My buyer's math isn't mathing
I have a buyer who filed a return. They used their own postage to return the item back to me. They paid $14 for that postage label, I have no idea why. The complete refund was for $12 since it was a remorse. Return successfully closed on ebay. Both seller (me) and buyer are bigger losers because this return and refund got processed.
USPS wins.
9 comments
johnrj1226
·7 months agoIf they can't "math" they have several options
1. Hire a tutor to hep' do "mathing"
2. Give up trying to do any thing that has to do with a number (s)- like balancing a checking account or going to a casino or the Kentucky Derby
3. Return any high school graduation diploma and start school all over again - OK to skip kindergarten.
luckythewinner
·7 months agoThey paid $14 for that postage label, I have no idea why
How much did you pay?
How are you a loser? You got the item back didn’t you? You can relist it to sell again. If the buyer didn’t use the return label you issued when accepting the return you aren’t charged for it because it won’t be used.
iamalwaysright
OP8 months agoI'm still a loser because I'm in the red since I lost the original shipping cost compared to never having made a sale in the first place. The shipping I charged the buyer is $2 less than the actual price I paid to ship it out.
At least if the buyer never filed the return, the profit from the sale would have made up for the original shipping cost and I'd be in the green. And the buyer would be $2 richer than he is now.
bamorris
·8 months agoFirst thing you could do is fix your shipping costs. Are you using policies? Was it a case where you were shipping to one of the USPS high-cost areas?
Second. Returns are just part of the cost of doing business. You should be doing more business to make up for the losses on items you sold.
I get the ones that file an Item Not As Described. I offer free returns but charge shipping. Many of these INAD returns are bullsh*t, they just want me to eat the original shipping. Maybe the item didin't fit, they didn't like it, or maybe they didn't look at the measurements or bother measuring the item. Regardless, I present all the information in the listing for buyers to make an informed decision. But I get to bear the burden of their hasty, uninformed decisions. I take the INAD ding on my Top Rated status, pay round trip shipping.
The thing is, half of these buyers know that some sellers will refund them without asking for the item back. So I get a good handful a month that just never ship the item back and eBay auto-closes.
Sure it stings going into the red and losing on a sale. But have more successes than failures, learn from your mistakes (listing errors, omissions, genuine mistakes). Do better next time, and when you have a failure, don't let it become a set back. Just learn from it, realize it's the cost of doing business, and move on.
Best advice I can give you.
iamalwaysright
OP7 months agoMy issue here isn’t that I get returns. That already happens all the time.
My issue here is that the buyer made a decision that resulted in both buyer and seller go further into the red when they didn’t have to. The buyer could have just thrown the item away without filing and completing the return and they woulda ultimately saved $2.
wastingtime101
·7 months agoMore than $2 because they didn't get original separate ship cost back.
Some people never learn basic math which is very sad.
I've had buyers return items that cost them more returning than if they just kept, donated or gifted the item -- or recouped some $ by reselling themself.
bonanza125
·7 months ago"My issue here is that the buyer made a decision that resulted in both buyer and seller go further into the red when they didn’t have to. The buyer could have just thrown the item away without filing and completing the return and they woulda ultimately saved $2."
The buyer most likely didn't realize they could have purchased a label through Ebay and got postage for cheaper and instead elected to pay retail price. When they went to the post office and paid the price they probably realized at that point it was a mistake. This is what I call a rookie error. It's no different than a seller selling an item and not charging enough shipping then come to realize shipping cost is more than the whole sale. These are rookie errors and a learning lesson.
dnasilver
·7 months agoIt was the buyers choice that they handled it the way they did. Why bother making that into an issue at all. Seems like a waste of energy. A couple bucks may mean something to you and the buyer could care less about a few bucks.