Buyer closed a return

[peifenln2012]

Hi EBay community, 

I sold a brand new text book on eBay that was sent in its original unopened wrap packaging.  The buyer then sent through a refund request saying it’s not new as described and was damaged and has wrinkles on pages.  He sent a photo on the message and he’s opened the wrap packaging and the book indeed out of its original packaging has a large wrinkle in the cover page.  He asked to keep the books and was happy to “accept partial refund”. I originally thought okay I can accept partial refund so I sent him a message saying that the book has now been removed from its original packaging and wanted an explanation.  Then I thought no it was not sent damaged and if he is unhappy I was not about to let him keep the book and get another refund.  So I requested the book to be returned and I will refund once item received.   Now I just received an email from eBay saying the “buyer closed the return”   And all the outstanding messages options have disappeared.  What does this mean?  Does this mean he changed his mind and is now keeping the book without any refund?  Do I need to do anything else?  

[heckofagame]

If the buyer closed the return, then that's it. 

[evelyb30]

The buyer found out you wouldn't roll over and gave up, or figured out that one wrinkled from the factory page won't stop him/her from using the book.  

[mtgraves7984]

Do I need to do anything else?

@peifenln2012 

Nothing more than rest easy.

[cstpos · Accepted solution]

@peifenln2012 The buyer was just trying to get some money back. You were smart to ask them to send it back. When buyers message us that something is wrong with an item we sent, we immediately apologize and ask them to open a return on ebay and we will send them a return label. If they say  just gives us a partial refund, we respond that we don't want anyone to keep anything substandard and to please just return it for a  refund. I've only had 1 or 2 sales that they actually returned the item. Most were just fishing for a refund. As long as the buyer closed the return, you're fine. Most just make you wait for the deadline to ship the item back passes and then for ebay to close the case (which can take up to 6 weeks)

[wild_findingz]

I just had almost the exact same thing happen with a buyer and a different type of item (a portable laptop keyboard.) Before I even had a chance to respond or intervene I could see that eBay had accepted the return on my behalf and told the buyer to expect a refund once the item was return shipped to me.

By the time I had checked the buyer had already closed the return request. As a newer seller this was very confusing to me!

Especially because his claim about the condition of the item was, frankly, a lie. First of all he claimed that it was "cracked" and submitted a photo of the item with a large X on it which definitely was not there when I had sent it out. Secondly he claimed that four of the keys had been switched out (no photo to back that up), and they definitely had not. The keyboard was perfect when I sent it out except for very minimal slight wear which was fully photographed and described in listing.

So if he went to all that trouble to get the item for free, or at a discount, I am of course concerned that he is going to leave negative feedback or an Item Not As Described mark on my account. I am concerned about that because I sold an iPhone a few months back and the buyer claimed it was a different series than the one I had listed. That buyer may have lied too, but I just let him keep the phone and did not dispute it because it was not a very high ticket item and I didn't feel like fighting with him (maybe a mistake not to dispute that because maybe it invited more unscrupulous buyers to try this type of thing with my account?)

Maybe that was why eBay automatically intervened this time?

I am glad they did because I likely wouldn't have known how to handle it.

But now should I worry that he is going to leave a negative on my account which still has a lot more positive than negative feedback?

Can he do that based on a phony Item Not as Described claim?

[peifenln2012]

Hey there,

In my case they did leave a poor review. And basically i didn’t see it until about 3 month later when I was listing something else to sale. 

It was too late for me to request EBay to remove the untruthful message, which I found out you can if it’s within 2 month ( I think or less) 

what I did instead was I openly replied to the buyer on the same thread; explained his behaviour is unacceptable and clarified the situation. So if other future buyers read the review, they can read my reply as well.

it does affect your overall “review” score, and I contacted EBay help desk.  They said the score gets updated every year, so it should disappear next year.  

i also reported this buyer to EBay, so they can hopefully take some actions 

: )

[kh-stanley1]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.