Issues with my first refund.

[blazecarolina]

I will try to keep it short and to the point.  Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.  I will go into more detail if needed.

I sold an item, the buyer received it, it was not what she wanted, and she wanted to return it.  She contacted me and requested a full refund, and being customer oriented, I went ahead and refunded the money.  She now says she can't initiate a return through Ebay because I already refunded the money.  She now wants me to send her a return label.

My listing states return shipping is paid for by the buyer, so I am not sure what to do at this point.  I know I am going to end up losing on this deal, but I am trying to do the right thing.

[green-night]

I sold an item, the buyer received it, it was not what she wanted, and she wanted to return it.  She contacted me and requested a full refund, and being customer oriented, I went ahead and refunded the money.

You should never refund before getting your item returned.  The buyer is under no obligation to return the item to you now.   If she refuses to return unless you send her a label, you will need to send her a label if you want it back.

[blazecarolina]

I was just trying to do the right thing and avoid the dreaded negative feedback.  From what I have heard, sellers are at quite a disadvantage when it comes to dealing with this sort of thing, so I was trying to minimize the impact.

I feel like I have to be fair to myself as a seller as well though.  I am already accepting the return with no issue, I feel like going against the clearly stated policy is going beyond what I should do.  We shall see how it plays out.

[takikawa4]

Sometimes doing the "right" thing doesn't prevent a neg from being left. And worrying about possibley getting a neg leads you to do the wrong thing.

[blazecarolina]

Lesson learned I suppose.  I will see if the buyer is willing to do the right thing as well.

Thank you everyone.

[phcd1]

As others have said, you should have not refunded until you have the item back. Depending if you want to pay for it back would determine what I would do. If you want to pay for it to be returned, go into PayPal and create a return label and print it to PDF and email it to your buyer. If you want to try and get the buyer to pay (which it sounds like its a buyers remorse return), create a label with no postage on it and when they take it to the post office, unless they drop it in a box somewhere, they should be charged for it. Maybe they just want a To: From: label.