eBay

ravenwolfe84 · ‎10-19-2017

I sold an item a couple of days ago to someone who paid with an echeck. I messaged them letting them know that I would ship once the check cleared. They messaged me yesterday asking me to refund them. Obviously I do not have the money yet so I cannot refund. Once the money clears, I will be glad to go through the return process. I have a few questions. First of all, the reason for the return was that she thought she was buying something else. The item she thought she was getting looks completely different from the one she got plus the names are absolutely not similar. I suspect she is having buyers remorse. That's fine but now I am in a pickle. I have a 20% restocking fee on all of my listings to cover my returns when they happen. Would it be wrong to charge that to her? I will have had to hold this item for her for over a week until this situation is cleared up which means I can't sell it in the mean time. It's a bit of a loss. My other question is can she leave me negative feedback once I do the return even though she never had the item in hand and returned prior to shipping? I have a feeling she is going to see the delay in return as my fault even though she paid with a check and my hands are literally tied. I am just a little miffed about the whole thing. I'd hate to get a negative over a non-transaction. Is there any way to avoid her feedback? Any help and advice would be most appreciated.

1786davycrockett · ‎10-19-2017

Did your buyer pay the echeck through PayPal? If so, your buyer may be alble to contact PayPal, and cancel the check herself, although she may have to pay a penalty, due to her cancellation. Since her echeck is not technically in your possession yet, your buyer still has the power to cancel her payment. You need to have your buyer contact the vendor with which the echeck is being processed (PayPal, maybe?), and your buyer needs to instruct that vendor to cancel the payment.

ravenwolfe84 · ‎10-19-2017

It is through paypal and I informed them that they need to cancel the payment on their end but they couldn't figure it out. Either that or they didn't want to pay the penalty and are waiting it out.

swenson8781 · ‎10-19-2017

I'm not sure if/how the echeck situation affects anything, but you should be able to 'cancel transaction at buyers request'. That might halt the payment if the transaction is cancelled, and will allow you to receive your fvf's back. You will be out your restocking fee, however, I don't believe a buyer can leave fb if the transaction is cancelled at buyers request & they approve it.

Cancellation (be sure you give 'at buyers request' for the reason though) is much easier than trying to deal with a refund case, IMO. And unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about the time lost in the transaction. BUT, if you want to avoid those circumstances in the future, add 'immediate payment required' to your listings, then the listing stays live until payment is completed.

1786davycrockett · ‎10-19-2017

If your buyer chooses to wait out the echeck confirmation, then you can not be expected to send a refund, since technically you have not received the buyer's payment. At this point, this is beginning to sound like a scam, and not simply buyer's remorse. The buyer MAY have knowingly submitted a bad echeck, and is relying upon seller naivte to con you into sending out a refund, before the check bounces.

Tell the buyer to contact PayPal (the contact information is on the PayPal site, or PayPal can also be contacted through "Help & Contact", at the top of this page). But do NOT be bullied into sending a refund, until the money is REALLY in your PayPal account!

ravenwolfe84 · ‎10-19-2017

Ok I went in and initiated the return like you suggested. Hopefully this clears it up so that she can get her money back fast and I can relist my item. I just don't want this to tarnish my 100% feedback. That would be really disappointing.

ravenwolfe84 · ‎10-19-2017

I got the same vibes but I wasn't sure if I was being paranoid. lol

myboardid · ‎10-19-2017

You as seller do NOT do a return, since you never shipped in the first place. As seller you do a cancellation. This automatically gives the buyer a refund, or in this case cancels their e-check. Once the cancellation is complete, your buyer cannot leave feedback.

And there is no Paypal fee for cancelling an e-check.

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Successful and experienced seller since 1997, over 70,000 feedback, boardie since the boards were begun.

dtexley3 · ‎10-19-2017

I highly suspect this was the current echeck scam. did you receive an message asking you send it to them as soon as possible? Since you told them you would not ship until the echeck cleared now they want out. If this is the case be sure to report the buyer.

Member of the Grumpy Old Man crew

ravenwolfe84 · ‎10-19-2017

It felt scammy at first but I honestly think they just didn't want the item any more. They were willing to wait for the check to clear before we did a return. It's possible that the check will never clear. I am pretty sure it's not a scam at this point though.

ryanrobyn · ‎10-19-2017

Feedback doesn't count at all any more so no worries, Every seller and buyer out there know that everyone's perception of things is different and that the whole feedback system is totally unfair when sellers HAVE to leave positive feedback and the buyer doesn't have to. IF you ever get a negative just pass it off as Ebay's fault. Obviously you are a very concerned for your buyers seller.

ravenwolfe84 · ‎10-20-2017

It does for top rated seller status, unfortunately.

@ryanrobyn wrote:
Feedback doesn't count at all any more so no worries,

penguins_dont_fly · ‎10-20-2017

@ravenwolfe84 wrote:
It felt scammy at first but I honestly think they just didn't want the item any more. They were willing to wait for the check to clear before we did a return. It's possible that the check will never clear. I am pretty sure it's not a scam at this point though.

@ravenwolfe84

You keep using the word "Return".

If there is no shipment, there can be no return.

An order that is reversed before shipment is a "Cancellation".

Hopefully, you used the Cancel process with the Reason "Buyer Requested" ?

penguins_dont_fly is a Volunteer Community Mentor
Buying and Selling since 2013

siayan · ‎10-20-2017

@ryanrobyn wrote:
Feedback doesn't count at all any more so no worries, Every seller and buyer out there know that everyone's perception of things is different and that the whole feedback system is totally unfair when sellers HAVE to leave positive feedback and the buyer doesn't have to. IF you ever get a negative just pass it off as Ebay's fault. Obviously you are a very concerned for your buyers seller.

This is a little bit of a misconception about feedback not counting anymore. When eBay does best match searches one this that is taken into accoung is the sellers track record. What that consists of we don't know but I would bet feedback is in there. So while feedback doesn't affest seller standards it does affect something.

Some may say hogwash but know what else is may in there? Late payments to eBay, star ratings, returns, defects and I am just guessing here (my wild conspiracy theory) but removed feedback.

____________________________________________________________________
Prov 20:14 It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.

penguins_dont_fly · ‎10-20-2017

@siayan wrote:
@ryanrobyn wrote:
Feedback doesn't count at all any more so no worries, Every seller and buyer out there know that everyone's perception of things is different and that the whole feedback system is totally unfair when sellers HAVE to leave positive feedback and the buyer doesn't have to. IF you ever get a negative just pass it off as Ebay's fault. Obviously you are a very concerned for your buyers seller.
This is a little bit of a misconception about feedback not counting anymore. When eBay does best match searches one this that is taken into accoung is the sellers track record. What that consists of we don't know but I would bet feedback is in there. So while feedback doesn't affest seller standards it does affect something.

Some may say hogwash but know what else is may in there? Late payments to eBay, star ratings, returns, defects and I am just guessing here (my wild conspiracy theory) but removed feedback.

I agree. Cassini is 5% Keyword Search, 95% Secret Sauce.

They have been altering it since they started it ... And the original developer quit a long time ago. I think that a lot of the "legacy" stuff is still in there (DSRs and Feedback, e.g.)

The other reason why it is still relevant is ... even though it may not be part of the Seller Standards anymore, it is still a seller's public reputation.

We always tell newbie buyers to vet their sellers by looking at feedback ....

But 1 neg not going to prevent me from buying from an otherwise great feedback seller 🙂

penguins_dont_fly is a Volunteer Community Mentor
Buying and Selling since 2013