How are all of you handling breakage requests when you know that there is no way the item is broken?

[shopsatrh]

I think this is a case of buyer fraud. I have been selling on eBay for close to 20 years and Ebay  NEVER  sides with the seller. So who is actually paying eBay. Not the buyers for sure. My most recent case is a silver glass apothecary jar that has two pieces. Top and bottom. I shipped the item in a styrofoam cooler with walls that are 3 inches thick. The apothecary jar was wrapped in bubble wrap and also padded inside the cooler with egg crates. She said the bottom was broken. I told her that we would require a return of the merchandise, and that we had instituted a new way of marking our original merchandise, because people had pulled some fast ones on us in the past. I have used that response on buyers in the past with very suspicious return breakage requests. I never heard from them some of them again, which pretty much means that they were trying to return a broken identical item and switch it out. Well this buyer got snotty with me and said that I was inferring that she was not truthful. I told her that that was not my intention at all, and agreed to refund her money. She then got nice with me, and told me that she had been looking for a while for this item, and that she had broken hers last year. Now I really am suspicious. It is insured with UPS, but I have to take time out of my busy days to file a claim with them that I pretty much suspect is bogus.  Plus, this is defrauding UPS. What are we going to do about this? With eBay fees getting out of control (I sold a few items for $199 and they took close to $33 for fees), I am seriously thinking of taking all of my listings down and calling it quits.

[mtgraves7984]

"I told her that we would require a return of the merchandise..."

@shopsatrh 

When the jar is returned to you, you'll need to refund. I'd advise spending the time to file the insurance claim. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

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@shopsatrh wrote:

So who is actually paying eBay. Not the buyers for sure. 

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If there are no buyers there are no FVFs...

[shopsatrh]

I guess that I didn't include all pertinent information. After getting snotty with me, I told her it was not my intention to upset her, but that we had had trouble in the past and we were forced to do this.  She calmed down and I told her to hold on to the merchandise-that ups might want to come out to inspect it. It will cost me $15 to have the item sent back to me, and then what am I going to do with a broken piece? (half of which is not even mine, probably). I just need to get over this-I have always told my husband-with eBay, you take the good with the bad. And the bad is really bad at times.

[toysaver]

Were you so confident with your packing you would have been unflinched if you accidentally dropped it down a flight of cement stairs at the Post Office? 

[corvettestainless]

In 23 years seems you have learned nothing. There are numerous places people can now shop online, so all 'sellers' here have to treat each customer the same as AZ or Walmart or any of the 'other' places would. 

Even SUGGESTING a 'scamming buyer trick' to a buyer is exactly what you got from this buyer, appalled they were 'accused' of such. You need to leave that part out of your future conversations with customers. 

If it's broke, have them send it back for refund, or refund them (depending on cost). 

Note that items with 3" of Styrofoam can STILL be broken when tossed like a football from the 'cart' to the conveyor belt loading a truck, a plane etc. and does NOT guarantee that your item doesn't show up broken. 

Lastly- mail 'insurances seldom pay for 'damage' unless the box is damaged.  It's the chance sellers take when sending/shipping breakables. 

[jayjaspersgarage]

Bottom line is that some people are dishonest and they are ruining the online selling experience for many of us seller.  That's why I stopped selling almost everything that might break long ago.

[luckythewinner]

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@shopsatrh wrote:

I told her that that was not my intention at all

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So in other words, you lied to her 🙂

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@shopsatrh wrote:

and agreed to refund her money.

{snip}

What are we going to do about this? 

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What you did was back down refund, so you answered your own question. 

[forward-motion]

I don’t have much conversation with the buyer. Just I’m sorry this happened and ask them to submit at return request. Ebay does the rest. If they don’t return it the case is closed and my money is released. If they do return it, I refund the money and move on. 

[monster-deals]

Case by case.

If a buyer doesn't want to show me pictures, return for refund. Deduct up to half if you are TRS.

Shows a picture, I don't need it back.

[m60driver]

If an item is reported to be broken then I just refund the money and move on.  You will not win any arguments between yourself , the buyer, and Ebay.  And getting an insurance claim from a shipper is rather iffy, not to mention time consuming.  Resistance is futile.  The only possible end result is that you pay for shipping to return a broken item that you will just have to toss in the garbage.  It all harkens back to that ancient adage of retail: take your first loss.

[a_c_green]

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@corvettestainless wrote:

Note that items with 3" of Styrofoam can STILL be broken when tossed like a football from the 'cart' to the conveyor belt loading a truck, a plane etc. and does NOT guarantee that your item doesn't show up broken. 

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Yes indeed. Solid styrofoam can transmit outside shocks to the item inside just fine, in case the item wants to break. Packaging of items within solid foam is generally for palleted shipping, where multiple units are stacked like bricks into a cube, so the units on the bottom must bear the weight of all the others above. The solid foam prevents the box from collapsing and crushing its contents.

What rigid styrofoam is not good for is individual shipping, where the single box can get tossed around and dropped. The rigid styrofoam does no cushioning of the items inside. Use styrofoam packing peanuts or bubblewrap instead, either of which can provide cushioning on impact to minimize chances of breakage.

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@a_c_green 

Agree totally, your glass item had a slender base and even with bubble wrap the hard Styrofoam cooler could have sliced the base like a knife. I would think you need a picture from your buyer first to determine your next step with UPS, but a refund is in order.

[inhawaii]

Thee is now way for you to "know" that your item did not  arrived broken. Can you expalin that?

[yuzuha]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@corvettestainless wrote:

Note that items with 3" of Styrofoam can STILL be broken when tossed like a football from the 'cart' to the conveyor belt loading a truck, a plane etc. and does NOT guarantee that your item doesn't show up broken. 

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Yes indeed. Solid styrofoam can transmit outside shocks to the item inside just fine, in case the item wants to break. Packaging of items within solid foam is generally for palleted shipping, where multiple units are stacked like bricks into a cube, so the units on the bottom must bear the weight of all the others above. The solid foam prevents the box from collapsing and crushing its contents.

What rigid styrofoam is not good for is individual shipping, where the single box can get tossed around and dropped. The rigid styrofoam does no cushioning of the items inside. Use styrofoam packing peanuts or bubblewrap instead, either of which can provide cushioning on impact to minimize chances of breakage.

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Exactly. B&M worker here and I can tell you from personal experience that styrofoam will NOT prevent a glass item from breaking if it is dropped hard enough. It works fine for shipping items on pallets because those are not tossed around the way a box is in the mail, but many is the time we have accidentally knocked one of those boxes with glass items inside off a pallet and had the contents break despite the styrofoam.