eBay says returned item should have arrived by now and will refund buyer tomorrow
We shipped a Sony DVD player to a buyer in Indiana. Apparently the buyer has worked for the USPS, the item arrived non-functioning, and buyer said it was packaged inadequately. Ok, I guess we aren't disputing that, I don't know, that's not what I'm asking about here now. So, buyer initiated return for defective item. The item came back to my US state, then went back to buyer's state, and now is back in my state and meanwhile eBay has concluded the item should have arrived by now and is saying eBay will refund the buyer tomorrow if I don't. I see no way to notify eBay the item hasn't actually arrived for us to check it otherwise we would have issued a refund by now. I'm guessing I just need to issue a refund regardless of the non-delivery of the returned item or else it counts against us. Is that correct?
yo0339
·1 year agoWondering @e-cyclers-of-idaho2021 why -- since the buyer is already guaranteed a refund -- why would the buyer want a Return To Sender to them, on your non-functioning Sony DVD player?
e-cyclers-of-idaho2021
OP1 year agoI have no idea. I don't think the buyer intended to get it back. It was just the Post Office that was confused. It looked like the buyer originally tried ripping off half of the original label, the To part of the address, their address, on the original shipping label and wrote return to sender pointing at my address. Then later they printed out eBay's return label and put it over the half ripped original label. It looked like maybe this buyer thought they knew how USPS works and thought they could return it with minimal effort by just writing return to sender on it.
We sell used electronics. I admit sometimes there are issues with stuff we sell that we didn't identify. Or sometimes people think there is a problem but there isn't. Sometimes people who find an issue contact us, sometimes they just request a return, sometimes people open an INAD case. Really it is all over the place, what the customer might do, and we just try to go with it.
e-cyclers-of-idaho2021
OP1 year agoWeeks later ...
The package kept going back and forth between Idaho and Indiana. The buyer wrote Return To Sender all over the box and after the package arrived in Idaho USPS thought it needed to go back to the buyer. Then it would get back to the buyer's state and USPS would retry sending it to Idaho. One day, when the package was about to be delivered to us again, the tracking said delivery refused at 9:30 AM but I knew no one had refused it because we aren't open that early! So I went to the post office and told them it wasn't refused. I showed them the pages of tracking history and mail search request. They pulled it out of some place in the back and handed it to me, and told me the writing on the box confused them.
grand-and-glorious-purpose
·1 year agoPretty much.
If you believe them there isn't really anything to fight about and you probably should have just refunded without taking it back...assuming that this was not anything expensive.
e-cyclers-of-idaho2021
OP1 year agoI issued the refund.
stainlessenginecovers
·1 year agoThis is how it works here; once buyer ships it, if it's lost, damaged, taking the scenic route- they have a timer on it and it is ON YOU to refund whether you get it or not.
e-cyclers-of-idaho2021
OP1 year agoYeah, it's gone on vacation. The package was almost returned to us on March 30th. At that time it was in Pocatello, ID which is only an hour away but for some reason after that the package went back to Indiana. Now it looks like USPS is attempting to return it again and it is in Boise at this time. The buyer, trying to do a return, originally sent it back on the 26th of March.
pikabo-icu
·1 year agoDefinitely just do the refund.
You will have to refund in the end anyway and you don't want eBay doing it for you or you'll get a defect and lose your FVF's.
mkaczorsee
·1 year agoWhere does the tracking indicate the return package is currently?
e-cyclers-of-idaho2021
OP1 year agoTracking says it is currently in Boise, ID. It needs to get to Idaho Falls, ID to get back to us. Maybe if it leaves Boise tonight it could be delivered to us tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Here is a snippet of what I see on my end:
The item has not been delivered and the tracking shows that. Ebay just thinks it should have been delivered by now. This isn't a high value item. I could just issue the refund so eBay won't punish us if that is what I need to do.
stainlessenginecovers
·1 year agoThat's exactly what you should do; especially over a low value item. Think big picture.
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoDoes not sound correct eBay would force a refund until after item has been returned.
According to policy
https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/returns-items-not-received-refunds-buyers/return-item-refund?id=4041&st=3&pos=2&query=Return%20an%20item%20for%20a%20refund&intent=returns&lucenceai=lucenceai&docId=HELP1134
Get your refund
Most sellers refund as soon as they get the item back. If the item has been returned to the seller and they haven't given you a refund after 2 business days, you can ask eBay to step in and help.