eBay

nawsetleigh · ‎10-29-2025

A buyer bought an item from me on the 18th. I have a 2 day handling period. I offer 30 day returns with buyer paid shipping. I dropped the item off at USPS on the 20th and later that day the buyer sent me a message saying that all I had done was create the shipping label but hadn’t shipped out their item yet and they wanted to cancel their order if it wasn’t going to arrive by Thursday the 23rd. I informed them that I had shipped out their item already and it does take time for tracking to update sometimes. They messaged back saying they asked to cancel the order if it’s not gonna be there by the 23rd unless I’m doing two day priority mail shipping. I informed them of the two day handling period as well as that I only offered USPS ground shipping and that I had already dropped off their order at USPS before their request to cancel. I apologized as well if the item did not arrive on the day that they wanted. They did not reply after that. Their item was delivered on Saturday the 25th but then on Monday the 27th they took it back to USPS and tried to send it to a different address claiming it wasn’t theirs. That address did not exist so the USPS is now sending it back to sender, which is me. The buyer reported that they did not receive their item on the 28th and is requesting a refund. I messaged the buyer asking that they verify their address and make sure it was correct since it had been delivered, and I saw on the tracking that then it had been sent to somewhere else and that address did not exist, and now it was being sent back to me. I contacted USPS and asked what had happened. They informed me that the item had been delivered on the 25th but then brought back to them on the 27th claiming that it was not theirs and gave them a different address to go to. That address did not exist, and therefore they are sending back to me. I messaged the buyer again and explained that to them and again requested that they verify their info so that we can figure out why they did not receive their item and get it to them. The buyer responded saying that yes the item had been delivered, but sent back to sender and that he is waiting on a refund or having eBay step in if he hasn’t received it by November 2nd. To me, he all but admitted that yes, he had received the item and just decided to send it back instead of doing a request for a return and pay the shipping costs like I have in my return policy.

I do not have a problem with refunding him if he had gone about it the correct way in doing a return and instead of sending it back to sender so that he can avoid shipping fees and placing it on me. If I request eBay to step in, will they decide in my favor or will it be a mark against me and I will still have to refund plus pay the shipping costs? What is the best way to go about this? As well as maybe report him so that he does not do this to other sellers? Am I just gonna have to eat the costs and completely refund him?

stainlessenginecovers · ‎10-30-2025

@grand-and-glorious-purpose wrote:
@stainlessenginecovers wrote:
ebay cannot do a thing about it.
Uh huh...and here my experience is that they do and can...not enough mind you but I haven't lost a chargeback in years...even won an INAD but I know that isn't the average experience.

Makes me wonder what you are doing wrong or maybe you just have bad luck and I just have good luck.

...and again if ebay is not covering you for sales not covered by the MBG I would get on the phone toot sweet. You have real reason to be mad about it.

@grand-and-glorious-purpose You probably did not have the same scenario as the OP, where the buyer 'returns' the item. Banks frown on letting a seller have both the item and the $$.

So, when tracking shows it went back to the seller, banks will side with their customer 100% of the time.

If this exact scenario did happen to you and ebay 'sided with you' (claiming 'seller protection' it was a 'courtesy' only and will not continue).

I've had those 'protections for chargebacks in the past. They don't last.

My last scenario (chargeback 6 months ago)

Customer purchased item that was brand new and 'seller does not accept returns'.

Buyer asked to return

I denied

Buyer got nasty with a feedback, then contacted their bank.

I was notified buyer did a 'charge back' for 'item not what I expected'

Buyer then sent back the item on their own dime.

I responded to the chargeback with 4 multi pictures showing the listing etc. (as I've done and won in the past).

I'll assume they gave that tracking number to their bank and their bank sided with them.

Ebay did nothing regarding the $$ for me (I even got to pay the additional $20 fee)

Ebay did remove the neg feedback as they stated "I clearly had 'no returns' on the listing".

Guaranteed that was a hit/miss and next time I may not be so lucky (regarding the feedback removal; as well as all 'auto parts' have to now be 'free returns' anyway?)

gurlcat · ‎10-30-2025

@grand-and-glorious-purpose wrote:
@stainlessenginecovers wrote:
ebay cannot do a thing about it.
Uh huh...and here my experience is that they do and can...not enough mind you but I haven't lost a chargeback in years...even won an INAD but I know that isn't the average experience.

Makes me wonder what you are doing wrong or maybe you just have bad luck and I just have good luck.

I haven't lost a chargeback either, or at least I haven't lost one that eBay didn't cover for me. It may boil down to good/bad luck once in a while, but I think more often sellers just don't know the right way to respond to chargebacks. eBay doesn't spell it out in the Help pages, nor do the agents usually give the right advice. What I know about the correct responses I learned HERE and from a couple of eBay agents who gave me the real skinny. So I guess that was luck, that I got them instead of poorly-trained or dishonest ones.

gurlcat · ‎10-30-2025

@nawsetleigh wrote:
I did not specifically say he opened the case in my post I guess. I did say he claimed he had not received the item and requested a refund. Which in my head was saying that a case had been opened. I did not make it clear it seems. I was trying to give as much info as I could to fully explain what was going on. Which turned into a long post. It seems to have upset quite a few people. But I appreciate all the advice everyone has been giving regardless if they understood what I was saying or even really read my post all the way through.

Next time just please come and ask for help at the first sign of trouble. Then it would be a relatively short post and we could walk you through the best choices in real time. Also up-to-date information, like the fact that your October 20th ship-out wasn't the only one not updating on eBay -it was a system-wide glitch!