"we'll issue a refund to the buyer on your behalf" Um, what?

[andnowitsmine]

June 25th I had a buyer request a return after a week of having an item. They said they "didn't like it" and it was clear it was buyers remorse. Whatever, I wait for the item to be shipped back. eBay gives this buyer until the 9th to ship it, and so for ten days the buyer doesn't ship the item.....

and now on the 8th, I see that the return request is closed, but they opened a dispute now because "it doesn't match the description." Except now, instead of letting me inspect the item first before issuing the refund like normal, eBay says, "When tracking details show that the item is delivered, we'll issue a refund to the buyer on your behalf. This case will not affect your seller performance."

WHAT. That means they can literally ship me a used doggie bag and eBay will give them their money back?? I've never heard of this! Is this buyer purposely scamming me?

[buyologist-3]

It's happening a lot lately, so it's stronger than a 'maybe'.  It's very...VERY...hard to get help, and many have adjusted/accepted, to it so they can still make money here.  With inflation and such, it's bound to stick around.  I'm sorry.  That's the main reason most do not sell expensive or rare things here anymore.  

[buyselljack2016]

Yup, they can ship back anything. That has been the policy for quite some time.

Deal is....... buyer found that they would need to pay the return shipping, and got eBay to change the return reason so that you can pay.

[mtgraves7984]

Sorry you are going through this... all we sellers empathize.

If it makes you feel any better... with your 14-Day return policy, you don't have the ability to reduce the amount of the buyer's refund, anyway. (You must offer Free Returns or be TRS with at least a 30-Day return policy to do so.) Moving forward, you might want to revisit your Returns policy... you sure do have some beautiful listings. Good luck to you.

[dogofwar777]

I'm so glad I no longer sell here.

[andnowitsmine]

I just checked the buyers feedback profile----low and behold, this is something they do all the time, sometimes not even returning all of the components. Safe to say, I'm assuming I wont be receiving my original item in it's original state.

[ittybitnot]

Safe to say, I'm assuming I wont be receiving my original item in it's original state.

@andnowitsmine 

It really doesn't matter if you do or don't get your item back or what state it is in at the time.  You will be refunding and paying for the return label. 

In addition, that business about "inspecting the item before giving a refund" is only useful if you are eligible to withold 'up to 50%' for a faulty return.   Eveyone else pays the full price anyway regardless of what is in the parcel.  

If you get something else back, report the buyer and appeal.  Nobody know how many 'reports' it takes for eBay to take notice.  Just as an example,  maybe the magic number is 50 reports of fraudulent returns.  If yours is number 51 you may get the cased closed in your favor.   You never know, but you can't count on it.  You will have better luck with an appeal if the buyer ID has already been given the NARU axe. 

[downunder-61]

Report them for Buyer Abuse of the MBG, may not help you, but may help someone else in the future.

sorry this happened.

[kenyam29]

Just happened to me. Sent back a broken item under the guise what he was sent was non working, even though clearly by the pictures it was a good item. I also clearly stated in he description as well as on the listen there are no returns...o well. I just changed my banking info from the prepaid card to some other card I dont use. I refuse to give back money..

[richard1rst]

---

@andnowitsmine wrote:

June 25th I had a buyer request a return after a week of having an item. They said they "didn't like it" and it was clear it was buyers remorse. Whatever, I wait for the item to be shipped back. eBay gives this buyer until the 9th to ship it, and so for ten days the buyer doesn't ship the item.....

and now on the 8th, I see that the return request is closed, but they opened a dispute now because "it doesn't match the description." Except now, instead of letting me inspect the item first before issuing the refund like normal, eBay says, "When tracking details show that the item is delivered, we'll issue a refund to the buyer on your behalf. This case will not affect your seller performance."

WHAT. That means they can literally ship me a used doggie bag and eBay will give them their money back?? I've never heard of this! Is this buyer purposely scamming me?

---

You might want to read the note a little more closely. I have had that happen a few times in the past. "On your behalf" means that eBay will issue a refund out of eBay's money - not yours. You get to keep what you received. You will not get dinged and any feedback left by the buyer will be removed. Basically a no harm, no foul situation for you.

[femmefan1946]

It can't be repeated too often:

"On your behalf" means that eBay will issue a refund out of eBay's money - not yours. You get to keep what you received. You will not get dinged and any feedback left by the buyer will be removed. Basically a no harm, no foul situation for you.

[dryophelia]

@kenyam29 

If eBay has stated there are giving a refund on your behalf, as the OP has stated, then the refund is from eBay, not you. 

If a buyer has opened a case for Item Not As Described, and eBay is not saying they refunded ‘on your behalf’, then the refund will come from you. If there are no funds to take from, it will be sent to collections. If you want the item back, send a prepaid shipping label. If you do not cooperate, eBay will allow the buyer to get a refund and get to keep the product. 

eBay is not some garage sale where no refunds means something. 
Listing  items as new but describing them as possibly missing parts, no refunds, is not going to work for very long here. 

[nocoolnamejane]

---

@kenyam29 wrote:

Just happened to me. Sent back a broken item under the guise what he was sent was non working, even though clearly by the pictures it was a good item. I also clearly stated in he description as well as on the listen there are no returns...o well. I just changed my banking info from the prepaid card to some other card I dont use. I refuse to give back money..

---

Then they’ll sent your account to recovery agencies. Is it worth the hit on your credit score?

[patmos-8]

eBay is refunding the buyer, not you.  Win/win kinda.  And even if they shipped you back a doggie bag and you had a chance to inspect it, you'd still be forced to issue a refund, so it's kind of a moot point.  It sucks, but Amazon set the bar so unrealistically high that other e-commerce platforms really have no choice but to adopt similar policies if they want to have any hope of staying relevant.  eBay has adapted by refunding buyers on occasions when there isn't clear fraud or if the dollar amount is low enough.  Then that extra cost of doing business trickles down to everyone.  It sucks for both eBay and eBay sellers that the consumer has become acclimated to Amazon's insane return policy.  Now 'no questions asked' returns/refunds for any reason after any amount of time isn't an exceptional policy, it's just standard business practice industry-wide.