So the package arrived but was empty and eBay still wants their money...what do I do?

[cow-lumbus]

Sold and item. My guess is the box was poorly taped and opened in transit and the item taken. The buyer received and empty box and I approved his refund request. Now Ebay wants their fee...any way to dispute this since the item was lost or stolen in transit via UPS?

Thx. 

[lonebuck-books]

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@cow-lumbus wrote:

I didn't voluntarily refund to accept anything other then telling the buyer I would not dispute it. For whatever reason he opened a request and eBay approved it with about 8 hours...somehow. 

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This is going to be your problem.  If you told the buyer you wouldn't dispute a claim, the buyer took you up on it.  Once it goes to a claim, unless you voluntarily refund before eBay automatically refunds you lose the fees.  eBay sees a claim that goes against you as something that makes buyers unhappy and as such they penalize you by keeping the fees and dinging you with an account defect.  

Unfortunately at this point there isn't much you can do about it.

[stephenmorgan]

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@cow-lumbus wrote:

I didn't voluntarily refund to accept anything other then telling the buyer I would not dispute it. For whatever reason he opened a request and eBay approved it with about 8 hours...somehow. 

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You should call eBay to get this straightened out.  Depending on how the refund was classified it possible eBay would have kept their fees but even so they need to allow you time to make a decision before they step in.

[gurlcat]

But here's what I don't get: when a buyer opens an INAD, ebay expects them to RETURN the item, right?  Well of course the seller would not want to pay shipping for an empty box to be returned, but I can't see the bot being able to differentiate between an "empty box" INAD versus a real one, so why did it auto-refund the buyer, rather than auto-approve a return and either provide a label or prompt the seller to provide a label?  You get what I'm saying?  I think we STILL don't have the full picture on this, and the OP's insane defensiveness over any questions to get a clearer picture only makes the whole thing smell fishy. 

[wrong66]

You've sold ONE item and you have an "assistant" for that? 

[wrong66]

No, now he says it was nicely packed. The OP's attitude is wonderful.

[printpeople]

If you don’t like the help from other eBay sellers, you can always just call eBay customer service… good luck with that.

[gurlcat]

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@wrong66 wrote:

You've sold ONE item and you have an "assistant" for that? 

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And it sold for $122 (not 200) and shipped via USPS (not UPS).  And pretty much nothing they've said makes any sense whatsoever.  But we're the useless ones.  

[buyselljack2016]

I have more than one account. Perhaps the OP does as well. Perhaps not.

[inhawaii]

The OP wants answers to his questions, not more questions, darn it.

Q: So the package arrived but was empty and eBay still wants their money...what do I do?

A: Nothing. Pay the fee (for your mistake) and move  on. 

Q: Now Ebay wants their fee...any way to dispute this since the item was lost or stolen in transit via UPS?

A: Yes. You are allowed to dispute anything you want.

[kensgiftshop]

@cow-lumbus 

If you refunded the buyer, you should get your fee's back, all but the $0.30.

If Ebay had to get involved and refund, you won't get your fee's back.

[bonjourami]

Sounds like the op fell for the oldest scam in the book. Oh, wait..maybe his 'assistant' did.Sounds like he doesnt know that if the pkg is damaged in any way, it will have a note on it from the p.o.

[johnrj1226]

Guess  another one that  changes things to  fit there  narrative.  Some  folks won't ever admit they  messed up and it is someone else fault.  One   has to under stand that  when they start pointing at some one there are  three fingers pointing right back a them.  PS: the thumb can't point backwards unless your tripled jointed)

[johnrj1226]

One more thing.  When i messed up and was called out would simply reply  "The Devil Made Me  Do It".  This is further proof why men are from Mars. 

Got that line from the late Flip Wilson late 60's  early  70's - funny  funny guy (I was of legal drinking age+ some then)

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=the+devil+made+me+do+it

[dbfolks166mt]

     You did not provide a lot of information but I am going to assume this relates to the Ubiquiti Cloud Key you sold on 3 August. It is hard to say whether this is a scam by the buyer or factual information on their part but the empty box claim is not an unusual one. Regardless the buyer is protected by the MBG and would have probably been fully refunded by eBay had you not done so of your own accord. 

     Unfortunately just as the buyer expects to be refunded,  eBay also expects to collect their fees. While you have virtually no recourse with eBay in disputing the fees because of a shipping problem you may want to file a claim with the carrier, which according to your posting is UPS, even though the posting indicated USPS as the shipping method. Based on the pictures in the listing this does not look like an item that could have easily slipped out of a package or that was so light that the carrier would not have noticed a weight difference between a full and an empty package. 

[gurlcat]

I see no reason to believe a single part of their story at this point.  I know the 'n' word (narcissism, ha) gets thrown around a lot, but the story and the OP's replies remind me so much of a couple of absolute narcissists I have known.  Reflexive lying -not the same as compulsive lying, as in lying for the pure heck of it, but to avoid looking bad in any way, to anyone, including strangers.  Followed by extreme defensiveness at the slightest threat (or perceived threat) of lies being uncovered.  And then of course there's the entitlement, in this case a demand for an answer, and "shame" on us if we couldn't provide it.  

Another thing I found really weird but don't know what to make of it, was how he didn't seem the slightest bit concerned about the ($122 or $200?) refund to the buyer, for this first and only sale in over a year, yet was very keen on getting his mere $20 fees back from ebay.  He didn't seem to want to even entertain the possibility that the buyer lied about the empty box.  So bizarre.  My only guess is that there was something totally different from an empty box scenario, he just made that up thinking it was a 'throwaway' reason for the buyer's claim, one that readers would just accept.  So when we didn't, it **bleep**ed him off.  For all we know, it could have been some kind of scam arrangement with a friend.