being charged a lot of money for buyer return even after I offered tech support for item!

[rmxcat]

buyer claimed there was no hard drive in the laptop I sold when there was one. was wiling to give tech support to get windows booting again in case the drive cable got disconnected during shipping, as there were storms in the area and rough road conditions for a spinner hard drive. I made sure system booted to windows 11 before I packaged laptop.

I tried to help buyer over messages and before I got to message him to try one last thing he got ebay to step in before I was trying to sort out issue. so now I'm being charged for someone else's incompetence and I am really hurting for money this month and the fees might not let me eat for 2 weeks because of this.

the buyer returned the system with the hard drive attatched but messed with the bios settings to fraudulently return it. There was a "ubuntu" listed in the bios boot settings when I never had ubuntu on there. Just windows 11. He incorrectly configured the bios to the point he could no longer boot from the hard drive and was too uncooperative to accept my assistance.

Is there a way I can dispute these bogus charges because I should not be on the hook for someone else's unwillingness to accept help for the item and inability to troubleshoot.

[mspirit57]

Did they open a return?

Just accept the return, send label and refund upon receipt. 

Trying to troubleshoot with a buyer is a waste of time. 

[albertabrightalberta]

@rmxcat 

When the buyer opens a NAD (not as described) return request, you have 2 options: 
1. Issue a full refund and let him keep the item

2. Accept a return, pay return shipping and refund full payment upon receipt of the return

The buyer doesn't have to accept your "tech support."

In not handling it correctly, you ended up losing the FVF credit you would have received and you also have a huge ding on your account for requiring ebay to step in to resolve the dispute.

[fbusoni]

---

@rmxcat wrote:

Is there a way I can dispute these bogus charges because I should not be on the hook for someone else's unwillingness to accept help for the item and inability to troubleshoot.

---

"No good deed goes unpunished."

One of my favorite expressions.

When the buyer initially messaged you, you should have asked him to file a return request with eBay.  No other discussion was necessary.

It is never / never a good idea to offer support of any kind because you are assuming competence on the other end of the line.  

Especially to someone who claims the laptop is missing its hard drive -- a statement which alone suggests insanity.

[rmxcat]

I shouldn't have to pay for their stupidity... they just had buyers remorse and took it out on me.  

The messages they sent me were even hostile and I still tried to help

[buyselljack2016]

It's business. Sometimes we lose.

Not a $ loss, but I got a ding because a buyer was too inept to use a spare tire lock. 

I accepted the return for the "reported damaged" item. We did work it out with me explaining how to use a key in a lock, but I had already gotten the "live with it for a year" ding.

Buyer did not close the "return" request. It timed out.

[rmxcat]

They got ebay involved within the same 24 hours after they scamily initiated the return request, not giving me enough time to even think it thru. Or even knowing what could have happened to the laptop during shipping... they were impatient and just wanted to game the system for their impulse buy.

That shouldn't be allowed. If we indicate no returns then all sales are final.  

[buyselljack2016]

No returns, by eBay policy, applies only to "remorse" returns, and unfortunately buyers are allowed to lie about return reasons.

Sorry that this happened to you. Hopefully you will be able to correct the buyers' actions on the item and sell it again to recover some $$.

ETA: I realize it is a beatdown, but the fortunate part is that you got the item back. In some instances where eBay "steps in" the buyer is refunded with the seller's funds, and the product is not required to be returned.

[ryry-jj]

Ebay is not the place to sell if sellers are going to fight the returns.   Returns are a cost of selling

[lakefor94]

@rmxcat  you have to be familiar with how eBay works. 

If the buyer opens a Item Is Not As Described type return case, you have choices. Easy peasy. Here are your 3 choices.

1. You can refund the buyer now and let the buyer keep the item. eBay refunds the final value fees on the sale to you, the seller.

2. If you want the item back before refunding, accept the return and make sure a prepaid return label is available in the return case. The buyer returns the item and then you refund in full. eBay refunds the final value fees on the sale to you, the seller.

Seller protection:
Top Rated Sellers who accept 30 day returns and Above Average rated sellers who offer free 30 day returns can do partial refunds, up to 50%, if the item is returned in a condition different than when you shipped it.

3. Do nothing, contest the case or allow eBay to handle the case, eBay will close the return, refund the buyer and allow the buyer to keep the item. You also receive a serious defect on your seller account for having eBay step in and refund, thus doing your job as a seller. And, eBay keeps the final value fees for the transaction.

Here is an eBay link with just about all you need to know.
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/handle-return-request-seller?id=4115

[babyers88]

Trust me when I say you will be FAR better off just accepting returns with no questions asked in MOST cases.

Others may need to be addressed with "sorry you had a problem" followed up with please request a return thru ebay and follow up with a return label.

you will be less likely to receive a negative remark, no ding to your selling account, If you fight it and ebay gets involved then 99.999% of the time ebay will decide in the buyers favor and you get dinged for it.

like baseball too many strikes and your out!

It is impossible to please everyone............ no matter what you do

your only saving grace is if in the .001% chance that they admitted thru ebay messaging that they did something to it, even then it's slim