First Experience - SNAD

[fr32-tcg]

Hey everybody! 
I wanted to tell my first experience with a SNAD and see everyone's thoughts and/or tips for future SNADs and how to deal with it.
I just hit 1k in item sales and primarily sell trading cards. I've never had this issue until I sold my older gaming PC. I pretty much came to the conclusion that I will never sell electronics on eBay again. 

I sold a Gaming PC for $510. 
After fees, labels, tax, etc. came out to $400. With the ebay 13.25%, they took about $62. 
Buyer had the PC for 26 days and during that entire time, communicating to me on how he was changing the internals, upgrading parts, and adding aftermarket components. One of those components were not compatible with the PC and claimed a SNAD. 
I immediately contacted customer support, and they stated they would close the case in my favor, but because the buyer chose the SNAD option, that I had to follow the process; but before generating the return shipping label, to inform the buyer that a refund will not be issued. The buyer had the option to close the case and keep the computer for no refund, or to return the computer without a refund. 
Buyer continued to do the return.
Long story short, speaking to multiple support agents throughout the whole process and documenting each interaction. Once the computer returned, which had components missing, I contacted support once again for them to close the case in my favor. The appeals team took over, closed the case in the buyer's favor, stating that the item was returned and refunded the buyer $510. I opened an appeal with all the information needed and they once again closed the appeal with no option to re-open or discuss the issue. 
Things I found out:
1. Customer Support and the Appeals Team are separate departments, and they do not communicate nor share documentation. Customer Support had all this documentation and assurance it would be in my favor; Appeals team goes off the case and see only that the item was returned. With their email responses, they were all over the place. You could tell they did not have any information regarding the issue. 
2. Appeals team does not communicate via phone, only email. Customer Support cannot transfer you to any other agent, supervisor, etc once the appeal has been closed. "Nothing further you can do but report the buyer" per Support as they do not have the available options anymore. 
3. eBay still makes a profit, has I had to cover the full return. Ebay took 13.25% on the sale. On the refund, I had to pay the full $510 and which included eBay's 13.25%. So, eBay causes all these issues with false assurances, communications, and processes, and then don't refund their portion? What happened to seller protection?

[bonjourami]

Sounds about right, there is no seller protection.

[simba6]

What happened to seller protection?   What seller protection , never was any.  You can report the buyer. If a buyer receives enough of them, eBay will remove them from the buyer protection plan. 

Bottom line, never sell an item you can't afford to lose.   It's not just electronics, any item can lead to return fraud. High value items do carry extreme risk.

[evry1nositswindy]

Unfortunately by letting the case go to appeal and not closed by you the seller, you received a defect on your account for cases unresolved by the seller.   

[kensgiftshop]

If you hadn't got Ebay involved and took care of the return and refund, your fee's would have been refunded.

[grand-and-glorious-purpose]

---

@fr32-tcg wrote:

I immediately contacted customer support, and they stated they would close the case in my favor

---

It has been several years since this was a thing that happened.

Ebay does not close SNADs in favor of sellers and the CSR lied to you.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Never believe a CSR unless there is a written policy you can read which unambiguously agrees with what they tell you.

Never think that they can predict what an automated procedure will result in.

[fr32-tcg]

That's good to know. Appreciate it. 

[fr32-tcg]

Which is crazy. That's good to know for the future. I was doing what CSR was telling me what to do, and I just checked. I did get a 23% defect. Insane

[lakefor94 · Accepted solution]

@fr32-tcg  don't ever allow eBay to get involved with a return case.  

Here are the basics on how to handle a return case on your own.

If the buyer opens a Item Is Not As Described type return case, you have 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 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

[hapvintage]

I'm sorry you are facing this problem. 

To me the wacky thing is that eBay CSR actually suggested an option for the buyer to return the item without getting a refund in the future. Who would do that? Would the disposable fee too high for them so they would return it for free? 

And even wackier that the buyer accepted it. Maybe he knew from the start that he would get a refund no matter what after the item is returned.

[fr32-tcg]

I guess I'm just shocked on how "supportive" the CSR department was being, but it all ended up being false assurances lol. Throughout the entire process, spoke to 5 different agents and they were all in sync providing the same feedback. The buyer was also a seller with 9k item sales - so he definitely knew the system process. 

[fr32-tcg]

This was very good information, thank you. Dealing with this for the first time, you would think I could have trusted eBay support to walk me through the process and deal with my first rotten egg. It is what it is. Learn and continue on.