@fridge-plus wrote:
I'll try to be as brief as possible but I sold an item to a buyer on eBay and the buyer ended up opening a return for his purchase. The item sent was 70 lb and $379.95 before eBay collected sales tax. I provided the buyer was a prepaid UPS return label attached to his return request. A few weeks went by with no update on the shipping status or return case and out of the blue, the return was updated with a new tracking number provided by the buyer and was immediately escalated to a case and decided against me. I was a bit confused as I had no time to even react to how quickly this random USPS tracking number, which had no affiliation with my prepaid UPS label, was uploaded, return escalated, then decided against me.
I hadn't received any returns from this buyer since his purchase and immediately knew something was up with a buyer ending up paying USPS rates on a 70 lb package when he had every opportunity to use my prepaid label. The only info I was able to get from the trace was that it was confirmed delivered to my zip code so I opened a case with USPS regarding the tracking # the buyer provided and was contacted by my local USPS store manager. He informed me that my description of the package didn't match with the USPS tracking # and he had an photo from USPS Informed Delivery of the package. The package was a 1 oz envelope shipped to the CVS across the street from me that matches my same Zip.
At this point, I knew the buyer was committing both a return scam and mail fraud. I met up with the USPS manager and he provided me with scanned paperwork of the tracking # along with the images both showing the package size and delivery address not matching my return address. I was able to appeal the case a few weeks ago via the eBay Support messaging system. I uploaded all the information and ended up getting the defect removed and was told that I would received a refund for the $379.95 within' 7-10 business days.
A few weeks went by and I noticed there hadn't been any reimbursement from eBay so I replied to the previous message thread asking the status of this refund and ended up being told that I was "Denied" my refund as I had already received a "Courtesy" refund within' the past 12 months. I have been selling on eBay for almost 10 years and I didn't know I was only eligible for a refund on 1 successful appeal through a 12 month period. I did all my due diligence for proving a fraudster on eBay and end up being told I cant get my money refunded.
If anybody has any advice regarding my case or if this (1) time "Courtesy" refund would pertain to this type of appeal, please enlighten me.
I've also been finding it more difficult to contact customer eBay seller support and can no longer get a phone number to speak with somebody regarding defects, appeals, or account restrictions. The auto-chat bot and message box are my only options and I have a premium store. I also noticed that during my case message thread, I was tossed to (5) different representatives that ended up replying and some not having any history of my case or my uploaded documents. Do I need to upgrade my seller store to Anchor just to get on the phone line with a seller representative or am I just doing something wrong on my end.
I apologize for the long thread but needed to lay out all the details and rather frustrated after working so hard to clear up these issues then I end up getting the short end of the stick and my buyer ends up with losing a 5 feedback buyer account which most likely he can re-create. Thank you and any responses will be appreciated.
@fridge-plus I'm not able to speak to specifics for this situation, but I can provide the general process followed for appeals.
There may be times when customer service review an appeal decision to see if the outcome can be changed, such as issuing funds to the seller for the cost of the transaction. However, changing the outcome of an appeal cannot be done as a courtesy. If the original appeal decision was incorrect based on the information available at the time the appeal was closed then customer service can look at options to help.
If customer service is asked to review an appeal decision then they'll review what information the seller provided to us prior to the appeal being closed. If the seller did not provide the relevant information to their appeal prior to a decision being made then the outcome of the appeal will not be changed. If the seller did provide the needed information prior to an appeal being decided then customer service can review the options available to assist further.
