Unclaimed - Return to sender

[iamahumanbean]

Hello eBay Community!

I have an issue and have a strong idea of what action I want to take and am requesting your feedback please. I sold and shipped an item on 1/10 and tracking showed as delivered on 1/12. On 1/14, the buyer files an INR with this note:

The package was marked delivered but has not been delivered I received a note that the package could not be delivered due to having dogs in my yard. I visited the postal office twice and on 01/14 I was given the number of DJ at the postal office 692-243-9131 who looked into it and says the package is en route back to sender. Once package is received I would like for the package to be re sent to the postal office on 6825 S 7th St Phoenix, AZ 85042 United States. Where I can pick the package up directly. 

While I would love to ask him to pay for reshipping so I won't be out any money (listing was free shipping), I do not want to deal with this person any further. The RTS was awfully fast (14 hours from 1st attempt) and him giving me the address to his post office and not an actual PO Box at the post office is odd. I got the package back today, unopened, with this sticker:

RETURN TO SENDER UNCLAIMED UNABLE TO FORWARD RETURN TO SENDER

I would like to give the full refund and just eat the shipping I paid. If I do this, can he still leave me any feedback? He signed up for an account on the day he made the purchase so I plan to relist and block him. Any thoughts or suggestions is really appreciated. Thank you in advance 🙂

[wastingtime101]

Since you want to refund in full, cancel the order using 'problem with buyer's address' and that will trigger a full refund and a fee credit. Yes, he can still leave FB, but depending on what he says you can either get it removed or you can add a well-written professional reply to negate the effect of it. Don't live in fear of neg FB!

His MBG protection is voided in this case so that might work to your advantage. Come back here if he leaves a neg and we'll help you with it.

[iamahumanbean]

Thank you for your thoughts! It's true, I've prided myself on my casual account having 100% positive FB and hate the thought of a negative. Especially undeserved. 

[duffy4444]

   If the shipping you paid was a substantial amount so that the loss of your original shipping cost really hurts, you can deduct that shipping portion from the refund. My understanding is that this is up to the seller and totally reasonable and acceptable when such a shipment is unclaimed, refused, or unable to be forwarded and then RTS.

   Of course we all want 100% positive feedback all the time. You may get a less than favorable feedback from this buyer, but as wastingtime101 says, you shouldn't live in fear of negative feedback. If that happens and it cannot be removed, a professional and short explanatory reply to the FB should suffice for other buyers to see and understand if they check out your FB.

   IMHO, I would put this buyer on my BBL, as having dogs in their yard renders successful future deliveries problematic. The buyer did not go to any reasonable effort of picking up the package at their post office, and didn't give you a clear and acceptable post office address to send it to. You don't want to go thru with this again.. let the new buyer learn from their mistake.

Cheers, Duffy

[iamahumanbean]

Thanks a bunch @duffy4444 I really appreciate your and @wastingtime101 's support. My understanding is that if I issue a partial refund that I won't get credited the FVF, is that correct? I definitely plan on blocking him as a buyer. My memory might be hazy but I thought there used to be a feature to block buyers with 0 FB. I know things here are everchanging and I don't use eBay often. 

[wastingtime101 · Accepted solution]

This is the standard response I give when a package is RTS @iamahumanbean. Since you have no interest in reshipping or reselling to this person you can ignore those parts of my below message.

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 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.

• Tell the buyer to 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 it 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.

• 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.

[pjcdn2005]

@wastingtime101 

Doesn't it seem odd that the first attempted delivery was on the 12th and on the 14th the item was already on its way back to sender? I thought the post office kept packages for a couple of weeks? Something doesn't sound right.

[wastingtime101]

Yes it is odd, @pjcdn2005. USPS typically holds packages for something like 10 days before processing a RTS. If it was my transaction I would call the buyer's PO to find out what happened and why the turnaround was immediate. USPS might even allow it to be reshipped on the same label if the RTS was done by their error.

But it's not my transaction and OP is determined to refund and be done with it so I answered their questions about the standard process/options.

[iamahumanbean]

Hi @pjcdn2005  my thoughts too. Part of me wants to keep pushing back but the bigger part of me is highly annoyed and wants to be done. The buyer still hasn't provided a viable shipping address (dogs in yard at his house and his local post office address) so I will most likely just refund so I don't continue in this cycle.

Here's a screenshot of how amazingly fast the RTS was.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote: ... I thought the post office kept packages for a couple of weeks? Something doesn't sound right.

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Due to the dogs, they couldn't even leave one of those peach "Attempted delivery; Pickup" slips either. Perhaps there's a special policy related to dogs. The form for scheduling Carrier Pickup specifically asks about them.