What Condition did you select for the listing? Anything other than 'for parts/not working', you should follow @dqdistribution 's advice and just get it sent back and refund the buyer. Even if it works... the fact that the screen is "heavily cracked" puts it in the 'for parts' area for just about all buyers. Someone looking for a working iPad to replace their dead unit with an intact screen might be interested, but I'd think that's probably a rather small group when compared to eBay's overall active member count.
Whatever reason is given, just get it sent back and refund. There's also the possibility that the buyer is just looking for you to offer a partial refund, or even a full refund, with no return required. When you accept a Return Request and authorize postage (if you have to pay it), it starts a clock. If the buyer doesn't return the item by that date, you can have eBay close the Request and the buyer is just S.O.L. - even if you do eventually get it back, you're not legally required to do anything. Morally is a different, more personal decision, but eBay doesn't require you to do anything if they don't return it, and once the Return is closed, the buyer cannot file another. They get one bite of the apple (no pun intended).
-Bob.
@inhawaii wrote:A) Accept the return. Pay for the return shipping label. Refund the buyer when you get the item back.
B) Refund the buyer. Let the buyer keep the item.
C) Deny the return. Ebay will eventually find in favor of the buyer and refund the buyer with your funds. The buyer will not have to send the item back.
Sorry this happened to you but it's one if the things you have to deal with as a seller.
Option A is a calculation - value (what you paid) of the item + (2 x cost of shipping) compared to possible sale value. If you can still make money when you get it back, then get it back and move forward. If you will end up losing money having to resell & reship, then perhaps you let them keep it and just refund. Personally (and at work), if my investment is low (which is a personal setting), I'll refund and move on. If my investment is higher, or I think the buyer is lying for a full refund, I'll pay to get it back and relist. Each seller decides what's best for them - advice is great, but the decision is still yours.
Option B is a sub-condition of Option A, at least for me.
Option C carries a defect marked on your account - Failure to resolve a buyer issue. There is a section in your stats where eBay uses this accumulated count, over the prior 3 months or one year depending on sales volume, to decide whether you are Above Average or Top Rated. At work, we can only tolerate 3 of these defects - more than that and we lose Top Rated status. My personal account uses the one year tally... sounds nice (includes more sales!) but a defect can haunt you for the next 11 months.
Option C also has the bonus of eBay cancelling the Request if the buyer doesn't send it back. If they print the label, you get charged. If they don't send it back, you can request eBay refund the charge (if they don't automatically do so). If they get upset by this and file a chargeback, eBay will send the financial institution information showing that you offered a full refund and paid return postage but the buyer declined to send it back. Which should be enough for the buyer to lose their chargeback (I've had it happen a couple of times).
It's seldom easy or straight-forward with eBay. Always a lot of if-this-or-that to be considered.
-Bob.
PS: this in general info, not specifically directed at any reader or poster. Just thought I'd share the added fun with Option C.
@terrycece62 wrote:Buyer can return item FOR ANY REASON if he/she request return within the 30-day policy, so it really doesn't matter you are required to issue a refund to your buyer.
Not entirely true - if the buyer select a 'changed mind' reason, eBay will give the seller the option to decline the request. The buyer does not get a refund and cannot file a second case, but they can still file a chargeback with their financial institution. With the 'changed mind' class of returns, I let the buyer know that they will be charged for the return postage, and when I refund, I will not be refunding my original postage. With very inexpensive items, that can sometimes mean the buyer loses money overall. Which is probably why we have so many false INAD returns.
I did read where Amazon is going to stop paying for return shipping, they're going to start charging the customer or deducting it from the refund. And they will be tracking return activity -- too many returns, too high a return percentage, and you'll get a shopping vacation to reassess whether online shopping is really something they want to continue to do. Having to cover return shipping will also begin to help with that assessment. 🙂
-Bob.
@chapeau-noir wrote:As for selling parts and repair - from time to time I sell quality non-functioning small electrics with quite happy customers - they can repair with a few parts easily obtainable. However, I would not dabble in broken electronics - not with the market the way it is.
We've been doing this with abandoned prepaid cell phones. When we buy out a business, we buy everything. If we do the packing and shipping, we'll do some high-level sorting and mark the bins before palleting & wrapping. Over the last 5yrs or so, I've gotten a dozen bins of cell phones that cannot be connected to a network. They haven't been "register scanned", which informs the carrier that the phone has been sold by the retailer and can now be connected to the network.
We sell these phones as "is-is/for parts", or whatever the wording is this month. And out buyers, with only 2 exceptions, have been greatly pleased. The phones are basically new - new phone, new battery, new charger, new cable. Our assumption is that the phones are used as parts donors for actual customer phones. And considering the price of parts vs whole phone, that's likely a very profitable option.
But you have to be careful - do NOT use the word "new" anywhere in the listing. Not even "like new". Our phones are described as "unsold retail inventory in retail packaging", which is actually what they are. If the packaging is damaged, we state that and include picture/pictures. The as-is condition status allows for damaged, broken, non-working products to be sold. You don't get the best price, but what that 'best price' is depends a lot on how much you paid for it.
Those two 'exceptions' I mentioned earlier -- they read "new" and assumed, incorrectly, that the phone were in good working order. And nearly all of them are - but the two lots they purchased had damaged/opened packaging, which I stated in the description and title. Didn't matter -- since I'd used the term 'new', that changed the expectation, and eBay sided with the customers. We didn't get any defects, but returns always annoy me when the buyer simple assumed more than was on the page.
-Bob.
