete refund.  It's part of being in retail sales.  It doesn't matter that you can't resell your merchandise for sanitary reasons.  You aren't facing any financial loss, because you've built a portion for the Loss Column in your Ledger into every item of merchandise..... right?  So the buyers pay for Loss.

Secondly, if you decide to offer her a Partial Refund, YOU state right up front a dollar amount you will refund her to make it right.  Be decently generous, and the buyer will usually be satisfied.  In this transaction, you let the buyer name an amount, and that's a big mistake.  That puts you in the position of having to give that amount back, or start an argument over that amount, which makes you a prime candidate for negative feedback just for resisting.

If it were me after messing this up so badly, I'd refund her the $20 and count myself lucky.  Don't fight buyers nowdays.  Offer returns and then accept them.  Swallow your *losses* in business like real stores do without financial damage by building a little to cover all of that into your business pricing.  Be professional and your business dealings with buyers will be a lot easier to deal with.

[missjen831]

You honestly should have never offered a partial refund on a buyers remorse return. It encourages bad buyer behavior and there is no guarantee she wouldn’t neg you anyway. 

[slati_2013]

Since you cannot resell the item, asking her to return it is not worth it. If you want to stand on principle you can ask her to return it. No guarantee she won't send you an empty box. While the going advice here is "return for a refund", in this case you can cut your loses with a $20 refund and block her immediately. 

[sunflowers652016]

I understand what you are saying But does being 'professional' really include being taken advantage off?

I'm not walmart or amazon, and I'm certainly (Thank goodness) not doing this for a living. I did mess up by asking her what was fair but I believe she would have presented her unreasonable request no matter what I said. She has buyer's remorse and because of that she returns a destroyed item and gets refunded? 

I probably will give in to her $20 request but I think she will neg me anyway, that's why I'm considering just declining the entire thing, maybe she would regret getting greedy when I was trying to be nice. 😞

Thank-you 🙂

[bingesu]

Negs haven’t stopped me, I even sold an item yesterday... I will not sell in fear, buy it or leave it

[mistwomandancing]

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jen_proudleowife wrote:

You honestly should have never offered a partial refund on a buyers remorse return. It encourages bad buyer behavior and there is no guarantee she wouldn’t neg you anyway. 

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I agree overall.  Despite the fact that many sellers do prefer to deal with problem transactions this way and it is considered to be acceptable by eBay, etc.    none of our stores do partials.  I have daughters and sisters who sell with me, and we've all just made it our policy to take returns, but we don't let buyers have merchandise and a portion of their purchase price back as well. 

Have never received a neg, but won't be particularly upset when my time comes.  "It's just business."

[sunflowers652016]

Thank-you all, I appreciate it. I guess I will go ahead and refund the scammer 20 bucks. She can neg me anyway (and then I'll wish I told her where to go) and sure I already blocked her but she can just buy on another account and continue to do damage, so I'm not protected there either. 

Ugh, years of hard work can be destroyed by just one low life buyer here. Pretty sad. 

[aramintaca]

You know feedback doesn't count on ebay anymore right? I would decline.

[smashedbanana]

Principly you are correct. And I agree with you.

You sold an item. Not one that can be resold. The buyer wants a refund with no good reason. 

You shouldn't have to accept it and there shouldn't be repercusions to you for not taking it.

But alas no. E-bay, as covered many times cares more about the buyer. You will have to take a loss, a hit or a negative feedback.

E-bay wants all sellers to act like a amazon or walmart. Somehow account for the fees on the item, the shipping and paypal. Then also somehow work in shrinkage and losses and still make a go at it. Ultimately small sellers cannot sustain it and will be chased away. E-bay will in the end have their consistant forced customer experience on all levels on all items. Never mind that all the unique and cool items offered by those small sellers (that help build E-bay!) will be gone and replaced by multiples and multiples of the commodity items sold by large foreign sellers and drop shippers. 

I have had several situations lately were I was in a principal type situation with buyers. In the end I had to cave too. Its wrong but nothing can be done.

[mistwomandancing]

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sunflowers652016 wrote:

Thank-you all, I appreciate it. I guess I will go ahead and refund the scammer 20 bucks. She can neg me anyway (and then I'll wish I told her where to go) and sure I already blocked her but she can just buy on another account and continue to do damage, so I'm not protected there either. 

Ugh, years of hard work can be destroyed by just one low life buyer here. Pretty sad. 

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Not destroyed at all.  And certainly not from one little neg, if you even receive one from this.  Years of hard work without a neg before this means you do a good job and have buyers who have been happy.  

Handle this smoothly from here on out and just go on with your eBay business.  I doubt very much this will cause you even a twinge in buyer confidence or interest in your offerings on eBay.

[sunflowers652016]

Thank-you all, again, I appreciate your views on this, and the good advice. I've learned a few things.

I guess don't handle being 'scr*wed well, lol, I've always just tried to do 'the right thing'.

I'm not overly concerned with a neg, honestly, I get more worried about future sabotage. It seems by blocking a buyer we are opening ourselves up to a worse situation; they buy on another ID, or get a friend to do it, and they can scam again and leave more negs that Will start counting (different ID's).

I know it happens here. I guess that's what bothers me the most and I wouldn't know until it was too late. 

Thanks again.