Issuing a refund, but not receiving the item back

[trlaf-84]

I sent an item to a buyer the next day it was ordered. The buyer then reported the item was damaged (false) and asked for a full refund. I immediately accepted the refund to him/her, but the line of communication went dead and I never heard of this person was going to send back my item in tact. I believe they may have broken it and wanted a full refund but is not going to send it back. What can I do about this

[soh.maryl]

What can you do about this? Sorry, but really nothing.

If/when ANY buyer opens an item not as described case,  ANY seller is not required by eBay to refund the buyer until/unless that seller receives the item back.  In an NAD case, the seller is required to send the buyer a prepaid return shipping label.  If/when that seller refunds without having received the return item, eBay assumes the seller is allowing the buyer to keep the item and be refunded.  So, did you send the prepaid return label?

If/you plan to sell more on eBay, you may want to take the time to read the Money Back Guarantee.  

[kensgiftshop]

If you issued the refund, there's nothing you can do through Ebay to get the item returned.

You can send the buyer a message and ask if they'll return it if you send them a prepaid shipping label, which you'll have to buy outside of Ebay.

[44012]

@trlaf-84 

I think you may have your steps out of order and it looks like you are a new seller. I think the buyer may have known this and perhaps sent a MESSAGE to you about a return INSTEAD OF filing a item not as described CLAIM? Is this the case?

If the buyer sent a message and then you issued a refund there is nothing you can do. 

If the buyer filed a item not as described (INAD) official claim (not a message) you would have been given options from ebay to issue a refund immediately or you would have had to provide a label to the buyer.  The buyer would have printed the label then sent the item back to you and then you issue the refund.

If your listings were set to free returns this would avoid having to issue a label yourself as ebay will issue the label to your customer for you. You do have to pay for that return label, it is deducted from your funds or your payment source.

Based on what you said both answers above are correct that there is nothing you can do but ask them to send the item back and give them a label. They are not required to return the item anymore since you refunded.

[janet9988]

---

@trlaf-84 wrote:

I sent an item to a buyer the next day it was ordered. The buyer then reported the item was damaged (false) and asked for a full refund. I immediately accepted the refund to him/her, but the line of communication went dead and I never heard of this person was going to send back my item in tact. I believe they may have broken it and wanted a full refund but is not going to send it back. What can I do about this

---

You do not automatically know that the buyer falsely claimed that the item was damaged.