eBay

agemelee · ‎05-25-2023

Bought a high priced item over $800, seller sent a different item than pictured. Opened a INAD case and was issued a 50% return after it being returned.

i should note the item was purchased from Japan. Not sure if they have different rules.

I contacted ebay and they thanked me for letting them know about this.

they said they would issue me the rest of the refund.

Beware of this!

lakefor94 · ‎05-25-2023

If you are a Top Rated Seller who offers 30-day or longer returns and the buyer returns something different, opened, used, etc. the seller can deduct up to 50% of the refund to recover the decreased value of the item.

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lacemaker3 · ‎05-25-2023

@agemelee,

If you returned the item in the same condition as you received it, then the seller was not allowed to use their ability to return a partial refund. That is only appropriate when the buyer returns an item that has been used, or damaged by the buyer, or is in some way not in the same condition as the seller sent it (and it's the buyer's fault).

Sellers in Japan who list on eBay.com are under the same rules as all other sellers on ebay.com.

eBay allows this as a special perk for sellers who qualify for it. If they abuse the privilege too often, then they won't qualify for it any more.

If you reported that you did not feel you had done anything wrong, and had not returned the item after you had used or damaged it, then that was reporting the seller for misusing this perk. If they get reported too often, eBay will take the perk away.

iamalwaysright · ‎05-25-2023

@lacemaker3 wrote:

If you reported that you did not feel you had done anything wrong, and had not returned the item after you had used or damaged it, then that was reporting the seller for misusing this perk. If they get reported too often, eBay will take the perk away.

I personally have never heard of any seller with this perk removed. Has anyone?

I wonder what the ebay threshold is as I would assume that regardless if it's valid or not (because actual returns abusive buyers wouldn't hesitate to falsely report you) I would think a super high percentage of all less-than-full refunds get reported by the buyer and ebay ends up paying out both parties.

lacemaker3 · ‎05-25-2023

@iamalwaysright,

eBay has to pay for the additional refund to make the buyer whole in these cases.

You can bet that eBay is not going to allow sellers to give partial refunds too often, if eBay has to pay for the rest of the refund from their pocket, which they do.

wastingtime101 · ‎05-25-2023

I think it was last week @iamalwaysright when a seller on this forum wanted to know why they could no longer access the partial refund option on returns. They offered free returns on all their listings, and admitted that for every remorse return they gave partial refunds to deduct shipping costs. The abuse of policy caught up with them.

GLORIOUS!

lakefor94 · ‎05-25-2023

@wastingtime101 wrote:
I think it was last week @iamalwaysright when a seller on this forum wanted to know why they could no longer access the partial refund option on returns. They offered free returns on all their listings, and admitted that for every remorse return they gave partial refunds to deduct shipping costs. The abuse of policy caught up with them.

That was not a really swift move by the seller.

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iamalwaysright · ‎05-25-2023

@lakefor94 wrote:
@wastingtime101 wrote:
I think it was last week @iamalwaysright when a seller on this forum wanted to know why they could no longer access the partial refund option on returns. They offered free returns on all their listings, and admitted that for every remorse return they gave partial refunds to deduct shipping costs. The abuse of policy caught up with them.
That was not a really swift move by the seller.

Agree. It sounds like that seller had free shipping on those sales and abused that system.
IIRC if you offer free returns, charge for shipping, and get a legitimate remorse return, when it comes time to issue the refund eBay actually has it set by default to deduct the shipping you charged your buyer from the refund amount. You’d have to uncheck that already checked box to issue them a full refund. I hope this wasn’t what the seller got hit with, by not unchecking that box.

wastingtime101 · ‎05-25-2023

No, he had both free ship and free returns and was using deduction option for "return labels or restocking fees." Definite abuse of the policy.

Whether he realized it or not I don't know. There are some idiotic videos out there telling sellers the partial deduction option can be used as a restocking fee. 🙄

GLORIOUS!

lakefor94 · ‎05-25-2023

@iamalwaysright wrote:
@lakefor94 wrote:
@wastingtime101 wrote:
I think it was last week @iamalwaysright when a seller on this forum wanted to know why they could no longer access the partial refund option on returns. They offered free returns on all their listings, and admitted that for every remorse return they gave partial refunds to deduct shipping costs. The abuse of policy caught up with them.
That was not a really swift move by the seller.
Agree. It sounds like that seller had free shipping on those sales and abused that system.
IIRC if you offer free returns, charge for shipping, and get a legitimate remorse return, when it comes time to issue the refund eBay actually has it set by default to deduct the shipping you charged your buyer from the refund amount. You’d have to uncheck that already checked box to issue them a full refund. I hope this wasn’t what the seller got hit with, by not unchecking that box.

Ahhh yes, I had forgotten about that.

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iamalwaysright · ‎05-26-2023

Well yea, then that is clearly a boneheaded move asking for trouble.
I still wonder about the deduction threshold though. A good number of my new clothing sold that gets returned ended up being worn or altered. Granted that it’s not always a 50% deduction, some may think that I use that an excessive amount of times despite it being for legitimate reasons. I’d say a good majority of those buyers appeal and eBay covers us both. So far so good. Maybe I’ll ask a CS rep about this next time I talk to one.

In the end I’d rather use this privilege correctly and risk getting it taken away by eBay for doing it too often compared to never using it at all and lose money for these damaged “free clothing rentals”. If I don’t use it, it’s no different than never having the ability in the first place.

rseuqinh · ‎05-26-2023

@agemelee wrote:
Opened a INAD case
and was issued a 50% return after it being returned.

I contacted ebay and
they said they would issue me the rest of the refund.

So did @agemelee eBay pay you $400 out-of-pocket themselves?

@agemelee wrote:
Bought a high priced item over $800, seller sent a different item than pictured.

And the seller got away, when they actually sent a different item than pictured?

agemelee · ‎05-26-2023

Correct, the item sent was the same frame, only the picture showed a 5 prong hindge and not a 3 prong hindge. The seller sent a 3 prong hindge. The difference being, the 5 prong is worth a lot more (which was pictured).

An analogy for simple sake would be if someone showed a silver quarter, and upon receiving its just a regular quarter.

The partial said “scratch lens” when I never wore the item, and it was literally repacked in the hard case plus bubble wrap. As soon as I saw I opened the INAD.

For the refund, I received two refunds of about $435 each. I don’t know if Ebay paid it out of pocket for the second, but I contacted them on facebook and they gave me my money in less than 20 mins and thanked me for bringing it to their attention.

the refund was from a “case” ebay opened and them closed in my favor. Thus, I dont know where the ither half came from.

the ironic thing is too, you cant even leave negative feedback because TRS with “free” returns cant get negative feedback.

i did see one negative feedback where someone bought a watch and said it was totally different (meaning they never returned it I assumed).

This seems like a massive abusive loophole though.

a TRS could list an item for lets say $5000, send a different item, then get a INAD and issue a 50% refund then walk away with the money.