Help refuting a bogus return request

Question

Hi all - I have a buyer who received a lot of scrap gold on the 18th. Today he initiated a return request, claiming "item doesn't match the description" and said some pieces are not stamped. There is a picture in my auction showing the location of the stamp on every piece of scrap that he bought. It's pretty obvious to me that he has a case of buyer's remorse because the price of gold has plummeted in the last couple of weeks - the past week especially. I have no option to refuse the return. I c...

caldreamer · Accepted Answer

EBAY 30-Day Money Back Guarantee (supersedes "no refund" policy) and allows customers to lie and claim "not as described, counterfeit, defective, missing parts". EBAY does NOT require customer to prove their claim. EBAY always rules in favor of the customer. When you ask EBAY to step in, it will NOT end well for you. You will lose this case, and EBAY will NOT refund your Selling Fees for wasting their time. Because you have "no refund" policy you will lose any Seller Protection that EBAY offers....

buzzapparel · Answer

Accept the return, block the buyer, if anything is stolen report them to eBay and proper authorities, move on and resell them(if possible). Tax time, write-off whatever losses were incurred in this transaction on your schedule C.

ryry-jj · Answer

Accept the return and get your gold back, yes you will be out money, but this is all a cost of doing business. Your biggest concern now could be getting scrap metal back unstamped from the buyer, not even what you sold in the first place. But again, no one knows what you actually shipped, nor does ebay. These cases almost 100% of the time side with the buyers

The risks sellers take on selling higher end stuff without being Top Rated blows me away. Work your way up to TR & offer free 30 day returns so you can at least protect yourself with the 50% withholding on returns

onefootflipper · Answer

Don't have ebay step in, you may be out both the gold and the money in that case.

Assuming you sold to a relatively honest crook then at least they will send your gold back.

In the future I would keep the scrap gold lots at lower values. Drops the need for insurance, makes it less likely for a speculator to want to return them.

kensgiftshop · Answer

@drmar wrote: I contacted eBay to ask about that, and they said they will step in 3 days from now to resolve the issue. You are not going to like the outcome.

tobaccocardyahoo · Answer

This type of buyer's remorse claim is what happens when you sell products which appeal to speculators.

Sellers who sell Nvidia graphics cards which appeal to bitcoin miners have experienced returns like this on most internet marketplaces everytime bitcoin dropped. They have had it worse than your situation because the NEW product they sold can only be sold as USED.

You cannot keep people from lying, and you cannot punish them for lying without spending a lot of money in legal fees. You cannot even be certain to win, if you sue.

bonanza125 · Answer

A "item not described" case was filed. You are required to take the item back. Tell the buyer to return the item and issue a refund upon receiving the item back. If you don't then Ebay will enforce a refund to the buyer and take it from you. Don't allow Ebay to step in. Accept the return.

stainlessenginecovers · Answer

There is NO refuting. You need to 'approve/allow' the return asap or it could cost you even MORE $$$ (as ebay will NOT refund the 'fees' if they have to refund the customer).

kibble-net · Answer

If you aren't willing to accept this return, you aren't willing to run a business. It is a numbers game, not every transaction will go your way, just be happy if you get your items back unbroken...

tools* · Answer

If you're prepared to walk away from eBay, you can remain whole.

inhawaii · Answer

My opinion, take the loss.

If you dispute the care, you will lose.

In a he said/she said situation like this, ebay will always side with the buyer.

If you want the items back, accept the return.

If you don't want the items back, refund and be done with it.

Unfortunately this kind of thing will happen once in a while.

Sorry.

iamalwaysright · Answer

@drmar wrote:
Hi all - I have a buyer who received a lot of scrap gold on the 18th. Today he initiated a return request, claiming "item doesn't match the description" and said some pieces are not stamped. There is a picture in my auction showing the location of the stamp on every piece of scrap that he bought. It's pretty obvious to me that he has a case of buyer's remorse because the price of gold has plummeted in the last couple of weeks - the past week especially.

I have no option to refuse the return. I contacted eBay to ask about that, and they said they will step in 3 days from now to resolve the issue.
Nooooooooooooooooo! You likely just lost your money and the item right then and there. As you mentioned, "ebay sides with the buyer." You have an option to refuse the return, which you informally did by contacting ebay about this. But you have no option to refuse a refund. And I'm afraid it will likely come to this where ebay rules in the buyer's favor, forces the refund from your account and lets the buyer keep the item. Let's HOPE that the high dollar value of this transaction will come into play, but I have no experience in this nor do I know what ebay will do. Good luck.
So my question to those of you who have faced this is how can I convince eBay that the buyer has initiated a bogus return request? I don't want to be forced to take the gold back and issue a refund. It's over $2,200 - not a trivial amount. My experience has been that more often than not, eBay sides with the buyer. Any suggestions you have for how I can explain this to eBay so they decide in my favor would be greatly appreciated.

krazzykats · Answer

It’s a case of he said, she said. How would eBay know what was actually sent or what’s being returned? eBay sides with the buyer on not as described. ᓚᘏᗢ

Help refuting a bogus return request

Protections for Top Rated Sellers

A buyer falsely claims an item was not as described