First Time Seller Needs Help!

[shelby_miller84]

Hi, I am new to selling on eBay and recently posted what I thought was an authentic lady Dior purse that my mother-in-law asked me to sell. The purse sold for over $1,200. Around that time, the mercari app, where I also had the purse listed, told me that the purse was not authentic. Also the Vestaire Collective App said the same. I contacted the buyer and told her this. I never received payment for the purse and the buyer has opened a request for refund case. I want to make sure I do not do anything wrong or get into trouble. Since I never received payment for the purse, I cannot personally refund the buyer. What do I do? 

[kensgiftshop]

@shelby_miller84 

Since you didn't ship it, refund the buyer.

If they paid, the money is in your MP account.

[12345jamesstamps]

Careful. They might have paid for it. New EBayers usually have to wait 30+ days for their sales money because they are new. Usually will not get money in 3 business days.

Just cancel the sale if you see it...but you will get charged for canceling such sale. 

I cancel a sale that had a .10 cent bid on it and got charged .01 cent.

I suggest selling for stuff for a few dollars first before hitting the big time.

[mtgraves7984]

So many issues here...

- If the sale is on your Seller Hub/Orders/Awaiting shipment, then the payment is good. Not to your bank yet, but good.

- Your funds will be on Hold since you're a new seller... the buyer can be refunded their monies (through an Item Not Recieved claim, if you haven't shipped) from the funds on Hold and it will only cost you $.30 out-of-pocket for the Transaction Fee. If your buyer has asked for a refund through a Cancellation, it'll work the same way. You'll need to accept the cancellation and approve the buyer's refund. It would be 'Buyer requested', by the way. (If you had cancelled, citing 'Out of stock', you'd have received a seller ding, too.)

- I don't know the timeline of the 'is it authentic/is it not' issue... but don't list anything anywhere that isn't authentic. If you did what Dior would like for you to do... that would be to permanently and prominently deface (RUIN) the item, so that it would come out of circulation. Heck, even USPS won't knowingly ship fakes.

Be proactive and handle the cases yourself before your buyer has to escalate to eBay... whether it be an INR claim or a Cancellation. Approve them before the dates in the Case timeline. Your seller metrics are all you have left to save.

[goldgalco]

why did you ship a $1200 purse BEFORE payment?

[dryophelia]

@shelby_miller84 

You may want to reconsider selling for other people. 

eBay, Etsy, maybe Mercerdi (and all online market facilitators) are required to issue 1099K to all sellers who sell more than $600 a year. 

Depending on the status of your payment for this purse, this could already be attributed to you. 

[shipscript · Accepted solution]

@shelby_miller84 

There is plenty of valid advice here, but the purse must first be shipped to eBay's authenticators before the buyer receives it. So, the authenticators will make the determination. If the authenticators find it is counterfeit, they will return the item and start the process to refund the buyer.  Because the authenticators will have the actual item, rather than just photos, they are the better choice for determining authenticity.

"I never received payment for the purse and the buyer has opened a request for refund case."

If the buyer has already received the purse, after it was authenticated, and has now opened a return case, then agree and send a return label. The purse must be returned back through the authenticators.  Your refund would be applied by eBay from your held funds after the purse reaches you.

If you have not yet shipped the item, you will not be able to cancel, since a case is already opened. Instead, within the case, issue a refund. The refund should come from your held funds, but might be drawn from your bank account instead. If eBay takes the funds from your bank, they will make good on that by depositing the buyer's payment into your bank when the case is cleared.