mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
@femmefan1946 wrote:Definitely tell the complainant that she should open a Dispute which will allow her to receive the Return Shipping Label.
It just strike me as unlikely that manufacturer's samples sealed at the factory would be "fake" and "almost empty".
By demanding, ever so politely and sweetly, that she open the Dispute, which puts her on eBay's radar, she is likely to go away. If not - you are willing to refund on return in any case and the label really will be easier to send.
Until she opens the Dispute, your only responses should be "I regret you are unhappy with your purchase. Please return for full refund."
Rinse. Repeat.
Don't Panic.
Until she opens the Dispute, it's up to her to return the purchase.
When she does return the items , you can refund and cancel "at buyer's request" if she does not open the Dispute.
If she opens the Dispute, and uses the Return Shipping Label, a prompt refund means your selling account remains clean of Defects.
Feedback is voluntary and does NOT affect your seller status with eBay.
You can Respond to any feedback she leaves. The most effective FB is calm and professional .
Let her show herself as a drooling anger monkey.
NO!
There are several ways to get a shipping label to a buyer if they need to return sometime. Some have given ideas already here and there are more if anyone is interested. I always use paypal.com/shipnow.
As you are aware, when a SNAD is opened, no matter the outcome, that SNAD counts against the seller in the Service Metrics. So to advise another member to have a buyer open a claim BEFORE they can take care of them not only is advising a seller to HURT their own account but to cause the buyer even effort in a situation that needs to be made as easy as possible on the buyer.
I do NOT offer my buyers better customer service because they open a claim. Whether there is a claim in place or not, by buyers receive the same level of care. Which for me has always been a high bar.
If you are willing to take a return on something, it is just not necessary to have a claim in place to take care of your buyer.
Now if you feel that something is off, then you may very well want them to open a claim so that it is all on the record. But if you are comfortable with what the buyer has said and what the buyer wants, a claim should not be necessary to provide them with good customer service.
@southern*sweet*tea wrote:What does the buyer's feedback LEFT look like? Any signs of trouble? Lots of negs?
I wondering why the buyer just didn't open a SNAD, since Ebay puts the return button squarely in the buyer's face. They may have lost their MBG protection because of too many cases.
Just a thought...
I can't speak to this buyer, but in my experience, when this has happened to me, my buyers have just preferred to work directly with me. They didn't see the need for Ebay to be involved. In all of these situations I've had over the years, I've only had a couple that my gut told me there was something not quite right.
I find that most buyers are honest people. So most times I just take care of whatever their request is and we move on. It has never presented an issue for me. As I said before, opening a claim will not change my level of customer service one little bit. With or without a claim, I respond to my customers the same.
Now on the few I've had over the years that gave me reason for pause. Even before this pesky Service Metrics policy, I requested the buyer open a SNAD and then I would process from there. On these, I don't remember not even one buyer ever actually opening the claim. So my gut was right, they were just trying to take advantage of me. But I never do this lightly. The buyer has to give me a good reason to feel this way.
Certainly it could be that a buyer has too many cases. But when you view the FB that a buyer leaves for others, you should be able to get a sense of what this buyer is like.
Experience is really a good think when trying to decide what is the best approach. It is hard to explain until you have been selling awhile and had various situations to work through. I don't think there is a right or wrong answer here. The variables can be quite big. But my gut is usually a good indicator for me.
Just curious as to how long a USPS label is good for after purchase? Is there a time limit on how long the label is valid after purchase?
I have done this with UPS labels and I think they have a significant timeframe in which they remain valid to be used.
What about a USPS label. How long are they valid?
I believe it is a week, but I'm not positive. In cases where you have created a label in the Claims system on Ebay, your account is NOT charged until the label is actually used.
If you create a label to ship something and you find the need to cancel it so you can be refunded for what you paid for the label, it takes about 30 days for the refund to happen as they take their time to make sure the label does not actually get used.
