Getting a buyer to Return an item after they are issued a refund.

[matchew]

Hi,

I currently had a dispute open against me for a $260 item. I was notified a dispute was saying "item not as described" saying it was damaged. In my listing, there is a clear picture of the "damage" they tried to dispute, which I'm sure they ignored at the listing.  I tried to contact the seller to get the dimensions of the shipping box to create a new label since I go to a Canada Post and ship it from a store directly and have lost the receipt.  They did not respond with any dimensions, so I later on after created a "over-estimated" size and weight of the package since the dispute got closed in their favour.

It's been over a month without a response from the buyer. I've been in contact with eBay four separate times saying keep contacting him to return it. I was told during the case that there is a buyer protection in case the item is not returned or is damaged or opened, but it feels like this isn't the case. I've been waiting for a month for my item to be returned and left with pretty much no options.  Is there not a way someone on eBay can create a dispute back to the buyer to return the item and if they don't respond, I get my money back? Am I literally only left with opening a police report that would probably go no where?

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

NEVER (ever ever) refund without a return in your hand.

[kitschy*loot]

The case was closed in their favor and there is nothing that can be done to force them into returning the item once a refund was processed.

If you were the one who refunded before the return, that falls on you and your police report would be useless. If eBay refunded without requiring the buyer to return, your police report would also be useless because the buyer was allowed to keep the item according to policy. 

[myangelandmyprincess]

You can file an appeal with eBay and say you were trying to provide return shipping and the buyer wasn’t cooperating.  They might give you a courtesy refund 

[bigdeals.etc]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong... but if a buyer opens a SNAD return (international), eBay will wait for the seller to either provide a shipping label or PayPal the buyer the equivalent funds. If nothing is done by either party, the return will eventually time out after around 30 days... so the sale stands and no return is processed.

According to the OP, isn't this basically what happened? So why did ebay close out in the buyer's favor? The only way I know how something like this will close out in the buyer's favor is if the buyer contacted eBay (or clicked the "ask us to step in" button) to close it out.

I suspect the buyer wasn't responding to the buyer and just clicked to escalate. The eBay bots took over (because they don't care about the seller asking the buyer about the dimensions, they just care if the seller did/didn't send the shipping label) and closed it out in the buyer's favor.

As someone previously said, call eBay to appeal and tell them this info. They should be able to require the buyer send the item back, even if it is on your dime. Good luck.

[webwanna]

No- there is no way for a seller to open a dispute with a buyer.  You can report a buyer to Ebay for a variety of misdeeds.... maybe report for misusing the MBG program.  I'm convinced there's an unmanned folder that those reports go to that gets auto-deleted each night.

You took a risk by not accepting the return, not providing a return shipping label or permitting Ebay to provide a return shipping label.  You lost the item and the money by taking that risk.  If you think you can prove the buyer is misusing the MBG program then you can call Ebay and ask them to look into it. Maybe they will give you a courtesy refund or read the User Agreement to find what other remedies are available to you if you dispute Ebay's decision.  There are some buyers that purposely buy from sellers that don't offer returns.  Then they open MBG claims and hope the person is too stubborn to accept a return.  Maybe this buyer is misbehaving and the history is known to Ebay. 

"No Returns" on Ebay means the buyer gets to keep the item and get a refund if they open a MBG case.  If your selling a $3 widget maybe "No Returns" is a good policy... if your selling a $260 item, you probably want to accept the return.  But that's just my $0.02.

[tools*]

If PayPal stole the $260 from you, you'll have to take PayPal to court in the US. If they stole the money by withdrawing it from your bank account, you should dispute it with your bank.

[matchew]

So, all-in-all, I'm out $260 + $20 shipping + $26 dollar return label. eBay said they will contact him with the shipping label again, but I doubt they will respond. I don't believe I was notified when the case would be closed. It was opened on the 20th of Feb and closed on Mar 1st.

The thing is, even if I responded with the label under the "case date" and the item was returned damaged, opened, etc and the case would already be closed, how do I even appeal that? I asked eBay that and they said they WOULD appeal that, but not appeal a non-returned item? I'm probably missing something, but this is the second time I got the MBG misused. Another time was a $300 item and the buyer said the outer packaging was "damaged" and didn't provide me with any photos of such. They claimed $150 back was appropriate. I would've rather a return but the case closed super quick without me even being able to appeal it.

[pjcdn2005]

If you don't accept a return and provide a label before the buyer can ask ebay to step in, you are going to lose out the majority of the time.  It's best just to accept the return and then refund once it has been returned.  You can do a Canada Post and USPS return labels through Shippo and if they aren't used, you are eventually credited for them.  

In some cases when a buyer asks for a partial refund and you instead tell them to return for a refund, they just drop the complaint because they were just fishing for a partial refund.

Buyers aren't required to send pictures. Its nice if they do but ebay won't penalize them if they don't.

[myangelandmyprincess]

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@webwanna wrote:

No- there is no way for a seller to open a dispute with a buyer.  You can report a buyer to Ebay for a variety of misdeeds.... maybe report for misusing the MBG program.  I'm convinced there's an unmanned folder that those reports go to that gets auto-deleted each night.

You took a risk by not accepting the return, not providing a return shipping label or permitting Ebay to provide a return shipping label.  You lost the item and the money by taking that risk.  If you think you can prove the buyer is misusing the MBG program then you can call Ebay and ask them to look into it. Maybe they will give you a courtesy refund or read the User Agreement to find what other remedies are available to you if you dispute Ebay's decision.  There are some buyers that purposely buy from sellers that don't offer returns.  Then they open MBG claims and hope the person is too stubborn to accept a return.  Maybe this buyer is misbehaving and the history is known to Ebay. 

"No Returns" on Ebay means the buyer gets to keep the item and get a refund if they open a MBG case.  If your selling a $3 widget maybe "No Returns" is a good policy... if your selling a $260 item, you probably want to accept the return.  But that's just my $0.02.

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This was an international return the seller can't just provide a label through eBay they were doing the proper thing by trying to find out how much return. Shipping would cost so they could provide the money to pay for it