@zamo-zuan wrote:
We were just contacted about this yesterday, and asked to open up a return so we could send a shipping label (our item is a free returns listing).
This morning he opened the return request, and TWICE since then has sent more messages saying "Label?" "Label?".
And now has left a negative feedback saying "Still no return label. Wrong part".
We are well inside our allowed time to send the label, and we send labels daily, so he would be getting it today. Seems like an obvious attempt to get us to send the label faster by leaving a negative.
I do want to say this...
While you may find your returns policy to be fine and dandy many a buyer do not, and I will explain why...
Had you ACCEPTED the return to begin with EBAY would have ISSUED a label to the buyer instantly, the buyer would then have been able to print the label and you may think nothing further of this however... By your using some alternative returns process you are in fact "allowing" the buyer to step outside of ebay's protection scheme... And once that buyer uses the label YOU send and they send off the product they are at your mercy in terms of the refund, you've already mentioned how it's "not your fault" (and I'm not disagreeing) but from a buyer's perspective it's very easy to get cold feet.
All you have to do is "play a game" after you receive the buyer's return and give some canned explanation as to why your returns policy won't allow you to issue a refund and now the buyer is out of the money and you have the item too.
Because the issue is...
Without the return's acceptance, ebay does not issue the label (you do) and when that happens tracking is not online viewable and that means the refund can't be forced through the MBG because the API will fail due to the fact that there is no online viewable tracking showing the return has been "delivered."
Buyers entering your tracking number manually into the case will most likely find themselves facing similar odds.
The MBG's API decision-making protocol hinges on that little detail.
If there is no online viewable tracking that shows the item has been delivered, ebay's software can NOT force a refund (and if the software can't, neither can CS) and how dandy for you!
This has been an ongoing problem with big box stores and B&M's on ebay.
So by doing that you are essentially holding the refund out like a carrot in front of the buyer...
Buyers know this game all too well, at the last instant they will see that carrot disappear!
Of course you're the honest seller who would never do that but I've had many a run-in with sellers who operate big box stores and suddenly they can't seem to locate the return and all sorts of things that require a confusing array of phonecalls to resolve, all over a sub $20 item that should've been handled through the standard process and not the alternative method.
Just so you know why buyers don't care for seller-issued labels...
On ebay when a return is accepted / approved ebay issues the label.
That provides the integrated online viewable tracking ebay's MBG API requires for the refund to be forced should a buyer find themselves at the hands of an uncooperative seller, a buyer can only expect to win an escalation of a case when all the pegs are in their respective holes.
And when that negative the buyer left then disappears?
That's the last straw for many a buyer.
), and yet clueless buyers are still lining up to buy. At some point, you just have to concede that you can't protect people from themselves. 
