Item Not Received case with incomplete address

[bigte92]

Hi everybody, just a question. A buyer with no feedback bought an item of mine (I wish you could block 0 feedback buyers but that's another story). The item was returned to me for an incomplete address and the buyer asked me to send it again after he told me his apartment number. I said I would but I'd need more money to ship it again. He never responded and opened an item not received case.

I have no issue giving a refund but there's no option to give a partial refund by subtracting shipping since I offered free shipping (don't know if that has any effect).

Anyway, with this being my first case of this type, my question is would there be any benefit to waiting for eBay to step in or is it in my best interest to just send the refund? Asking because I'm unsure how either resolution would affect my account.

[ebooksdiva]

You could wait for eBay to step in, but you may not like the outcome. You have the item. It's best to just refund and block the buyer and be done.

[ckimodog]

@bigte92 

It's never a good idea to let Ebay to step in on a return or INR case.  Just refund them the money, block them and continue to sell.  

Good luck and Happy Selling. 

[johnson_junk_company]

How can they have opened an item not as described case if they never received the item?! Contact eBay and provide them the tracking to show what happened. Don't refund or contact the buyer anymore until you hear from eBay on this. 

[johnson_junk_company]

Bad advice! If you don't stand up, you're encouraging bad behavior from eBay. 

[dnasilver]

Seller sent item to eBay provided address. This sounds like an issue between buyer and eBay. Seller should refund less shipping. Why should the seller take the hit? 

[soh.maryl]

Sounds like the buyer opened an item not received case.  

[ckimodog]

@dnasilver @johnson_junk_company 

I believe that's what I meant to post, sorry for not being more clear.  Was not encouraging any bad behavior now or ever. 

[gemarakop_trading]

It does not discourage bad behavior if the buyer will get their money either way only difference is it will cost seller ebay fees and a defect l.

[ms.rodriguez*]

Refund minus the shipping.  Tell the buyer that he is lucky he got this one because he voided his buyer protection for not providing an accurate address.  Tell buyer you will be 'reporting" for having an incompete address.  Block them.   Relist this item in a few days but make sure that the buyer is blocked.

If he opened a case, call ebay and explain and tell them that you want to refund everything but the shipping fee.   At this point, even if the buyer sends your money to re-ship the item, I would not do it.  He can claim he got a rock.

[pburn]

It is my understanding that a seller who offers "free shipping" as part of the item listing cannot then turn around and withhold that actual shipping cost from a refund; however, I'm going to @ mention the Community Team to get their definitive interpretation.

@bigte92 

Please don't process any kind of refund until the Community Team has weighed in on this subject. The aren't available on weekends, so please be patient and wait for their response.

kyle@ebay 

devon@ebay 

elizabeth@ebay 

If a seller has free shipping for an item and gets a package returned because of an incorrect address, can the seller withhold the actual cost of the original shipping from the refund--even though it was free to the buyer?

Thanks!

[toomuchstuffagain35]

But the seller incurs a loss of the shipping and the buyer is made whole for a mistake on their part.

SOP around here I guess.

[sapphire_studio]

Yeah it's making you refund the entire amount because you have free shipping.

They did technically void their ability to win an INR according to eBay's policies by putting the wrong address. 

But that doesn't mean that you will necessarily win the case. @inhawaii recently made a post about this scenerio. He lost the case but then appealed it to the customer service team on facebook and got the case reverse

I have free shipping and if I got an item sent back to me as soon as I received it I would give them a partial refund minus the original shipping cost before they could open a case.

Some people would say it's unethical to keep the item and try to get the case closed without refunding them at all but in this scenario since it's forcing you to give them a full refund and the buyer was not very cooperative you might try fighting it like @inhawaii did.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Returned-package-with-bad-address-Customer-expects-me-to-re-sh...

[pjcdn2005]

@bigte92 

Once an inr is opened there is no option for the seller to hold back funds even if the buyer did pay for shipping.  But since the item was delivered to the buyer and  then returned to you the buyer is no longer entitled to use the money back guarantee.  If you enter tracking in the case, eBay will see that the item was delivered and rule in your favor.   THEN you can refund the buyer less the cost of shipping.  Technically you don’t have to refund anything since the wrong address was given to you but morally you should refund for the item itself since you received it back.

[pjcdn2005]

Once they win the case  the seller can refund less shipping as the buyers mbg was voided because of the incorrect address.   The free shipping doesn’t come into play in this situation.