Accidently refund and accept the return without receiving the item.

[rekha27]

Dear eBay Community,

I recently sold an item, which was delivered successfully to the buyer. The buyer later requested a return, which I agreed to. However, I mistakenly issued a refund and accepted the return simultaneously. Since then, the buyer has not responded to any of my messages, and the item has not been returned.

Additionally, eBay support is not allowing me to raise a ticket regarding this issue because the order is marked as closed. I am seeking advice on how to proceed in this situation.

Thank you for your assistance.

[fbusoni]

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@farmalljr wrote:

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@fbusoni wrote:

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@rekha27 wrote:The SELLER made a mistake, the buyer didn't scam anything. Like most posters here, you jump to conclusions and think buyers are the devil. The buyer is under no obligation to send anything back. Morally, maybe they should.

---

Just now saw your angry reply (which is mostly a projection).

I don't jump to conclusions.  The buyer is a person with whom I would not wish to be remotely associated, here or in real life.

Rules are one thing.  Obviously.

But are you familiar with human decency?   In 25 years of selling on eBay it has served me well.

Life is not transactional, despite what we have learned from the internet.

There is something really nice about acting from a moral compass.  

Try it, it might be a refreshing change.   

[powell-collectibles]

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@fbusoni wrote:

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@powell-collectibles wrote:

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@fbusoni wrote:

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@rekha27 wrote:

Thank you everyone for your quick responses! Looks like nothing can be done in current scenario, so I will take it as a lesson learn and will  move on .

thank you again for your support!

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Just make sure you block the buyer who is dishonest and not someone with whom you ever want to do business again.  regards

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That is a huge leap. I don’t see anywhere indicating that the buyer is being dishonest. Buyer asked for a return, and the seller refunded the money without requiring an actual return shipment.

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Actually, it's more of a logical step forward.

"However, I mistakenly issued a refund and accepted the return simultaneously.  Since then, the buyer has not responded to any of my messages, and the item has not been returned."

---

I don’t see anything dishonest about being nonresponsive. Seller offered a refund, buyer took it. Buyer doesn’t want to be inconvenienced any further. A lot of buyers don’t want a penpal – and rightfully assume that sellers are adults, and responsible for their actions.

I don’t think that anyone is being dishonest. But, if I had to pick a side, it would be the seller. Offers a refund and then tries to pull it back?

[fbusoni]

@rekha27 

You are correct in expecting a modicum of decency.  

Because in the final analysis, it's these small, seemingly unimportant gestures -- like a buyer taking the time to return an item to a seller who has made a mistake like you did -- that make our lives what they are and determine the sort of people we become.

How many times in a year does a person have to undertake such a trip to the post office?   I've done it once in 25 years of selling.   I did it because it was the right thing to do.  The seller told me she could not afford to lose her investment; I told her she did not need to give me an explanation.

I remember a time when life was not transactional.  

Those days are probably gone for good.  regards

[fbusoni]

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@powell-collectibles wrote:

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@fbusoni wrote:

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@powell-collectibles wrote:

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@fbusoni wrote:

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@rekha27 wrote:

Thank you everyone for your quick responses! Looks like nothing can be done in current scenario, so I will take it as a lesson learn and will  move on .

thank you again for your support!

---

Just make sure you block the buyer who is dishonest and not someone with whom you ever want to do business again.  regards

---

That is a huge leap. I don’t see anywhere indicating that the buyer is being dishonest. Buyer asked for a return, and the seller refunded the money without requiring an actual return shipment.

---

Actually, it's more of a logical step forward.

"However, I mistakenly issued a refund and accepted the return simultaneously.  Since then, the buyer has not responded to any of my messages, and the item has not been returned."

---

I don’t see anything dishonest about being nonresponsive. Seller offered a refund, buyer took it. Buyer doesn’t want to be inconvenienced any further. A lot of buyers don’t want a penpal – and rightfully assume that sellers are adults, and responsible for their actions.

I don’t think that anyone is being dishonest. But, if I had to pick a side, it would be the seller. Offers a refund and then tries to pull it back?

---

You are entitled to your perceptions of reality.

I prefer mine.  

Sure, I understand that buyer does not want to be inconvenienced.

But believe me, the rewards for behaving like a decent human being are worth a trip to the post office -- especially if you have to do it once every few years.

In real life, I would not want to be remotely associated with someone like the buyer in this scenario.

And thanks to technology -- which has made our lives mostly transactional -- I have that choice.

Anyway, I block buyers for far less offensive behavior.  There are billions of them, after all.   😂

[rekha27]

Thank everyone for your guidance!! I will be more careful next time on accepting returns/ refunds.

Though I tried communicating buyer for few times if Any assistance needed for return but I didn’t not get any reply back but last evening surprisingly I received my item back which was intact and very nicely re- packaged by buyer.

so I am agree we should not tag buyer dishonest immediately but buyer who his also seller with 1000+ item sold should understand that two way communication is really important. It won’t take more than 30 seconds to reply back the messages and give assurance of return when there is an intent of return.

thank you again for your guidance and your precious time !!  

[aproudparent2010]

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@rekha27 wrote:

Dear eBay Community,

I recently sold an item, which was delivered successfully to the buyer. The buyer later requested a return, which I agreed to. However, I mistakenly issued a refund and accepted the return simultaneously. Since then, the buyer has not responded to any of my messages, and the item has not been returned.

Additionally, eBay support is not allowing me to raise a ticket regarding this issue because the order is marked as closed. I am seeking advice on how to proceed in this situation.

Thank you for your assistance.

---

Not much you can do now. Once the refund was issued you pretty much said things were settled.

[farmalljr]

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@rekha27 wrote:

I agreed thats a mistake is on my part as a seller. As soon as I accepted the refund and order marked completed after that I didn’t find a way to undo it or to reach out to ebay support and even on trying to contact buyer I didn’t get any response back. 

So I decided to reach out here for guidance so that I get a way to reach out ebay support and was no intention to tagging buyer an dishonest.

Only thing which is most important is communication from both the side , if one of the party is in no loss situation and stop responding to messaging who was responsive before and during order transaction than it  would be panicking for party in loss. 
but yes I do agree buyer might be knew which is not the case here. Buyer has sold more than 1000 items so I would assume buyer should understand the importance of communication.

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If that's the case, then the buyer isn't responding because they have no obligation to return your item, and likely have no intent of doing so.  While I understand your frustration, it's really the seller's and buyer's jobs to understand the rules here, before they go into transactions. 

Maybe it was an honest mistake, but it's not the buyers fault you made a mistake. As a seller, you are looked at like any other business on this platform. No allowances are made for you being new, having personal issues, or you screwing something up.  While that may seem unfair, personally, I would rather see rigid rules because that's the only way to treat everyone FAIRLY. 

Take this as a learning lesson, which cost you however much you refunded before getting your item back. 

[farmalljr]

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@fbusoni wrote:

---

@farmalljr wrote:

---

@fbusoni wrote:

---

@rekha27 wrote:The SELLER made a mistake, the buyer didn't scam anything. Like most posters here, you jump to conclusions and think buyers are the devil. The buyer is under no obligation to send anything back. Morally, maybe they should.

---

Just now saw your angry reply (which is mostly a projection).

I don't jump to conclusions.  The buyer is a person with whom I would not wish to be remotely associated, here or in real life.

Rules are one thing.  Obviously.

But are you familiar with human decency?   In 25 years of selling on eBay it has served me well.

Life is not transactional, despite what we have learned from the internet.

There is something really nice about acting from a moral compass.  

Try it, it might be a refreshing change.   

---

The nice thing is, you don't get to dictate what morals are or who should follow your brand of morals. If you want morals, go to church. Live YOUR life by the morals you think are right. But you never get to dictate what other people MUST follow. 

[fern*wood]

That's great.  It's strange they didn't try to respond to you, but nice to see they did the right thing.  I bet the next time you have a return request you will slow down before responding.  Even though I've had several, I go really slowly through the process to make sure I pick the correct response for what I want to happen.

[stuff4divas]

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@rekha27 wrote:

Thank everyone for your guidance!! I will be more careful next time on accepting returns/ refunds.

Though I tried communicating buyer for few times if Any assistance needed for return but I didn’t not get any reply back but last evening surprisingly I received my item back which was intact and very nicely re- packaged by buyer.

so I am agree we should not tag buyer dishonest immediately but buyer who his also seller with 1000+ item sold should understand that two way communication is really important. It won’t take more than 30 seconds to reply back the messages and give assurance of return when there is an intent of return.

thank you again for your guidance and your precious time !!  

---

that's awesome news! thank u for letting us know bc it helps to know there ARE honest and decent people out there 😍

[buyselljack2016]

@rekha27 

Please note that if you "blocked" as suggested ....................... because of eBay policy changes, no messages from that buyer will be received even though you have been involved in a transaction. (when blocked, they will not be informed that any message they send will not be seen by you)

Good that you got the item back. 

[fbusoni]

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@farmalljr wrote:

---

@fbusoni wrote:

---

@farmalljr wrote:

---

@fbusoni wrote:

---

@rekha27 wrote:The SELLER made a mistake, the buyer didn't scam anything. Like most posters here, you jump to conclusions and think buyers are the devil. The buyer is under no obligation to send anything back. Morally, maybe they should.

---

Just now saw your angry reply (which is mostly a projection).

I don't jump to conclusions.  The buyer is a person with whom I would not wish to be remotely associated, here or in real life.

Rules are one thing.  Obviously.

But are you familiar with human decency?   In 25 years of selling on eBay it has served me well.

Life is not transactional, despite what we have learned from the internet.

There is something really nice about acting from a moral compass.  

Try it, it might be a refreshing change.   

---

The nice thing is, you don't get to dictate what morals are or who should follow your brand of morals. If you want morals, go to church. Live YOUR life by the morals you think are right. But you never get to dictate what other people MUST follow. 

---

Clueless, as I suspected.

Blocked.  

[rekha27]

No I am not blocking it. And as I mentioned in my previous messages above , buyer finally returned the item.

thank you for the valuable guidance .

[fbusoni]

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@rekha27 wrote:

No I am not blocking it. And as I mentioned in my previous messages above , buyer finally returned the item.

thank you for the valuable guidance .

---

Fantastic!  Faith in humanity restored (for now).  🙂

[farmalljr]

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@fbusoni wrote:

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@powell-collectibles wrote:

---

@fbusoni wrote:

---

@powell-collectibles wrote:

---

@fbusoni wrote:

---

@rekha27 wrote:

Thank you everyone for your quick responses! Looks like nothing can be done in current scenario, so I will take it as a lesson learn and will  move on .

thank you again for your support!

---

Just make sure you block the buyer who is dishonest and not someone with whom you ever want to do business again.  regards

---

That is a huge leap. I don’t see anywhere indicating that the buyer is being dishonest. Buyer asked for a return, and the seller refunded the money without requiring an actual return shipment.

---

Actually, it's more of a logical step forward.

"However, I mistakenly issued a refund and accepted the return simultaneously.  Since then, the buyer has not responded to any of my messages, and the item has not been returned."

---

I don’t see anything dishonest about being nonresponsive. Seller offered a refund, buyer took it. Buyer doesn’t want to be inconvenienced any further. A lot of buyers don’t want a penpal – and rightfully assume that sellers are adults, and responsible for their actions.

I don’t think that anyone is being dishonest. But, if I had to pick a side, it would be the seller. Offers a refund and then tries to pull it back?

---

You are entitled to your perceptions of reality.

I prefer mine.  

Sure, I understand that buyer does not want to be inconvenienced.

But believe me, the rewards for behaving like a decent human being are worth a trip to the post office -- especially if you have to do it once every few years.

In real life, I would not want to be remotely associated with someone like the buyer in this scenario.

And thanks to technology -- which has made our lives mostly transactional -- I have that choice.

Anyway, I block buyers for far less offensive behavior.  There are billions of them, after all.   😂

---

First, it's hilarious you think there are billions of buyers here. Nope. 

Secondly, if you actually have much business/sales experince, you know there are only SO many buyers in the world for your stuff. I laugh at self promotors in the service industry. "This town has 100K houses, and ALL of them are potential customers!". It's laughable. They are not getting in 10% of those houses. 

There are millions of buyers here. And very, VERY few of them are even potentially your buyer. Every time you add one to the blocked list, your limited buyer pool just shrank. There may be "billions" of buyers in the world, but very few of them will ever buy from any given seller. That's pretty easily proven out by the amount of any given item listed on this platform. Sell through rates not only tell you demand for an item, but also the amount of willing buyers. Lots of stuff sits and does not sell. Lots of sellers have junk listed for years without it selling. 

The easy way to solve that, and fix seller attitudes would be to go back to charging for every listing every month. Far too many sellers here think everyone is their potential buyer, when it couldn't be farther from the truth. Very FEW people are your potential buyer, VERY few.