@toyshnip wrote:
@equid0x wrote:
@toyshnip wrote:
@equid0x wrote:
@toyshnip wrote:
" I told the buyer to ship it to me at their expense."
That is where I think the issue is. Since a buyer doesn't have the tools/knowledge to create labels as easy as sellers, they won't agree to pay for shipping in hopes in arrives and they get the refund. When you put the responsibility on them, you also put the risk on them.
Its not exactly rocket science to walk into the post office, have the clerk put the package on the scale, and buy a label.
If it was a remorse return as the OP indicated then the buyer was always on the hook to pay for return shipping unless the seller was offering free returns.
It *IS* buyer's responsibility to ensure that the item is returned to the seller, in the same condition as it was received.
The item came in a box. All is needed is a return label. Most online retailers today offer a service where a customer can print a return label. Even if the actual cost in on the customer. This saves waiting in line for a clerk, saves writing the address and so on. It also means the seller can get the tracking info immediately.
In the case here, the customer got a label from the system. It is not his fault that it was the wrong label. He put in the effort on packing and getting the package to USPS.
Now, the package has returned to him due to a mistake of the seller/system/ebay. The customer must be annoyed at this point as the simple return is not working. The customer waited a few days for the item to return to the seller and he can get the return. Maybe the customer needs the money to buy a new tablet. Now he needs to go again to the post office, wait in line and spend money to get it shipped out again? It makes sense the customer is upset and escalating to ebay.
If in the first place, the seller would tell the customer to go to the post office, wait in line and purchase a label, then it would go more smoothly. It is a time consuming task and not great service, but will get the work done. But here the customer got a solution that failed and now he is expected to try again?
Not that I'm saying buyers shouldn't buy on eBay but if the purchase is time-sensitive it seems like it would be in their best interest to source locally, no?
On some level, the buyer is going to have to accept that part of the deal when you buy online is the responsibility to do whats necessary to return an item if/when that is necessary, the same as they would need to get in a car and drive to a store if they had to return to a B&M.
Logistics of returning an item aren't really the seller's problem and online labels are more of a buyer "convenience" than a necessity. The buyer can always schedule a USPS pickup or take the package to work and stick it in their workplace's outbound mail. The buyer's financial situation is also not the seller's problem. If the buyer is so cash strapped that they need the refund to buy another tablet then maybe they shouldn't be buying a tablet at all? Just saying.
What are you proposing the seller do? Fly to the customer's house and pick up the package by hand? Really, the best that can be done in this situation is to send the buyer another label and have them drop the package at the Post Office again. Yup, its definitely inconvenient but so are many things in life and mistakes and "life" happens.
Both buyer and seller can whine all day about who did or did not do what where and when but the simple fact of the matter is the package isn't going to return itself. If its in the buyer's hands then they're going to have to suck it up and go to the post office a second time.
As a seller, I know a lot about ebay's system, USPS system and so on. I shipped thousands of packages using different systems.
But a classic buyer may not have that much of experience. They may not know the difference between USPS first class, Flat rate or priority mail. They may not know how to go onto the USPS website and print a label.
A buyer may want to return an item. He goes onto where he bought the item, request a return and the system gives him a label. He doesn't know that the weight does not mach the package. He got the label from the system.
He got the item back. He followed the instructions he got when he processed the return, and it didn't work. He goes to ebay, says that he tried to do the return and the label didn't work. ebay gives him a refund.
Now, if we dig deep inside, we know that the reason the system gave him the wrong label was due to no weight on the package. We know that first class doesn't work in this case. But that is us. Not a buyer who (maybe) has no clue how things work.
Yes, if ebay's system was a bit more powerful, they would notice that the service for the return label is different then the label shipped to the item. They didn't take into account that the item has no weight as it is shipping flat rate. So we can put some blame on ebay's system that allowed a wrong label. If it didn't automate the label, the buyer would need to go to the post office or go online and then purchase the right label.
My point is that the buyer/seller are not on the same level when it comes with handling the system/USPS. What is expected from a seller may not be expected from a buyer. A seller has many more tools, more experience and the seller is the one making the profit. The seller knows what action he is responsible for, and what ebay's system manages. A buyer doesn't know all of that, is is depended on the tools ebay gives him.
I would have to go pull some return packaging from a return and look at the label. There is a USPS return service that's supposed to be pretty lenient with this. Not entirely sure if that's what eBay uses since I've never run into this issue before. That said, I do put weight and dimensions on my listings but I did not always do this when I used flat rate packaging, which I don't use much anymore. Even then, I never ran into this issue - and I definitely had people return items in packaging that was not what I sent.
I think its most likely that an over-zealous USPS employee misunderstood the postage label and returned the package. It seems like, with probably 10's of thousands of packages returned every day, that eBay's system is unlikely to be the culprit, especially after 20-something years of operations, but hey, you never know. Out where I am, USPS has a lot of contractors handling deliveries who frankly, do a lousy job.
Ultimately, if the postage was actually wrong, unless the buyer dropped it in a mailbox somehow... at least at my local PO, you have to wait in line to drop the package, and they still weigh them, scan them, and hand me a receipt. If the postage was wrong, it seems the employee at the counter would have immediately known about it and should have requested the buyer to pay any excess postage at the time the package got dropped.
Even if there were no label at all, the clerk at the counter's job is to guide the customer(buyer) into purchasing the correct postage. I literally see people buying postage at the counter in line in front of me every single day of the week.
If the buyer bought their own label online and didn't select correct dimensions or weight or the appropriate flat-rate service that is still not the seller's problem. It's not really the seller's responsibility to explain to the buyer how USPS works, what shipping rates they have, which ones apply to the package they're taking to the counter, etc, but that definitely _IS_ the responsibility of the USPS employee at the counter. Even if the buyer self purchased, USPS should have checked it before putting it in the bin.
To make a car analogy (common in the IT industry - my roots), I can sell you a car, but its still your responsibility to pay tax, get tags, transfer title, and register the vehicle. The dealership may or may not assist you with this(most will) but its not their explicit responsibility to do so, simply a courtesy.
Sure, the seller can and probably should provide guidance but ultimately it _is_ up to the buyer to "make it happen," in my opinion. I kind of find it hard to believe that anyone old enough to buy off eBay has never sent a package before. At some point, the buyer does need to bear some responsibility in the transaction.
I've personally fat-fingered weight on a prepaid label before, not in my favor BTW, and the USPS actually refunded me the difference. I've heard of the opposite happening as well, and typically from what I've heard is the recipient will be charged excess postage at the time of delivery. I've never heard of the USPS actually returning the package because the postage was wrong.
Aside from USPS, I have dealt a fair deal with FedEx... was using a software that had a glitch that was not charging residential delivery charges. FedEx still delivered the package, but then later billed me the residential delivery charge. This actually happened for about 10 packages before I caught the error. None of them got returned to me.
It kind of sounds like something is up here. Do we know if someone somewhere down the line maybe refused the package or requested a redirect?
