Can I subtract shipping from refund on wrong address?

[luckyboyb]

Hi. Someone with 0 feedback bought an item from me (account created on the same day). I used ebay shipping label and printed exactly the info provided by the buyer. Because of the 0 feedback, I bought signature confirmation. Now USPS tracking says no such person at the address and the item will be returned to me (hopefully it will be). (buyer already asking for refund, all so scammy). My return policy for this item was "Seller does not offer returns." but I offered free shipping. It cost me 15% of the item price to ship it "for free". If I do get my item back, do I have to refund him full, or can I subtract my embedded shipping cost, because he provided wrong shipping information? thanks

[sam9876]

Signature Confirmation was a waste of money.

Yes, you will be required to issue a full refund. 

[robot-hands]

Why would you refund them?

[cream_couture]

Whenever this happens to me (not often), I refund the buyer minus the shipping. Regardless if it was free shipping or not. They gave the wrong info, they need to pay for it. I would send the buyer a message stating that what they would be getting as a refund with proof of the shipping amount attached.

[myangelandmyprincess]

I would usually say refund minus the shipping but since you added signature confirmation without the buyer being aware it would need it the question becomes would it have been successfully delivered if you hadn't done that.  I would refund in full because of that.  And quit putting signature confirmation when it's not necessary. 

[city*satins · Accepted solution]

Was this the $75 sale?   Why did you purchase signature confirmation?  That was a needless expenditure.

You could refund the purchase price minus the postage cost but in my opinion, under no circumstances should you withhold the Signature Confirmation cost as that was a frivolous expense.

But remember, if you issue a refund but don't cancel the sale, you will have no refund of the $7.50 you paid eBay for final fees.

But in order to get a refund of your final fees you need to refund the payment in full and cancel the sale.  eBay won't let you cancel a sale if there has been only a partial refund.

So...do the math and decide.

Remember that the buyer can still claim INR on a non cancelled sale that has been only partially refunded, in which case you'll have to cough up the remainder of the buyer's payment.

Up to you.

You might want to rethink FREE SHIPPING on heavy items.  This type of situation will come up again.

[city*satins]

By the way, have you discussed the buyer's correct address with the buyer?  The buyer may be willing to pay for you to reship it to the correct address, or may challenge the USPS having returned the package.  It happens sometimes.

[luckyboyb]

Thank you for the reply and the warning about fee refunds. That's such a bummer, especially if sig conf can't be included.

[luckyboyb]

Thank you all for your helpful responses!