Do not let buyers bully you on returns

[natoman777]

My wife and I and our adult children all sell on eBay.  My kids call me when they have questions about eBay situations.  My daughter just called me yesterday about a buyer who bought a purse from her and opened a return.  Her reason was "doesn't fit" based on not liking how the purse hangs when you use it.  6 days go by and no return, then she gets a message from eBay saying you must communicate with buyer to resolve this return.

So my daughter contacted them and the buyer says "send me a return label".  The return settings for her is that buyer pays return shipping for reasons like "doesn't fit".  She told her she would have to purchase a label herself.  The buyer then says "refund me for the purse plus the cost of the return label I have to purchase and I will send it back."

If my daughter had not contacted me she would have done this thinking she had to please the buyer, not knowing the buyer was requesting her to do something that goes against eBay policies.  You should never refund the buyer before your receive the item back, and you are not obligated to pay for their return shipping if your settings are not to do that.

It is important to make sure you don't let buyers bully you into doing things that aren't smart, and are not necessary,  It happens to me 30% of the time I have to deal with a return

[natoman777]

I haven't seen the message, but I think it might have been the first one, which is weird that they even send it out anymore.  It says you have to accept the return, even though it is automatically accepted.  So, yes all she has to do is wait and see if they follow thru, which is what I told her.  No reason to message them again because they have to pay for the return label that eBay provided, or buy their own.  My main message to my daughter was do NOT refund until you get it back, and don't worry about the return label they have to pay for as it isn't your responsibility

[lakefor94 · Accepted solution]

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@natoman777 wrote:

My wife and I and our adult children all sell on eBay.  My kids call me when they have questions about eBay situations.  My daughter just called me yesterday about a buyer who bought a purse from her and opened a return.  Her reason was "doesn't fit" based on not liking how the purse hangs when you use it.  6 days go by and no return, then she gets a message from eBay saying you must communicate with buyer to resolve this return.

So my daughter contacted them and the buyer says "send me a return label".  The return settings for her is that buyer pays return shipping for reasons like "doesn't fit".  She told her she would have to purchase a label herself.  The buyer then says "refund me for the purse plus the cost of the return label I have to purchase and I will send it back."

If my daughter had not contacted me she would have done this thinking she had to please the buyer, not knowing the buyer was requesting her to do something that goes against eBay policies.  You should never refund the buyer before your receive the item back, and you are not obligated to pay for their return shipping if your settings are not to do that.

It is important to make sure you don't let buyers bully you into doing things that aren't smart, and are not necessary,  It happens to me 30% of the time I have to deal with a return

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Sounds to me like the ball is in the buyer's court. Your daughter does not have to do anything until the item shows delivered in the return case tracking the buyer must enter into the case after they purchase their own label.

[bbravo65]

...so this is a remorse return and buyer has to send the item back by her own cost...if she keeps insisting to wait for a free return shipping label she will strike out her privilege of getting the refund...

...hopefully, she won't be smart enough to go around and file another return request as "item as not described", or in worst case scenario - a transaction dispute...

...wishing your daughter a lot of luck...this situation will strengthen her selling experience...

[vintagecraze50]

Not all sellers use automated free returns and I understand that. We avoid any hassles with returners by automatically approving returns and allowing them to print a free return shipping label. This can be a best practice on here as long as you price your items to include the COST OF THE RETURN SHIPPING LABEL. Then you do not have to engage in the banter with the customer and FIGHT over who pays for return shipping. In actuality the BUYER IS then paying for their own return shipping label because you charged them for that by upping your price on the item to cover these returns.

[vintagecraze50]

One other very good thing about offering the free returns is that if your family get a scammer on here and they sent you back a piece of junk instead of your item or nothing at all, you can deduct up to 50 percent off the refund.

[vintagecraze50]

Adding, Free shipping and Free returns by ANY merchant is not FREE. YOU charge for that ahead of the sale.

[vintagecraze50]

Adding, I pay Amazon monthly for “free shipping”. LOL.

[vintagecraze50]

SO, if you do your math, you should be coming out ahead with all your items having the built in pay for shipping and return shipping so that on the few that come in where you have to pay, the others that do not come back help you recoup the loss from the one’s that do come back.

[vintagecraze50]

The buyer is in violation of rules here if they are trying to force an immediate refund prior to return and demanding a free shipping label when that was not in the conditions of the sale.

[vintagecraze50]

Yes, if some buyers do not get their way they will force the issue, and then leave nasty feedback that is difficult to remover.

[byrd69er]

Purses are one size fits all. Your buyer is full of sheet. Tell it to open a return and follow all the directions on the packaging to avoid injury.

[stainlessenginecovers]

All returns (that are excepted and do NOT have to be FREE) are automated now. Only those that have 'no returns' will have a choice if the return is not a NAD.

[mandisattictoyz]

Then they don’t know what they are doing, period.  Like I said, if I could write a book on it, I’d sell millions.