Did I get robbed?

[newyork2e]

I sold my old iPhone looking forward to having a little extra spending money. They buyer claimed it had no volume, which I knew was likely bogus but I proceeded to allow the return as seems reasonable.

Well, eBay refunds the buyer immediately and I never receive the return. I reported the buyer but it appears that may be done without me ever hearing what happens? What now, there's like literally no way to even contact eBay without receiving poor info:

We are sorry to hear this has happened. We strive to make eBay a safe place to sell, and so we appreciate your report. If you have not already, please go to your Return Details and ask us to step in and help.

I've been on eBay since 2002 both as a seller and buyer. I don't recall getting ripped off like this ever.

Well the return details page has absolutely no way to "ask eBay to step in" that I saw. I'm utterly confused how I might have just lost $400. No reply contacting buyer of course. 

Any help, greatly appreciated. 

max (eBay user since 2002)

[asset_liquidators]

It sounds as if you may have accidently clicked 'refund buyer' in the return and not 'return for refund'.

[bonjourami]

Did you provide the buyer with a return label? If not, and he asked Ebay to step in, they will immediately refund him without returning the phone.

[newyork2e]

Thanks for chiming in but I'm a bit confused by this - would you mind elaborating? 

[newyork2e]

I received an email from eBay:

"You’ve got a new return request. Please respond by May 20, 2022"

I hit "respond to request" and accepted the return. I'm not sure about the return label -- would that make the difference in being able to get robbed without eBay stepping in? 

Thanks for your help.

[stainlessenginecovers]

When you are notified of a return, you are given 2 (or 3) choices, depending on the 'reason' that the buyer used. For 'missing parts' 'not as described' 'arrived broken', the seller, you, have to approve and give the buyer a return shipping label (you have to pay for it)

Then you are given the choices

1.) refund buyer

2.) have buyer return for refund

If you chose #1 and did not choose at all, eBay will just auto refund. There is no recourse for this. 

Do you know the reason the buyer used? 

[newyork2e]

Wow, just wow. So I lost my money for a completely non-intuitive reason. 

I did not go the route with the pre-paid label I believe -- and because of what seems a moot detail, I lost all my money. Wonderful. 

The excuse was that the iPhone had no volume. I owned it and it worked great.

 When there are issues on items I sell, I've always accepted the return. I've never had this issue. I can't believe this is a thing with all the protections I foolishly assumed PayPal offered me to PROTECT from this type of direct theft.

What's stopping any scammer from trying this 20 times a day I wonder. Some sellers do the pre-paid, in which the scammer would return and the ones that don't, an easy target I just learned. What a flaw. 

[stainlessenginecovers]

The 'return' label would not have been a 'choice' that you can make wrong; you either agreed to 'provide' the buyer with a return label (which means you would pay for the return shipping).. but again, this depends on the "reason" used on the return. 

Again, what was the 'reason' stated by the buyer?

(because if it wasn't one that required you to approve the return label and you were not prompted to approve a return label, then you can contact ebay via facebook (ebay for business- look it up) and talk to the reps there (send a message, use item number, ebay name and date of return)

[newyork2e]

I just looked up the email eBay sent me:

You accepted a return for Apple iPhone 11 Pro 
Your next step is to send a return shipping label to babr-2637 by May 20, 2022. See the return details to buy a label from eBay at a discounted rate.
If you can't send a label by May 20, 2022, we may send the buyer a return shipping label and charge it to your monthly invoice.
Check the item carefully when you get it back. If everything looks good, refund the buyer no more than 2 days after you receive the item back.

I don't believe I saw the message in time, so would that mean that eBay sent the buyer a return label that I'll get charged for? 

The reason they stated for the return was that the iPhone had no volume. It certainly had volume when I mailed it to them. 

[kensgiftshop]

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@newyork2e wrote:

I just looked up the email eBay sent me:

You accepted a return for Apple iPhone 11 Pro 
Your next step is to send a return shipping label to babr-2637 by May 20, 2022. See the return details to buy a label from eBay at a discounted rate.
If you can't send a label by May 20, 2022, we may send the buyer a return shipping label and charge it to your monthly invoice.
Check the item carefully when you get it back. If everything looks good, refund the buyer no more than 2 days after you receive the item back.

I don't believe I saw the message in time, so would that mean that eBay sent the buyer a return label that I'll get charged for? 

The reason they stated for the return was that the iPhone had no volume. It certainly had volume when I mailed it to them. 

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If you didn't send them a shipping label and the buyer ask Ebay to step in, they probably refunded the buyer from your account and let them keep the phone.

[mtgraves7984]

If you can't send a label by May 20, 2022, we may send the buyer a return shipping label and charge it to your monthly invoice.

@newyork2e 

Note that "we may" is the important part of this sentence. If eBay was asked to step in, they may  issue a refund, too.

I would think that after this much time has passed, you'd know if you'd been charged for a return label. Bummer...

[glgenterprise]

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@mtgraves7984 wrote:

If you can't send a label by May 20, 2022, we may send the buyer a return shipping label and charge it to your monthly invoice.

@newyork2e 

Note that "we may" is the important part of this sentence. If eBay was asked to step in, they may  issue a refund, too.

I would think that after this much time has passed, you'd know if you'd been charged for a return label. Bummer...

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FWIW I don't get charged for the return label until the label shows delivered back to me.

OP - you really need to reach out to CS and get the full detail on what occurred - they should be able to see what steps happened - i.e. did they issue a refund to the buyer without requiring a return since you did not issue the label before May 20? Or did they issue a label to the buyer and it was not returned to you, yet they issued the refund anyway?

You're likely going to be out of luck on this one. I'm guessing that eBay issued the refund to the buyer on your behalf without requiring a return since you did not issue a return label. It is important if you are selling anything here to pay attention to your email and messages - there is a relatively small window as a seller to respond to anything without eBay stepping in and taking over, hardly ever to your benefit.

[newyork2e]

Yep, sounds like I'm SOL as they say. Feels like a scam built into the fabric of eBay.

The worst part is that eBay customer service (CS) DOESN'T EXIST! If eBay wasn't the de-facto online auction marketplace, I'd run away fast. Layers and layers of FAQs and automated systems without a rep in sight. 

Well thanks for everyone's input. Pretty sure this won't help anyone though.  A win for the scammers -- good job eBay!

[newyork2e]

Bummer indeed. Thanks for your 2 cents -- to my $400 loss :'(

I guess I know now, and could have been selling a car for that matter. 

[glgenterprise]

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@newyork2e wrote:

Yep, sounds like I'm SOL as they say. Feels like a scam built into the fabric of eBay.

The worst part is that eBay customer service (CS) DOESN'T EXIST! If eBay wasn't the de-facto online auction marketplace, I'd run away fast. Layers and layers of FAQs and automated systems without a rep in sight. 

Well thanks for everyone's input. Pretty sure this won't help anyone though.  A win for the scammers -- good job eBay!

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CS does exist - but the first levels are usually new and poorly trained.  It is not intuitive to get to something that resembles a live person. Here's how I at least get to chat with a "live" person - do this off of a laptop on a web browser, not the app.

1. On the main screen, on the very top click on "help & contact".

2. On the Customer Service landing page, scroll about halfway down and select "Returns & Refunds" under Browse Help Articles

3. Scroll to the bottom of that page and you should see a white box with "Contact us"  - click on that

4. On the Contact us page select "Returns & Refunds", on the next page select "Appeal eBay's decision..."

5. On the following page select "Chat with out automated assistant".  That will open a pop-up box in the lower right corner that is a chat window. You're going to have to answer several questions via the "automated assistant"  - always say you need more help, but eventually it will present you with an option to "Contact an agent". You'll be presented with the option to chat or have a callback.

I usually choose to chat so that I will get a copy of the chat messaged to me for my records, rather than a phone call that may or may not be recorded.

It's a giant PITA that is designed to have you give up before getting a live person, but you can eventually get one.

@kh-vince- is there anyway you can direct OP to be able to get the answers about why this was refunded without a return? It is not easy to get answers for questions like this, especially for newer sellers who have not had to navigate getting a real person in this COVID era with much fewer options for a live CS rep.