eBay

tylerrc342 · ‎04-19-2021

So check this out...

I sell a poster for $60. The buyer claims it was not as described. Ebay requests proof from me that item was as described. I upload a picture I took of the poster before shipping. The buyer doesn't upload any evidence at all, they just stated that the poster was bent when received.

Ebay rules in buyers favor. Ebay then deducts $60 plus a $20 dispute fee from my account. On the dispute page, it states that item will be returned if possible.

So a couple weeks go by and I don't receive my poster back. I reach out to the buyer and ask them to please ship it back. No response. I try again a few days later and make sure they have the return address. No response. I reach out to eBay support and this is their response...

Ebay basically says that it's up to the buyer if they want to send it back or not. If the poster was bent, I need it to claim USPS insurance for a damaged item.

This seems like a terrible system, what am I missing? Do I have any recourse?

dbfolks166mt · ‎07-18-2021

Not taking returns does not mean no refunds. Even if this buyer did not accept returns eBay would have ruled in the buyers favor and refunded their money. Not taking returns only means you are not likely to get the item back which in some cases may be the intent if the return postage would be more than the item was/is worth.

dbfolks166mt · ‎07-18-2021

Did the buyer open a case with eBay or did you just refund on your own? If they had opened a case you should have had an option to accept the return and waited to refund the buyer once you had the item back. Of course you would have had to pay the cost of the return label.

If you refunded without a case being opened there is little you can do other than to ask the buyer since they are keeping the reel if they would pay you for it.

computeraidllc · ‎07-18-2021

This appears to be a credit card chargeback which means eBay is totally out of the loop. There is no seller protection if someone goes to the bank or credit card company and does a chargeback. The extra fee isn't going to eBay but to the credit card company because every time a chargeback happens, a fee from the customers bank or credit card company is charged whether the chargeback is settled in the buyers favor or not.

computeraidllc · ‎07-18-2021

This has nothing to do with eBay. The customer filed a chargeback with the bank or credit card company. This is outside of eBay's system and control. There are no protections when this happens. Every time this happens, the seller is charged what ever the fee is from the customers bank or credit card company. eBay collects it and remits it to the bank that charged it. This happens whether the customer is refunded or not from there bank. It is there to cover the banks cost of handling the dispute and replacing the customers card.

This is happening more and more because of the way eBay handles returns or disputes. I have had to do this a few times because of sellers shipping something with a tracking number but it gets delivered to a totally different state and I couldn't not open a dispute other than a return, which requires me to ship something back that I don't have. eBay needs to clean up the returns and disputes process so buyers don't have to go to the bank or credit card and file a chargeback.

computeraidllc · ‎07-18-2021

@dbfolks166mt wrote:
Did the buyer open a case with eBay or did you just refund on your own? If they had opened a case you should have had an option to accept the return and waited to refund the buyer once you had the item back. Of course you would have had to pay the cost of the return label.
If you refunded without a case being opened there is little you can do other than to ask the buyer since they are keeping the reel if they would pay you for it.

This appears to be a case where the buyer opened a dispute with the bank or credit card company. So the buyer never used the eBay system to start it. They skipped the entire process and the Money Back Guarantee program.