eBay

dgrrl · ‎05-17-2021

I've only sold a handful of things on ebay, so I am looking for advice on how to handle this situation.

Recently sold a brand new, sealed tablet, buyer contacted me a week after receiving saying tablet is acting funny and won't take his password. I suggested he try a factory reset, buyer said factory reset wasn't working. I suggested he contact Samsung as it seemed more like a user error than a tablet issue. A couple of days later, he says Samsung told him to take it to a service center and he'd like a refund. I asked for information regarding his contact with Samsung in order to try to figure out what the issue was, he never responded, and then requested refund through ebay.

I chatted ebay describing the situation and my concern that the issue was a user error and not a faulty device. The response, of course, was to accept the refund and get the tablet back and go from there.

Received tablet over the weekend, was able to factory reset - which did require a little more research than the typical factory reset as there may be an issue with some of the recent Android builds and getting into recovery mode? Factory reset the tablet, and of course it's locked to his Google account. I chatted ebay, again, who suggested I contact Samsung, who told me I'd need to send the tablet to them, with proof of purchase and they may be able to fix. I don't know how much sending to Samsung will cost - it's about $20 shipping, don't know what they will charge beyond that - and if I will be paying shipping back. Not to mention, by the time I am able to do all of this, ebay will auto-refund the buyer.

I see you can ask ebay to get involved in a refund, but it sounds like there are ramifications if they do (ie I'll have to pay the seller fee on the item if they find in the buyer's favor?). When I go into the refund info, I see I can report a problem, but it appears that in the process of reporting an issue, I will also issue the refund?

In the end, it appears there is nothing actually wrong with the tablet, that there was a user error (however, I am not positive of this as I'm unable to proceed in setting up the tablet as it's locked to his account) that caused him to lock himself out of the tablet and he was then unable to factory reset. I'm out return shipping and am stuck with a tablet that is not only no longer "new, sealed" but used and unusable due to being locked to his account.

Can anyone advise me? I know ebay airs on the side of the buyer most of the time, so I'm feeling pretty hopeless and frustrated right now.

Thanks for reading this far and any help you can give.

downunder-61 · ‎05-17-2021

You have the tablet back, you must refund your buyer and sort out what is wrong with it later and if you can get it fixed re list it, the buyer should not be left waiting with no item and no refund.

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kensgiftshop · ‎05-17-2021

@dgrrl

If you don't refund the buyer now, Ebay will do it for you.

Have a great day.

donsdetour · ‎05-17-2021

Well you have found out the hard way of rule no 1:

Rule no 1: If you can not afford to lose the item and the money payed for it: do not list it on the Internets.

Item was claimed as not as described; then you got it back ( luck on getting it back at all).

Took you some work to reset it< and of course is locked to account..

Not much you can do but refund the user if you or eBay has not already.

Contact the company and find out how to unlock it.

dgrrl · ‎05-17-2021

So, it doesn't matter that the reason the tablet is unusable now is due to the buyer? It seems that the tablet hasn't been returned to me in the shape it was sold to the buyer?

donsdetour · ‎05-17-2021

@dgrrl wrote:
So, it doesn't matter that the reason the tablet is unusable now is due to the buyer? It seems that the tablet hasn't been returned to me in the shape it was sold to the buyer?

No it does not mater:

eBay has no idea what you sent or what was returned to you. How can they??

It is a mater between you on the purchaser. Purchaser claims item not as described due to problems you or eBay for you will refund. You agree to the buyers guarantee by using eBay to sell.

dgrrl · ‎05-17-2021

I understand that in the instance where the buyer claims not receiving item in condition listed. There's no possible way to prove anything in that instance. However, the issue doesn't seem to be that he didn't receive what he purchased (ie new tablet) and it's obvious he was able to use the tablet by setting up accounts and passwords and then locking himself out, and it seems this is counter to the ebay terms.

Trying to understand, as I was told by ebay that there are also protections for sellers regarding buyers returning items that there is actually nothing wrong with. I realize the bulk of the protections are for buyers.

kensgiftshop · ‎05-17-2021

@dgrrl wrote:
So, it doesn't matter that the reason the tablet is unusable now is due to the buyer? It seems that the tablet hasn't been returned to me in the shape it was sold to the buyer?

That doesn't matter when the buyer files an INAD.

Have a great day.

mtgraves7984 · ‎05-17-2021

@dgrrl wrote:
So, it doesn't matter that the reason the tablet is unusable now is due to the buyer? It seems that the tablet hasn't been returned to me in the shape it was sold to the buyer?

@dgrrl

The seller protection you refer to (the ability to reduce the refund by up to 50% if the item returned is found to be in a different/destructed/de-valued condition than when sent) is not available to you. To have that protection, you must offer Free Returns or be a TRS that offers 30-Day Returns. Sorry to bear the news...

kensgiftshop · ‎05-17-2021

@dgrrl wrote:

Trying to understand, as I was told by ebay that there are also protections for sellers regarding buyers returning items that there is actually nothing wrong with.

After the buyer has been refunded and the case is closed, you can report the buyer for abusing the MBG.

Have a great day.

dariudaudery_0 · ‎05-17-2021

Sadly in this situation there is nothing you can do about it. Your buyer could not reset it - could not figure out how. He returned the item for a "valid" reason (by valid reason i do mean user or item error) and now you will need to either somehow unlock it, or sell in this condition. Sometimes things like this happen and if you tried to help buyer but buyer could not figure it out - both dissapointed. He did not seem to have wanted to scam you or anything was just unable to figure it out.

I had multiple situations similar to this one and thought i would share a couple:

1. Sold calculator and buyer had trouble keeping it working without a wire. There was an issue with this exact product that something needed to be done in order to get it working with battery. Did tell buyer exactly what to do step by step and he made it work - we both stayed happy.

2. Sold Apple Ipad keyboard and buyer upon receiving it claimed that it was not working properly (some buttons not working). Item was in used condition and it was possible that something was wrong with it even thought i knew that it was working.

Buyer opened return request and i did respond by accepting return. After giving it some thought i did go ahead and refund for the item without waiting buyer to return it. Of course reasonable decision would have been to accept return and deal with it that way but was not in the mood to deal with that.

What happened after - few days later buyer updated something on his Ipad and it was working just fine. He then offered to return the money and we parted ways.