Buyer filed INR. Agreed to replacement, then requested refund from eBay before delivery.

[joh30002013]

Just trying to understand what happened for future reference.

Buyer bought an item from me then filed an INR a week and a half later. The original item was sent with no tracking and a stamp. I sent a replacement the very next day with tracking. This was all discussed in the case messages.

The day after the replacement was sent I got their original item back in the mail saying “unable to forward”. I sent the buyer a photo of the envelope and asked if there could be an issue with their address as I’d never had that issue before.

The buyer responded within the case and said they’d actually had another eBay order not show up from the month prior which made me confident they had an address issue and this was not my fault.

Unfortunately for the first time in my short selling career, the post office did not scan the replacement item to show I’d dropped it off Monday and still shows that status of awaiting pickup now which is why I assume the seller closed the case and eBay refunded them.

I was under the impression though that there was an amount of time buyers had to wait for replacement items to get to them, as it’s only been a week since we agreed to the replacement and it could be delivered today for all I know.

Is the buyer going to be able to leave negative feedback over this? I assume they think I didn’t ship a replacement over the tracking situation. Pretty irritated with the whole thing since I thought I did everything right. 

[heckofagame]

Your best choice may have been to just refund. 

[house*of*paws]

Hi @joh30002013 

Did you add the tracking number to the INR case when you shipped the replacement?  That should have delayed eBay’s issuing a refund.

[sextons-sweet-deals]

Google the buyer's address. What does it look like? Good, bad, questionable?

Have you reviewed the buyers complete profile? How long have they been an eBay member? What does all the feedback history look like?

I would suggest shipping everything with tracking in the future and capture that cost in your listings.

Best Wishes!

[joh30002013]

Hi, yes I did. Attached as of this past Monday. I contacted eBay just now and they told me once the tracking updates (hoping it will) that they will appeal the case for me. So I guess I’ll wait and see if USPS is going to be nice or not. 

[joh30002013]

Yeah. I wanted to be nice since I had another on hand. Lesson learned. Won’t go through this again. 

[luckythewinner]

Pretty irritated with the whole thing since I thought I did everything right.

You did not take care to assure you were protected by getting tracking and a scan on the first package. If you had, everything afterward could have been avoided.

[stuff4divas]

@joh30002013   if u used the same address on the 2nd as on the 1st, it should be sent back to u again as 'unable to forward'

also, if u offer replacements, that should be indicated when listings are set up- refund and or replacement

[mr_lincoln]

@joh30002013 

My approach to selling on eBay is that they are good at juggling one ball.  I don't do replacements so if a transaction goes astray I have the Buyer either file a return, item not received, etc. and then process the claim from my end in the time allotted and move on.  Bad transactions are a very low percentage so the occasional bad one is a write off, I just try to make the process easy for my customers ... 

Everything I sell ships in a BOX WITH TRACKING ... 

[fashunu4eeuh]

Hi @joh30002013 

When mailing the second package with tracking, don’t drop it off. Stand in line and get an acceptance scan. That is the only way to ensure the buyer knows you have done what you indicated you would do. It may be an inconvenience to do so, but is worth it when a problem has arisen.

It is my standard practice to get an acceptance scan for every package mailed.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

I am old and need to avoid hassles more than I need money.

If an item does not justify the cost of tracking, the item is not worth selling on an Internet marketplace.

You see exactly what happens when there is no tracking - the sale becomes a hassle. Sometimes with a good buyer, sometimes with a crook.

Your first shipment cannot be proved to exist.

Your second shipment with the replacement is a late shipment.

You have wasted a lot of time and will probably show no profit when it is done.

You can do everything correctly and have a sale go bad, but if you cut corners because you are cheap or the product is cheap, it is hard to avoid trouble, and hard to keep the positive attitude you need to serve your customers well.