eBay

suburbanite · ‎12-09-2018

Hi Everyone,

Hopefully someone can give me some advice / guidance that would be greatly appreciated. I recently sold a 5 CD Player Changer that i had owned personally for over 3 years to a buyer. The buyer opened up a case claiming the item was defective. This is a paraphrase of what he wrote in the claim: After 2 days of use he was playing CDs and for no apparent reason (he claims) the CD player tried to open, and jammed the CD it was playing. I shook it and jiggled it and now its broke. Sounds like he broke it while he was messing around with it.... but oh well...

Normally i wouldnt complain and just eat the cost of it, have the item shipped back, cost of doing buisness. However the cost to ship it to him was 40$ and im getting charged 20$ for a return label back that ebay automatically accepted. I am 100% percent certain it worked when I shipped it out and usually CD changers dont randomly open... I am wonder if it broke during shipment so maybe ill file a postal claim upon its return?

Part of me wonders if its return fraud as the buyer has some experience selling stuff online and it was phrased in a way that would provide a free return. I guess i should just grow up and accept it as a cost of doing business or do I have any recourse as its going to be a large $60 loss?

Can i stop him from returning it and have the return label refunded back to me, or is it too late because ebay automatically accepted the return?

Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks!

bigdeals.etc · ‎12-09-2018

No you can't stop the buyer from returning the item. Even if you choose to just refund the buyer RIGHT NOW before the buyer shipped the item out, they can still use your return postage and send the item back to you. You'd still be charged the return postage. Even if you messaged the buyer and told them not to return it and you'll refund them, they are still able to use that postage and you'd get charged.

If you have insurance, you might be able to recover some of that cost with filing a damage claim. Your outcome will depend on who you bought insurance with and their terms of service. I wouldn't be surprised had you not bought insurance because I wouldn't if I was in your shoes. But if I remember Priority Mail carries built in insurance to a certain amount (assuming you used that service). Perhaps someone else can chime in here who knows more about it.

fern*wood · ‎12-09-2018

I don't think ebay generated return labels are charged to you unless they are actually used, so you might be able to get it stopped if you just decide to refund and tell them not to return.

When we used to ship CD players we found many of them had a lock mechanism we had to engage to protect it during shipping.

bigdeals.etc · ‎12-09-2018

@fern*wood wrote:
I don't think ebay generated return labels are charged to you unless they are actually used, so you might be able to get it stopped if you just decide to refund and tell them not to return.

When we used to ship CD players we found many of them had a lock mechanism we had to engage to protect it during shipping.

Right. Sorry I wasn't more clear. You won't get charged unless the postage was scanned in by USPS. My comment was mainly, you can try to stop the buyer from returning the item... but they can still end up returning the item (by using your postage label) even after you told them not to return it or even refund them beforehand. It's happened to me a few times. That postage label never gets voided to my knowledge.

hillbillymedia · ‎12-09-2018

@bigdeals.etc wrote:
@fern*wood wrote:
I don't think ebay generated return labels are charged to you unless they are actually used, so you might be able to get it stopped if you just decide to refund and tell them not to return.

When we used to ship CD players we found many of them had a lock mechanism we had to engage to protect it during shipping.
Right. Sorry I wasn't more clear. You won't get charged unless the postage was scanned in by USPS. My comment was mainly, you can try to stop the buyer from returning the item... but they can still end up returning the item (by using your postage label) even after you told them not to return it or even refund them beforehand. It's happened to me a few times. That postage label never gets voided to my knowledge.

Wouldn`t refunding the buyer close the return and keep the buyer from accessing the return label and wouldn`t ebay instruct the buyer there is no need to return the item and that the return is now closed?

"There`s always barber college" - Dalton - Road House

dblkj-0 · ‎12-09-2018

All I can tell you is my own experience and how it will affect future sales.

I have found with returns policies throughout the years that it is best to stay within the mold of conformity, that means taking the path that most sellers take so if for example most sellers use "Free Returns 30 days" then that would be the returns policy I would use. The reason for this is when I have strayed from the path and used returns policies that fell well outside the most-used I found buyers would act strangely, why that is so I could not tell you, again this is only my own experience.

That having been said...

You have a 60-day buyer pays returns policy.

I am not getting into the details here other than to say that could well be the reason the buyer filed SNAD. At this stage however the outcome is rather regardless of rhyme or reason, I would not fight this buyer or even attempt in any way to shape the outcome in any direction other than what it will be. I realize this isn't everyone's favorite plan but I would simply accept this issue for what it is because the alternative would be to receive broken items or no items at all and then still being forced to refund as per the MBG.

In other words there is a good chance if you simply play along that you will receive a perfectly good CD changer in return that you can then relist for sale.

I am sorry you are facing this dilemma.

It is one of several reasons I chose to go with 30 day Free Returns:

1. Buyers decide for themselves whether they should pay shipping, seems to me this decision-making process is at times skewed but since it is out of my hands it hardly matters.

2. It's what everyone else is doing, again I have found going with the flow seems to cause me the least resistance.

Please you should feel free to increase the cost of said player to $65 when relisting to help recover some of the losses.

Good luck to you.

castlemagicmemories · ‎12-09-2018

Found this:

Priority Mail Express & Priority Mail. With some exceptions, Priority Mail Express shipments include up to $100 of insurance and Priority Mail shipments may include up to $50. For more valuable shipments, additional coverage is usually available.