Buyer wants refund after package shipped
I sold a sewing machine after accepting a buyer's offer they sent yesterday. The payment went through and I shipped out the sewing machine this morning. It was a heavy package and was shipped by FedEx. I had FedEx Ground Economy as a shipping option but I saw it was about $12 cheaper to ship it FedEx Home Delivery so I did that and refunded the buyer the difference. After I let them know they are now claiming they "accidently bid on the listing" and "please refund I never use bid" and "please dont want anymore please refund and "this machine I see description it didn't work properly sorry by mistake I click on it." The listing was sold as for parts and repair and I also stated this in the description and that I do not accept returns for this listing. This was all after they submitted the offer, paid for it and after I shipped out the package this morning.
So what do I do? Am I obligated to refund this buyer? The sewing machine was sold for parts/repair and I stated in the listing I do not accept returns for this listing. What should I tell the buyer?
casey-86
OP8 months agoSo I was finally able to get a resolution to this. I called eBay yesterday and I'm pretty sure I was transferred to someone with a higher up position after explaining everything to the first person. Explaining the entire timeline of events after this many phone calls and chats with both eBay and FedEx was getting beyond exhausting. They were able to compensate the price of the shipping label for me and gave me advice on how to avoid this in the future. They completely understood my situation and knew I was just trying to do right for the situation.
Meanwhile FedEx emailed me back this morning saying they were "unable to retrieve the provided tracking number in our billing database" and then asked for a receipt or proof of purchase of the label before they can resolve it for me. Really? Good grief... If they ever do refund it then it should go back to eBay's account which is good since they compensated me for the label.
I'm just glad this nightmare is finally over.
wastingtime101
·8 months agoWhat eBay did was give you a one-time courtesy refund out of eBay's pocket. They were not required to do that because you didn't follow the proper processes for a situation like this, including when you voluntarily gave the buyer a full refund after you had already used the label.
As for the FedEx response - I already mentioned above that was a pointless effort. Even if you went through departments and escalated, it would ultimately come down to them saying they can't do anything because the FedEx account is in eBay's name so any disputes on the label charge have to come from eBay.
casey-86
OP8 months agoThe buyer admitted to not reading the description, then said they bid by mistake (despite making an offer to me), then saying they don't know how bidding works, then saying they never bid, then saying they read the description after the fact and saw it was for parts, then said they wanted all their money back. This was a problem waiting to happen had that package left the drop off location. I did the right thing. What needs to change is if a package is picked back up by the sender at a drop off location it should be scanned as a voided label so this process can be much easier. I have never in my entire 20+ years I have been on eBay had a buyer do this to me so forgive me for not immediately having the right response right after I dropped off a 30 pound box to a drop off location that was out of town.
Consider the entire situation before trying to put the full blame on someone. All I tried to do was the right thing to avoid more problems. If I didn't "follow the proper processes" then maybe the processes need to change because this clearly is a problem that will continue to happen and labels need to have a way to be voided after they are scanned. Sellers should be able to void labels in situations like this that haven't left the drop off location.
gurlcat
·8 months agoThe word "blame" is kind of moot in a situation where you did the wrong thing only because you didn't know any better, and what made perfectly logical sense to you is not how FedEx does business (because they suck).
For what it's worth, here is what would have happened if you had just let the package continue to the buyer: They either would have kept it to avoid hassle, or more likely, they would have started a return. But because they had a remorse reason, you could have rejected the return. And even if you accepted it, you would have had the option NOT to refund them for the label.
So yes you definitely got lucky that eBay gave you a courtesy refund, and hopefully you will have learned useful information for future transactions.
wastingtime101
·8 months agoThere's so much that went down here, and I'll mostly refrain from commenting on what already happened and/or different ways to handle it. Instead I'll talk about where things are now.
No, the seller can not file a payment dispute @krazzykats because FedEx labels are paid from the seller's eBay funds so there is no third party payment processor involved on the seller's side.
Labels that have been scanned are considered used. Carriers typically do not refund them. It doesn't matter if you retrieve the package from the drop off point.
FedEx account is in eBay's name so all of the time spent contacting FedEx direct will get you nowhere. Only eBay can deal with FedEx on a situation like this.
From what I read, eBay has already submitted the request to FedEx. That's all they can do. At this point, it's up to FedEx to decide and no matter how many times you contact eBay they cannot force FedEx to make a decision sooner, or force them to make a decision that will be in your favor. All you can do is wait and see if the refund shows up in your eBay account.
The fact eBay is telling you they will no longer advise on this matter speaks to how much CS resources you've used up here. How often do we see buyers/sellers that need help and can't get through because CS is too busy? Why contribute to that by repeatedly contacting them about an issue that has already been handled and is in the 'wait and see' stage? There's nothing more to do here.
l'm concerned about how little you value your own time. How many hours have you spent on this over $32? If the $32 was so important, you should not have sent the buyer a full refund.
TLDR: Let it go. The stress and damage to your physical and mental well being is not worth it. Not for $32, and not on a request that was likely to be denied from the start because of how it was handled on your end.
gurlcat
·8 months agoIn a way I do understand the OP's outrage, but I think you're right. This is a classic example of the "sunk cost fallacy" (or in this case, sunk time fallacy), like "I can't quit now, I've come too far!" -the feeling that quitting would prove all that effort was for nothing.
@casey-86 If it's any consolation, I and probably many others would agree it's WRONG any time a company takes your money for no actual services rendered. FedEx literally did nothing in exchange for your $32 and that's infuriating. The fact that you lost it only because you wanted to comply with a buyer's wishes and avoid a return, that just makes it feel even more unfair. Also as someone who often finds herself on the razor's edge financially, I would be the last person to scoff at $32 as an "irrelevant" sum of money.
But if you've read posts in this Community long enough, you'll know that it's a relatively small amount of money compared to losses other sellers (sometimes buyers) have fallen victim to, without recourse. Instead of $32, it could have been $132 or even $3200, depending on the type of accidental or fraudulent situation. And I know it may be hard to absorb this, but you might have just paid a relatively small amount for a couple of valuable lessons: Don't use FedEx, and Don't try to cancel a sale that is already shipped.
It's up to you if you want to keep trying to get some eBay or FedEx employee to see the situation and give you a courtesy refund or whatever, but I suspect at some point the answer will be "A scanned label is a used label, period." So then the question is just how much more time you want to invest before they tell you that, rather than spend that time on your listings or some other more fruitful endeavor.
wastingtime101
·8 months agoFor what it's worth, I do not see $32 as "irrelevant," but I do not see it as worth spending that many hours on it. Not when the OP could be spending that time relisting their item and bumping the price to factor in the initial loss, or spend the time listing other items and bump the price of each one by $1-2 to eventually recoup the loss.
I see what you see that it's the situation of "I've come this far," which is the reason for my dose of perspective post without coddling. Sometimes you need someone to tell you it's time to move on and not only use your time more wisely, but remove all the pressure that added stress is causing. Get it out of your head for your own health.
gurlcat
·8 months agoAbsolutely, and I hope it didn't sound like I thought you were inferring that $32 is irrelevant; just that some sellers would (honestly I've been kind of surprised not to see that in the history of this thread!).
Also some might point out that I'm not completely guiltless of the sunk cost fallacy myself, because by the true definition of it, you don't have to waste too much time/money/stress for no result; even if you succeed in a hard-won pursuit, the reward can still be so small as to be unworthy.
With me, the (ostensible) over-investment would be time I spend detailing the play-by-play updates of a situation here in the Community. In that sense I would be a better candidate for the name 'WastingTime' because I've seen you put the forums on the back-burner to deal with more important matter lots of times, and it's commendable.
Hands-down the best example of my (ostensible) time-wasting would be my 'Beyond Bizarre Return!' thread, and oh-so-ironic because guess how much the monetary amount was, in the scam that buyer was trying to pull? That's right .... $32.00!!! (okay I just checked; it was actually $32.95 LOL). But I don't feel that was truly wasteful, for a few reasons:
1. From the start I was pretty confident I could win, just needed a little help from fellow members who specialized in technical aspects that were blind spots for me.
2. The scammer proved to be so dedicated to winning, it started feeling like the ultimate test of both wit and eBay's seller protections. He/she used every conceivable weapon in their arsenal, and had I made one false move at any point, I would've been zonked.
3. It was extremely fun.
4. In the end I not only kept my money; the scammer got banned from eBay (at least that one account).
5. All the weapons they used and how I dealt with them (with help from other thread participants) -all being documented in real time, makes the thread a fairly handy reference source for helping any seller facing any of the same weapons.
But I think even if I'd lost that battle, or any of the others I've documented in pages-long threads, I would rather it be public than private. A lesson is a lesson, period, and if a sacrifice of time results in more people learning that lesson than just person directly affected, then it's worth their sharing of it. I'm not a good business person; I doubt I ever will be. Good business people are immune to the sunk cost fallacy. But for scientists there's almost no such thing, almost no investment too large for establishing the absolute truth, and I guess that's what I value so much that my utilities get cut off and such, ha.
What makes me so sad for this OP is, I kinda suspect she's a scientist too, or at least a justice-seeker, that she probably already knows she's putting in more man-hours than $32 is worth, but she just wants the refund because it's only RIGHT. "The principle" if you will. So what makes me angriest about her situation is how many times eBay and FedEx have strung her along, saying 'this' and 'that' are being considered, when they should have just told her long ago that they will not refund her for a scanned label.
krazzykats
·8 months agoSorry if I missed any updates from the last 24 hours, but at this stage, I’d reach out to my funding source and let them handle it.
Did I overlook whether this has already been suggested?
It seems like a lot of stress and time have gone into dealing eBay or FedEx, so I’d turn to my funding source next for assistance.
á“šá˜á—¢
casey-86
OP8 months agoThe FedEx help chat on twitter just told me this:
"Thank you for confirming this information. In this case, original sender will be eBay. FedEx charged eBay's FedEx account number for this shipment. You may ask the refund directly to eBay and FedEx will settle the claim to eBay. You may file a claim on your end, however, you will need an authorization from eBay allowing FedEx to settle the claim to you. eBay should also provide you with the documentation needed with the claim."
How the heck do I file a claim? I am being thrown around by both FedEx and eBay over this and I am sick of it! eBay has told me to wait 2-3 weeks, then to wait 10 days, then to wait a few more days, then to wait a couple more weeks because of holidays and I don't know what to do at this point. Neither of them has been of any help at all to me. This has been a literal nightmare. It should not be this hard for someone to look at this case and immediately issue a refund to me.
I don't care how long it takes I am going to get a refund for this label. I don't care if it takes years I am not going to stop until $32.27 is refunded to me for this label. This is beyond ridiculous.
ltldpr
·8 months agoI'd take that FedEx response to Facebook and let the eBay rep read it.
BUT YOU NEED TO ONLY MENTION FACTS. I'm bad about adding a lot of info that doesn't need to be added, so it's easy for me to recognize the trait in others. I recognize it in you.
Be very polite, but TO THE POINT. Don't get emotional.
You're the cop on Dragnet - "Just the facts, Ma'am".
Write out a timeline before you contact them. THEN CUT OUT ALL UNNECESSARY LANGUAGE like you're an editor trying to cram a long story into the old-school newspaper column width with a finite amount of space. (Everything after the all caps is unnecessary, as is this sentence.)
Only tell them dates & facts.
eBay is the account holder with FedEx which prevents you from getting a refund directly from FedEx.
eBay is the account holder & has to request the refund on your behalf.
casey-86
OP8 months agoFedEx emailed me back this morning saying this:
"The tracking number has not yet been invoiced in our billing system. The Billing Department requires the shipments to be invoiced before they can research your request. We will be able to assist you with your request after the invoice has been generated. Kindly resubmit your request once the invoice is generated, according to your billing cycle."
Can someone please tell me what this means? They certainly didn't tell me what that means or even how to do it.
ltldpr
·8 months agoWoah! I just read several pages of the post & updates.
I'm so sorry you've had to deal with this.
I was just sitting here thinking the only way to get rid of the billing middle-man would be to do our own postage/shipping like we did back in the dial-up days. We lose our "discount" for the ones that go smoothly (vast majority), but we also don't have the do-nothing middle-man (eBay) who FedEx defers to when something doesn't go smoothly.
I also wonder how many thousands of dollars the shipping companies make simply because most people give up. It's perfect for them, really. We're not the shipping account holder (eBay is), so they defer to eBay, and eBay doesn't allow us to speak directly with people who work in the specific department who could help because I don't know. Maybe there are no more humans working in that eBay department anymore. I have no idea.
Not sure when it changed, but it seems like the way businesses deal with customers now, who are the only reason they exist, is to ignore, defer, deny. If nothing out of the ordinary ever happened, bots and no human contact would be fine. That's not how the world works, though. Things don't always go smoothly and these big mega corps don't think about that - I guess because there are no more humans who work at them to think at all.
pickapaper
·8 months ago@casey-86
Kudos to you, Casey. You have a lot more patience than I do. I think I would have given up a long time ago.
@gurlcat
I'm so sorry to read about this. I don't know how long ago this happened but I know it still hurts, no matter how long ago. Peace be with you.
casey-86
OP8 months agoI called the FedEx revenue department again and they said they have no request or information from eBay about this at all despite the fact I have been told multiple times from eBay they have sent this over to FedEx. This person was more understanding of my situation and told me to email the information about this label to their billing department and they would refund this label for me. She said they get these kind of cases a lot and in her experience trying to go through eBay for a resolution never really works out. She said the FedEx billing department would resolve this for me so I sent them the email this morning and am waiting for a reply. I will update here when they do and hopefully this will finally be the end of this.
dhbookds
·8 months agoHopefully that will work.........my opinion, it's the way it should have worked from the beginning.......Fedex is the only one with the actual info that the label wasn't used after the scan........
colfaxstation
·8 months agoFi9le that buyer is requesting something that violates refund rules and quote their requests.
casey-86
OP8 months agoThe way the buyer messaged me right after I dropped the package off at the FedEx drop off location was giving me all kinds of red flags. I had a strong feeling that if I did anything else other than what I did it was going to be more problems. Thinking back though I feel like I should have just let the package go and if they did try to open a false case against me hope someone at eBay would see the situation and side with me. Even still I cancelled the order and now here I am almost 2 months later still trying to get a refund for a shipping label I never should have had to pay for.
casey-86
OP8 months agoJust got off the phone with eBay... They told me they would send a request to prioritize this case. I am just so exhausted over all of this. I am so tired of having to constantly call people and explain this situation over and over again with no resolution so far. I don't know why after a month and a half someone over at FedEx hasn't looked at this and approved the refund. I am starting to understand why people in this thread said they'll never use FedEx and honestly I don't think I will ever use their service again after this.
gurlcat
·8 months agoIf there were books written about shipping carriers, I'm certain the ones about FedUp would be located in the Horror section. I could just about write one myself, based on all the stories I've observed and lived in. There would be a whole chapter just for the experiences my poor Mama had in her final years of life, dying from cancer. She was able to stay in her home until the very last weeks, but so much of that depended on her reliance on delivery of things she needed. Her limited mobility was such that she couldn't go outdoors without assistance, and because of the threat of porch pirates and bad weather potentially destroying items, she put a big sign on the door begging carriers to open her unlocked front door and simply place packages just inside the entrance. USPS always complied, UPS usually complied, but FedEx -never.
I'll skip the details of her countless phone and internet cries to them for empathy, but suffice it to say they were all for naught. And the last thing she did as an independent-living person was try to retrieve a package of medication that would have been destroyed by summer heat on her front porch, only to fall and break another bone, resulting in a need for hospitalization that proved too long to outlive.
I will never, EVER forgive the company for that. And I will never use them as a seller, nor buy from any seller who does.
fern*wood
·8 months agoThat's terrible gurl, I'm so sorry.
casey-86
OP8 months agoSo I just called the FedEx Revenue Services team and they told me eBay would have to call them and verify all of this before they can issue a refund to me. I told them I have all of the information right here, proof the order was cancelled, proof from the chat log with the buyer they wanted it cancelled and everything. It didn't matter. They said eBay would have to be the one to contact them and they basically told me to contact eBay again. Well, eBay told me on their social media chat that they probably wouldn't be replying to this situation anymore there since they have already basically gone over everything they can do on their end.
So now what? Now I have FedEx telling me to contact eBay again and eBay giving me the run around for over a month and a half now.
I used eBay's live chat and am having an eBay agent call me again about this. I'm waiting for the call and I'll let them know what FedEx told me today and hopefully they can finally resolve this for me.
casey-86
OP8 months agoSo the FedEx help page on twitter was absolutely no help at all to me. They spent an hour doing nothing but asking me information about the shipping label just to tell me to call another department about it. They didn't even tell me why they asked me all of this information even when I asked them. They also had the nerve to say "I'll do everything I can to make it right" which they didn't and only wasted my time for an hour asking me questions just to tell me to call a different FedEx department.
I cannot believe how unbelievably wrong I have been treated with this. I am just lost for words how someone after this amount of time could not have looked at this situation and said "yea, you deserve a full refund for this label." Heck at this point I feel like I deserve more than that but I just want my refund! I feel like I paid $32 for a shipping label and got nothing for it. In fact I got extremely inconvenienced having to go out of town to a drop off location TWICE all because a buyer last minute decided they wanted to cancel the order. I just can't believe this happened and I can't believe I have not received a refund for this label. This is NOT Ok and I am going to get my refund no matter how long it takes. I am not going to accept losing $32 over something that was not my fault.
dhbookds
·8 months agoIt's going to be up to Fedex to give the refund, I'm sure....... and, of course they are inundated this time of year.....while you hope for a courtesy refund, probably not going to happen until after Fedex makes a decision..if then.
Sorry it happened to you, but one of the hazards of on line sales...
casey-86
OP8 months agoI just found FedEx's help page on twitter and sent them a message there. I'm waiting for a reply and will update here when I do.
casey-86
OP8 months agoSo here is an update to this situation. I am no closer to a refund for this label than I was the first time I called eBay over it. The social media eBay reps are basically treating me the same way I was treated on the phone calls. They keep throwing around random time frames and now using the "its holiday time" excuse to basically give me no sure time frame for a response to this. So the social media rep said they saw the note for this order and sent the request to FedEx to consider a refund for the label. They told me it would take up to 10 days to get a response. Well, 10 days later I message them again saying I have heard nothing and then was told it would be "10 business days" and I should wait a few more days for a response. So I do that... and still no response. So when I go back to the social media chat they are now telling me it could take 2-3 weeks for a response because of the holiday time. I inquired about this at the very beginning of November and I am still being given different time frames for a response to this. So now I am expected to wait about 2 more weeks but given everything I have been through with this I have no reason to believe I will receive any kind of response to this.
I really don't understand what is so hard about realizing that a label that was only scanned at the drop off location should be refunded ESPECIALLY having an entire chat log with the buyer proving that they wanted to cancel the order shortly after the package was dropped off AND seeing where I told the buyer I called the drop off location, had them hold the package for me and then me picking the package back up. I literally have the box here with the label still on it and the tracking still saying "dropped off" and nothing more. How can they possibly not come to the conclusion that this label should be refunded to me after all of that? I cannot believe how terrible this entire situation has been for me. I should not have had to gone through any of this because a buyer decided right after their package was dropped off they don't want it anymore and even admitting to not reading the description. I should have been refunded this label within the first week of all of this happening.
It is now almost Christmas and since the beginning of November I have had to deal with calling eBay multiple times and chatting with multiple eBay reps on social media to now basically just being told I need to wait even more time because of the holidays. I just cannot believe this happened to me when I did everything I could to try and make this situation right for the buyer so they wouldn't have to go through returning the item themselves. I am beyond exhausted with this...
reallynicestamps
·9 months agoI regret you are unhappy with your purchase. I will refund you when the shipment is returned.
And don't explain how to do that.
I suspect your first error was making a refund on shipping cost. It made you look like a pushover.
I am old and grumpy.
But still....
NO REFUNDS WITHOUT RETURN.
That being said, the dimwit buyer may not have realized that they were buying a broken machine. You can't cure stupid
NO REFUNDS WITHOUT RETURN.
casey-86
OP9 months agoYou know when I read so many times about how buyers make up all kinds of reasons to open an INAD it makes me think I was going to end up having to refund the entire purchase anyway. I was nice enough to go out of my way to cancel this order, call the drop off place, have them hold the package for me and then go back and get the package after a buyer messaged me repeatedly saying over and over they don't want it and that they didn't read the description before buying it. Given how they messaged me I knew I was going to be dealing with a problem if I let the package ship out so I thought it would be better to just stop it there and not have to deal with that.
FedEx will be able to see that the label still says "scanned at drop off location" and that it was never really used. Given the details of the situation, the message history between me and the buyer and the tracking information of the label there is no reason they shouldn't refund me for this label. One thing is for sure I am NEVER going to do this again for another buyer. Now that I know what happens in this situation and how labels can't be voided once scanned the packages are just going to have to be shipped and returned from the buyer if they don't want it.
casey-86
OP9 months agoI just can't get a break with this. So I contacted eBay Help on twitter and started chatting with one of their customer support reps there. They basically told me that they don't know why I was told on the phone both times that I would be getting a refund for this label. They did say they saw the reference note left by them on my account but they aren't able to see anything about any refund being processed or coming to me. They then told me they understand the situation and passed on all of this information to their shipping team and that they would be contacting me by email and through ebay messages about this to let me know if they are able to make an exception in this case and give me a refund.
They told me it would take up to 10 business days to hear back from them and if that doesn't work they would then try a manual courtesy refund for me. 10 more days on top of the now over 21 days I have waited to get a refund for a label I never should've been charged for. This has been a nightmare for me...
I am so confused. Why on earth would they tell me TWICE over the phone that I would be receiving this refund if it were not true. They can't be told just to say that to make us forget about it. That wouldn't be good on their end if that was a trend they kept doing. People would bring this up.
pickapaper
·9 months ago@casey-86 wrote: "I am so confused. Why on earth would they tell me TWICE over the phone that I would be receiving this refund if it were not true. They can't be told just to say that to make us forget about it. That wouldn't be good on their end if that was a trend they kept doing. People would bring this up."
I didn't go back through this thread so don't know if it has been mentioned before, but eBay's phone customer service agents have the reputation of telling callers what they want to hear, not what the actual facts are, just to get them off the phone. Most of them are offshore employees, just reading from a script and do not have the knowledge or experience to actually give correct answers anyway. That is why it was suggested for you to contact eBay through Social Media, where you can get better answers. And it appears that you finally got a decent answer from X (Twitter).
participatrophy
·9 months agoOh they're infamous for it. Search this forum; the boards are littered with posts and even entire threads detailing what others have experienced dealing with the overseas phone reps. Suffice it to say trend isn't quite the right word. Language barriers and super heavy accents are far from the only reasons two people might fundamentally misunderstand each other.
Twitter exchange sounds promising. The outstanding customer service you provided to your buyer will def be a point in your favor. Hope you'll continue keeping us updated. Super interested to see how this one goes. Fingers crossed for you! Hang in there.
casey-86
OP9 months agoI guess I'm going to have to start recording my phone calls with eBay and asking for reference information. I go out of my way and waste my time calling eBay to be told information that I am now being told wasn't true. For me to be told twice I would be getting this refund and then have another eBay customer support rep tell me I should've never been told that is just wrong. The amount of time I have to wait on this for anything to happen is also beyond ridiculous. I'm not expecting anything in this supposed 10 day wait period for FedEx to respond. I'm expecting to have to go back to the eBay twitter chat and hope they can give me a courtesy refund which should have been given to me the very moment I called about this. In fact labels shouldn't be considered used until they at least LEAVE the drop off location which this package never did.
Over a month long nightmare now over a buyer who decided they didn't want an item after submitting an offer and me accepting it then also admitting they didn't read the item description. Who does that?
adamcartwright
·9 months ago@casey-86
X has always been the way to go for me to get the help I need.
Here's hoping it works out this time.
casey-86
OP9 months agoSo after calling eBay 3 times and being told twice that I would be getting my refund for this shipping label I still do not have a refund. They told me it would take about 21 days to get it and its been that amount of time since I called about this. When I called them last a few days ago they told me FedEx would be issuing the refund. My questions is how will I be getting a refund from FedEx if this label was bought through eBay?
chapeau-noir
·9 months agoBecause eBay is just the portal - FedEx is actually the company you're dealing with.
casey-86
OP9 months agoeBay told me everything was fine and didn't give me any additional instructions for getting this refund. They told me twice that it would be issued to me. Do I need to contact FedEx about this and if so what would I even say? eBay sure did sound like on the last 2 calls that this would be taken care of and I didn't need to do anything further. They even have a reference note for this order about this.
soh.maryl
·9 months agoDepending on how you contacted eBay about this, there is a strong possibility that you were told what you wanted to hear just to get you off the phone.
CS reps that you call here have no authority to do what you need done. You have better results if you contact via Facebook.
casey-86
OP9 months agoWell one thing is for sure I am not going to forget about this. I am going to get my refund for this shipping label. It was completely wrong what happened to me in this situation. They have assured me twice that this refund will be given and they referenced the note by this order confirming it. I'm probably going to call them again soon if I don't see the refund show up. I don't want to think they were just telling me what I wanted to hear especially how they assured me I would be getting this refund.
chapeau-noir
·9 months agoI'm concerned about the limited time you have to cancel this if eBay keeps dragging it out - at least with Fedex you can hopefully get some kind of definitive answer as to policy. Have you tried eBay CS on social media? (Sorry if you did already and I missed it).
The problem is, there are somewhat different refund processes for those with Fedex accounts, whose who just buy a label from Fedex and those who used a portal like eBay.
casey-86
OP9 months agoI haven't contacted them on social media yet. The responses they gave me over the phone made me feel like everything would be Ok. If I don't see the refund in the morning I will call them again. This is beyond ridiculous at this point. A label shouldn't be considered used until it reaches its destination.
casey-86
OP10 months agoSo I'm wondering if I should call eBay again just to confirm that I will be receiving a refund for this shipping label. The lady I talked to the other day did tell me that I would be getting it but it would about 21 days. I should've asked more information about this but at this point I was already so frustrated and stressed that I was just relieved to hear that they would be able to refund it. So far I haven't seen any activity about this in my payment activity on eBay or on my bank account. The lady did say she would leave a note on this to confirm that I would be receiving a refund in case I needed to inquire about this again and got another person on the line. Do you think I should call them just to confirm or just wait awhile longer?
casey-86
OP10 months agoFINALLY some good news. After calling eBay twice about this I was able to get a refund for the shipping label. They said it will take a few weeks which is fine with me so long as I get this label refunded. I had to really explain the situation and emphasize how this was entirely the buyer's fault and not mine. I told them to please read the message history between me and the buyer and they will see how this all played out and that I am entirely in the right and the buyer is in the wrong. I told them it was not Ok that I would have to cover a $32 label all because the buyer made a last minute decision to cancel an order that had already been dropped off for shipment. If I hadn't called the store and told them to hold this package I would've had to deal with a return so I am glad this was all able to be settled before that happened.
Thank you to everyone who helped me here and especially to those who told me to call the drop off place and ask them to hold the package for me. I know $32 may not seem like a big deal to some people but for a lot of us out there its everything especially this close to Christmas. I always like to ship my orders out as soon as possible especially since eBay always has the "ship by this date" after you get an order. Now it seems like that may work against me if something like this happens again. Hopefully it doesn't, but from now on I think I need to just make it perfectly clear for my listings that any kind of order cancelling or returns have to go by what is stated in the listing and will just have to go through the process. No more cancelling orders for buyers because they change their mind after an order shipped and especially within just a couple hours of that.
fern*wood
·10 months agoI hope it works out for you, but I would have imagined ebay might give you a courtesy refund which are usually done immediately. I tend to not trust the phone reps much. Telling you it might take weeks doesn't make sense, unless the carrier was to issue a refund and they refused.
I hoped you could give the buyer a refund minus the shipping, just as I would do on a remorse return. This was a messed up situation, though, as few can get a package back as you did after it had already been scanned.
casey-86
OP10 months agoThey were very nice the whole time and understood the situation. They told me it would take about 21 days to process the label refund for me and they also said they put a note on this order for reference in case I would need to call back about it for any reason. That way the next rep would understand what was going on and that a refund was being processed. I'm not sure why it would take that long, but I will keep an eye on it and if I don't see a refund show up in my account within the next 2-3 weeks I will call them back.
At first I was just going to refund the item purchase price but that would leave the order still open and I didn't want to deal with the possibility of a case being opened for the rest. It would've probably worked out in my favor if it did, but I was so frustrated I just wanted to cancel this order and put it behind me. I figured eBay would clearly see what happened here if I called them about it but it took 2 calls to get a good resolution with it. I'm not going to rely on that in the future. Next time the buyer is just going to have to take the loss and cover the return shipping if they want a refund. For an item this heavy, its a pretty expensive label. I always worry when they open a case that they would make up some random reason as to why they cancelled instead of the real reason.
casey-86
OP10 months agoSo I just got off the phone with eBay and they told me since the label has been scanned it can't be cancelled and they can't give me a refund for it. They suggested I contact FedEx and try to get a refund from them. This is just great. All because a buyer decided after a package was shipped they didn't want it because they didn't read the listing and claimed they bought it by mistake. I literally just lost $32 because of this. That, and all my time wasted getting this big package together, getting it into town, finding the proper drop off location since there are no FedEx buildings here so this has to be done by places like Dollar General. Then having to change up holiday plans and go out of my way to call the place and have them hold it for them then go all the way back and pick up the package. I cannot believe this is what we have to deal with in situations like this. And of course absolutely nothing will be done to the buyer and they will get a full refund and not have to deal with anything.
casey-86
OP10 months agoI just decided to cancel the order at the buyer’s request. I just don’t want to deal with this anymore. This whole thing was stressful and frustrating all because the buyer didn’t read the listing, claimed they bought by mistake multiple different ways and then asked for a refund AFTER THE PACKAGE WAS SHIPPED! I now have to figure out how I can get a refund for a $32 label that was considered “used†even though I was able to have the package held at the drop off store before FedEx ever even received the package.
Sellers need more protections in situations like this. If a buyer wants to cancel after an item is considered shipped because it was simply scanned at the drop off then the shipping price should be refunded to the seller. We shouldn’t have to go through extra processes in the hope we might get our money back for a problem we didn’t create.
casey-86
OP10 months agoSo does it matter that the $72 refund (item price amount) I am trying to send is being split between the item price and shipping price? I wanted to just refund the total of the actual item so I don't understand why it is wanting to refund from the item price and shipping price. Does this even matter? Sorry for the constant questions. I just want to make sure I'm doing everything right.
albertabrightalberta
·10 months ago"Should I just go ahead and issue the refund for the amount of the item (minus the label cost) and tell the buyer that I was unable to cancel the label and cannot refund the full amount?"
This is how I'd handle it. YMMV.
I'd issue a refund for the purchase price only and in the notes section of the refund form, include a message along the lines of the following:
"Dear buyer,
Now that I have the package back, I have issued a refund for the purchase price of the item. Because you changed your mind after I'd already taken it to the shipper and it was scanned as accepted, I can't get a refund the price of the label so I can't issue the refund to you for the shipping amount.
Sincerely,
Seller"
If the buyer opens a claim with ebay and ebay freezes. your funds, please come back. This may be a case to take up with ebay's social media people to get that claim denied. (But cross that bridge if and when you come to it.)
casey-86
OP10 months agoThank you so much for the helpful advice. Also thank you to everyone in this thread who has helped me and given advice for this situation. I'll go ahead and do this and hope it all works out. If it doesn't then I guess I will be back here after seeking more advice.
casey-86
OP10 months agoThe options in the drop down menu after selecting "send refund" are:
Seller canceled/Out of stock
Buyer canceled
Item not received
Buyer return
Item not as described
Other adjustment
Shipping discount
I'm assuming I select "Buyer canceled" even though they only requested a refund through messages and not through a cancel order request, right?
theteamsetguy
·10 months ago@casey-86 ,
That would be correct.
casey-86
OP10 months agoOn the final page of the refund process it says this:
Total refund
$72.00Refund summary
Purchased price: $44.54albertabrightalberta
·10 months ago@casey-86
Are you on your orders page?
Did you click on the 3 dots and scroll down to the send refund link?
When I click, I'm seeing the price of the item and if desired, I can enter the shipping amount. It's not split/prorated as you're seeing.
casey-86
OP10 months agoThis is what I am seeing:
casey-86
OP10 months agoOn the first page of the refund process there is 1 box to enter the amount which I did. The next page asks for a reason and a description box. The last page is the picture in my last reply.
babyers88
·10 months ago@casey-86 the root problem now is it was scanned in, albeit not by fedex themself.
it will still show as shipped which puts you in limbo.
what I would do is reach out to ebay, have them call you, go to the social media page whatever level of service/support you have and speak to a human, not the ai, not the bot.
once you have a human on the line, explain what occurred and see if they can step in and do one of 2 things
1. see if they can just intervene and refund the customer, less shipping
2. if not then have/ask them refund in full and cancel the sale from the backend with no recourse to you.
at that point, you can then reach out to fedex customer service, explain that the package was dropped off at a shipping center, but then retrieved before a actual possession scan was performed and ask if they will initiate a refund, the only catch here is it may take time for them to process that so they can confirm it was never in there possession.
that is exactly how I would approach it and I am an 100% certain that at the very least you will not get a ding for it.
casey-86
OP10 months agoeBay is more than welcome to read the message log between me and this buyer that happened here on their platform. There they will see I did everything right and that the buyer asked for a refund and said they don't want it anymore, and they don't know how this works and other things clearly pointing to the fact they bought this item without reading the description and made the request after the fact of me dropping the package off and having it scanned. If they somehow read all of that and conclude the buyer is in the right here then I don't even know what world I'm living in right now.
kraftique
·10 months agoJust call Fedex to have it Intercepted and returned to you. Take the loss. Things happen and that is Part of business. Once you have it back refund the buyer.
casey-86
OP10 months agoI’ve already said here that I called the drop off place and asked them to hold the package for me. They did and I will be retrieving the package tomorrow. The problem is they already scanned the label which apparently marks the label as “used†and I cannot cancel the label in the labels section on eBay. Right now I’m trying to figure out how I can get a refund for this label since the buyer messaged me requesting a refund after all this happened.
chapeau-noir
·10 months agoI thought the order could be cancelled 'buyer request' - that would give @casey-86 back her fees as well.
As for the label, the first place I would ask is where it was shipped since they can verify the item was never shipped. Maybe they could cancel it or would have more information.
gurlcat
·10 months agoWell whenever I issue a partial refund for combined shipping or whatever, I also see my seller fees refunded out of that portion.
So I think it doesn't matter ..... but some kinda-recent thread keeps gnawing at me, some situation where the seller should have cancelled rather than refunded or refunded rather than cancelled ... but I can't remember why!
DOH! The second I hit the Reply button, I remembered. 🤣 If you just issue a full refund, the bot gives you a defect for Item Out of Stock. I doubt that would still happen after shipping, but if you get fees credited back either way, you might as well do a 'Buyer requested' cancellation.
You got that @casey-86 ?
I'm sorry you must think we're drinking hard tonight or something, LOL!
participatrophy
·10 months agoIt was this thread I bet
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Do-not-choose-the-wrong-reason-for-cancel-eBay-is-monitoring/m-p/35292862
This situation is so non-standard that I don't think there is an inbuilt way to handle it as a regular site user. Once OP has the package back in her possession, she probably ought to reach out via the social media channels. Def could be mistaken here but I think this one will need to be addressed on the back end, and the social media dudes seem like the only customer service reps competent enough to actually resolve the matter.
gurlcat
·10 months agoYep that was the one! Now James HAD already shipped (like this OP) .... but he just uses stamps to ship his stamps, lol. -So he had no scans. The OP has, but they still might as well do a cancellation instead, just to be on the safe side.
participatrophy
·10 months agosin-n-dex
·10 months agoThat was my thread.
If OP bought a label and label was scanned, and then OP refunds, no defect. Don't cancel for any particular reason, you're not supposed to cancel after the item was shipped. Cancel for reason "buyer return" (even though it didn't make it past the drop spot) and just refund. If something was shipped and it can be proven, there's no defect. There's no reason to get into a reason for cancellation in this case.
C.
casey-86
OP10 months agoOk so what would be the best thing for me to do after I pickup the package from the fedex drop off store? Doesn't the buyer have to make a request from their end. I know I can issue a refund from my end but that doesn't cover the label problem. If I can't get a refund for this label I will be out $42.
So just to recap:
Buyer sent me an offer for the item > I accepted.
I shipped the package the next morning and dropped the package off at a FedEx drop off store (Dollar General)
I messaged the buyer letting them know I was able to ship it cheaper than what they paid, so I refunded the difference (about $12)
The buyer messages me back saying they read the listing and realized it was for parts/repair and no longer wanted the item and asked for a full refund.
I called the drop off location and asked them to hold the package for me to which they did.
The label was already scanned at time of drop off, so the label is now considered "used" and I am unable to cancel the label on eBay.
I need to be able to get a refund for this label and I'm not sure how to go about doing that now. Should I message the buyer anything more at this point and when/how should I go about issuing the refund? Thank you.
metw8888.tp3jughg9
·10 months agoIf a buyer changes their mind on an offer or bid, they can retract their bid or offer only once. They could have messaged you and requested to cancel the order although you aren't required to. With that being said it sounds like they're trying to get the broken sewing machine for free. You can always accept the return if you wish and have the return shipping cost deducted from the buyer's refund. On the flipside it's the responsibility of the buyer to read everything in the listing right down to return policy before purchasing. Happy Halloween!
casey-86
OP10 months agoThe buyer doesn't want the item. I already told them that I called the store and asked them to hold the package to which they replied and said thanks. I told them I am waiting to retrieve the package from the store and will see how I should go about handling the refund for this order given the circumstances
reallynicestamps
·10 months agoYou can have a No Returns policy but you cannot have No Refunds policy.
Your choices are to send a return shipping label and refund when you get it back.
or
Abandon the machine and refund immediately
In either case, tell the buyer to return the machine when it arrives.
They might pay for return shipping. Then refund.
Or not.
In which case, tell them to open a Claim.
The reason is Buyer Remorse.
casey-86
OP10 months agoI already called the drop off place to hold the package for me. I was able to get in contact with them before FedEx arrived to pick up the packages. The problem now is because they already scanned the label at the drop off place I can't cancel the label. This means unless eBay refunds me the label I am going to be out $42. I don't even know how I would go about getting in contact with eBay to get a refund on that label.
gurlcat
·10 months agoNot to rub salt in your wound (really I'm getting sympathetic anxiety just reading this mess) ... but consider it a lesson in whether it's worth listing an item that isn't a pretty high ratio of item value to shipping cost. This could have been even worse, because on a parts-only listing you do have some protection from INAD returns, but say this was a functional machine with the same ratio, and the buyer filed an INAD return. Then your only options would be to pay for the return shipping and refund the buyer (including the original shipping they paid!) -or just refund them and not get the item back. Sometimes sellers just take that option because the return would actually COST them a net loss. -And scam buyers know this by the way, so they purposely target items with that opportunistic math.
buyselljack2016
·10 months agobecause on a parts-only listing you do have some protection from INAD returns
--------------------------------------------------------
elucidate
gurlcat
·10 months agoIt's new policy, just this month. A couple people alluded to it in the thread but I don't think they (nor I) can recall the details or find them in the Help pages.
buyselljack2016
·10 months agoOK, thanks. I will watch to see what responses come about what this "policy" may be. If it is just the "3-day" thing, (as shown on the listings) then not really much seller protection😠(could actually be more of a buyer beatdown if they do not act quickly when they get an item that is truly INAD)
gurlcat
·10 months agoIt took me a while but I found Liz' article on it:
https://www.valueaddedresource.net/ebay-for-parts-not-working-updates/
valueaddedresource
·10 months ago@buyselljack2016 the new protection is the "3 day thing" - remorse return reasons are supposed to not be allowed at all for parts/not working listings and the buyer only has 3 days to file INAD instead of the usual 30 under the eMBG.
Also, at eBay Open when they announced it they said the buyer will have to "submit photographs that clearly contradict what's in your listing" to prove INAD, but I don't know if that's actually happening and/or if so, how exactly eBay is determining whether the pics provided show something that clearly contradicts the listing.
redlinear
·10 months agoI'm glad I'm not the only one that considers that.
gurlcat
·10 months agoYep, those big-heavy-and-not-so-valuable items should either be sold on a local platform like Craigslist or Marketplace, donated to a thrift store, or maybe held back for an annual garage sale.
casey-86
OP10 months agoThese particular vintage sewing machines can still get you around $50-100 even if they need repair. In better condition you can get even more. The problem here wasn't with the weight of the item even though I do agree its more inconvenient to sell them on eBay than lighter items especially when USPS wants to charge you sometimes double or more than other couriers. The problem here is entirely on the buyers who impulse buy listings without even reading the description or shipping terms. There needs to be more filters for sellers to filter out buyers they don't want to deal with.
gurlcat
·10 months agoThat may be the problem you encountered in this one sale, but there are many more; we see posts about them here all the time. All the reasons a buyer may give for filing a return on a lightweight item, they can also do for heavy ones, whether they're being truthful or lying. And like I said before, this would have been TWICE as bad if it were a return rather than a post-shipment cancellation with the item still in your town, because then you would have also had to pay for the return shipping.
I'm not saying don't sell heavy items period. But when you're creating a listing, picture the worst case scenario, where the buyer files an INAD return, so you would have to pay the same shipping amount to get the item back, then refund the buyer 100% including their return shipping. Then decide if it's worth it anyway.
Even this new protection for not working/parts thing ..... they could still do it before the 3 days runs out.
reallynicestamps
·10 months ago@babyers88 they are now claiming they "accidently bid on the listing" and "please refund I never use bid" and "please dont want anymore please refund
You cancel the order on eBay as "buyer request".
The transaction is voided and the payment and fees refunded as applicable.
FedEx are a horrible company to deal with. Fortunately most of my product can use the postal system which is inexpensive, reliable, and international.
gurlcat
·10 months agoI have literally never seen anyone ... on the internet, in person .... ever, my whole life ... praise FedEx in even the slightest way. I have seen countless curses of their name, with nobody stepping up to defend it. 🤣 For the life of me, I don't understand how they stay in business. They're not the cheapest and they utterly suck at every kind of service: careless package handling, consistently late delivery, unreachable customer service ... just absolutely abysmal!!
EDIT: I forgot -adjusting label prices, always UPWARDLY (never down, whereas USPS has given me surprise credits for overpayment a few times), and I've seen lots of cases where they did it DISHONESTLY too.
casey-86
OP10 months agoMy concern with this is I had already shipped the item but I was able to call the drop off location before FedEx picked up the package. Since the drop off location already scanned the label it is considered "shipped" and the label can't be voided. If I cancel the order, eBay will give a full refund to the buyer which means the cost of the label will fall on me right?
casey-86
OP10 months agoYea I just checked the eBay shipping labels section and it says: "This shipping label can't be cancelled because it has already been used." All because they scanned it at the drop off place. Now I have to go through an extra process to get a refund on a very expensive shipping label that I shouldn't have to be dealing with. This is all because the buyer didn't read the description or condition of the item and after paying for it AND after me shipping it decides they don't want it. I am so sick of this.
broto_64
·10 months agoAnd that (among other situations that also work out in ways that do not benefit me as a seller) is the reason why, when I get a break on shipping or any other way, I don't partial refund anything, ever.
As a regular seller I take the short end of the stick in ways I can't even begin to describe, so when I get a break it just helps even that out. The buyer already paid, clearly they were ok with the price, why give them back money when the unexpected could happen anytime?
I know you were trying to be nice, do the right thing, I understand that.
That said, if this were my situation...
After I had the package physically back in my possession, there isn't much to do other than cancel for reason "buyer asked."