How many days does a buyer get to return an item ???

[theheadphonecompany]

The answer (at least in my case) SHOULD be/SHOULD HAVE been 5, yet somehow it morphed into 7 (plus 1 saturday and 1 sunday) ...... WHY eBay?

My buyer "magically" had a DOA motherboard that I sold them. It was sealed, NIB, and at a great price.

OK so its "defective" aka totally dead - so said the eBay message.

While I didnt believe him, I had no choice - on eBay theres no "seller protection".  Plus I SPECIFICALLY remember TRINTON poping into another thread saying that the definition of new and unopened (for returns purposes) is "elastic", and can be changed, is changed by eBay ON THE FLY. Items can be "stalled" and then if they dont work - its the sellers fault - even if the guy installed him item BACKWARDS.

OK, so I get him the label and wait "on pins and needles" to see what I will recieve back from the buyer.

7 days go by - 5 business and 2 weekend. I look at the resolution center and it says in the returns details 5 days (five).

I call eBay - "its after 9 PM EST on the 5th business day - will this auto close or can you close it now - since the package shows NO MOVEMENT at all - aka he didnt ship the item back". eBays responce - no you must call back on the 6th day - 12:01 AM on day 6 and have US close it. eBay is "jonny on the spot" to refund buyers - even before an items arrival - but cant handle it here. Well its eBay so you know how things go.

I called back and the CS agent said "NO YOU GOT IT WRONG - ITS 6 days NOT 5!". I said "the Resolution center says 5 - its right on my screen". She told me "YOU ARE WRONG - we WILL NOT CLOSE IT - HE HAS 6 DAYS". I went through the stupidvisior routine and the same mantra was repeated.

Finally on day 7 (business day 7) after 2 calls - eBay FINALLY closed it. Well actually it took 2 calls because they said they would, but the emails and resolution center said that the case was "being reviewed" ... Reviewed? For what exactly? It took call #2 and waiting with them ONLINE to get it closed and to see the email backing that up!

Is this baloney the new norm? How many times/ways will eBay bend over backwards to hand the buyer their money back - and ignore a sellers rights aka the stated 5 days?

Thankfully it all worked out (in my favor yet - especially since i knew the item was NOT doa) ... does anyone else have/had a similar issue? (eBay extending time past the stated deadline(s))..

maybe @trinton could shed some light please?

[missjen831]

The buyer has 5 business days to ship the item back--this is written in the MBG. The problem you and many others have faced is that customer service is poorly trained and you are always at the mercy of the rep that takes your call. Some don't know the policy and just make things up as they go. Some know the policy but don't understand it or have poor english reading comprehension and have read the policy don't understand it well enough to follow it correctly. Just my opinion but I do think that in whatever training they go through, there is an emphasis on taking care of the buyer first. Under the written policy, if there was no acceptance scan by 5pm PST on the 5th business day, the first rep you spoke to could have and should have closed the return. 

[theheadphonecompany]

😃 agreed - the question is - how many other sellers are they doing this to?

[phcd1]

As others have said, the buyer has 5 business days to (get it into the shipping process) return the item. If after 5 business days the tracking shows nothing, typically you can call and get eBay to close the return. Motherboards (and components in general) are hard sell on eBay. Basically the seller has to rely that the buyer that knows what they are doing.

[zmoz]

I recently had to call about something similar - item not being returned, shipping label shows no drop off. I was told I have to wait "10 calendar days", and then I could hear the indian looking at a calendar and counting days - the date he told me to call back was 12 days after the buyer received their label.

The answer is, they are incompetent. Period. If they were any good at using ebay then they would be here selling things probably making a whole lot more than the peanuts they take home from the call center. I would think somebody with good knowledge of ebay in india could make great money selling cheap junk to Americans...