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Help with buyer
A buyer recently purchased a vintage 1990’s lava lamp. She broke the bulb off in the lamp and is thinking of every excuse she can to get a refund. I am typically very liberal with refunds ect because I am new at eBay reselling and I understand that I can make mistakes. However, I feel eBay sides with the sellers too often. She freely admits that she broke the bulb off in the base of the lamp. She claims the wax is “burnt†but yet she knows that is was a flowing, working lamp & that she buys lava lamps quite often. I disagree that it is burnt and suggested overtime, heating & cooling the wax will cause discoloration but doesn’t effect the lamp functioning correctly.
Don’t want to sound like a Reddit post, but am I the A-hole?
I have had 2 negative feedbacks & one neutral.
1 negative feedback, totally deserved. I dropped the ball gave a prompt refund. The necklace negative feedback was just bizarre....
The neutral feedback was just some jerk who said he hadn’t received his item about 18 hours after he ordered it!
I don’t want her to leave some long rant of negative feedback but I also don’t want to be extorted. Anyhow, any advice would be appreciated, mostly just venting frustration.
Thanks in advance
Margarett Kay
tree*fern
·2 years ago@mcpreservation Hi Margarett Kay, sorry you've got one of those buyers. Be polite, kind, but firm saying you cannot refund since she broke the bulb. Repeat as needed, don't get drawn into a back-and-forth argument.
There's nothing you can do if she lies and submits a request for refund for Item Not As Described with eBay. Make sure you respond before the case deadline. Note in your case response that eBay should review her messages to you about her breaking the bulb, but that doesn't necessarily mean eBay will deny her refund.
You can choose to refund without requiring a return, or you can request she return the item before you refund (if she's bluffing you she won't want to return).
Don't let her extort you over feedback. If she very clearly says that in messages, and leaves a negative, you can have the feedback removed for violating eBay policies. But there's nothing you can do if she leaves you a negative/neutral feedback if it follows eBay's rules.
The good news is eBay no longer counts negative/neutral feedback against your seller performance requirements.
Here's how to request a feedback removal:
https://www.ebay.com/sellerhelp/feedback
mcpreservation
OP2 years agoThank you for your time. She has sent additional messages, but I will not reply to her.
I want to do this right but not get taken advantage of.