eBay

marketbsb · ‎11-07-2023

Hi Everyone,

A few weeks ago I sold a fairly expensive and rare item to a buyer and the tracking ever updated or was accepted at USPS. At the time I thought it was lost so I issued the buyer a full refund and they were not happy. However, it turned out that this was accidentally shipped to another buyer. Thank goodness that this was an honest buyer so they shipped the item back to me.

In the eyes of eBay, what’s the appropriate protocol in this situation? Typically I would reach out to the original and see if they’re still interested in this item, but I really don’t want to sell to this buyer at this point. When I explained the situation to them they didn’t believe me, accused me of selling this elsewhere, and threatened to report me to eBay. This was an honest mistake on my behalf and I was very apologetic and issued a refund immediately, but that wasn’t enough for the buyer.

This is not a buyer I want to sell to and now that they’ve been refunded am I still expected to ship the item to them? What I want to do is to block them so I don’t have to deal with the harassment and relist the item for someone else to buy. I just don’t want to do anything that could get a strike against my account.

sapphire_studio · ‎11-07-2023

You're not going to get a strike on your account. Just block them and relist it.

monica-sells · ‎11-07-2023

This is anything but a win-win scenario...

This is only my opinion....

You know if you relist it, you make it appear as though the original buyer was right all along...

they may report you...(and they may not)

The fact that it was returned was incredulous enough....so, much to your surprise, you have the item and can now fulfill it

I would park my 'hurt feelings' and offer it to the original buyer with this incredulous explanation.....

If they refuse, then you can relist it without conscience or retribution....

dbfolks166mt · ‎11-07-2023

I tend to agree with monica-sells on this one. Reach out to the buyer and fully explain what happened. If they are still interested in the item setup a special listing for them with a BIN/IPR required and coordinate as best you can on the time of the posting so they are available to purchase it quickly before somebody else does. It may not hurt to offer the buyer a discount refund if they do purchase again.

44012 · ‎11-07-2023

I think @monica-sells has the right answer too......

I honestly would b/c that is the integrity of an excellent seller. If they don't want it you can then relist it and have no guilt or fear of doing so. Plus, sometimes dealing with a less than happy seller does give you more experience for the next time around if that happens.

sextons-sweet-deals · ‎11-07-2023

The only two things I can respond to is your comment of: A few weeks ago I sold a fairly expensive and rare item to a buyer and the tracking ever updated or was accepted at USPS. However, it turned out that this was accidentally shipped to another buyer. Thank goodness that this was an honest buyer so they shipped the item back to me.

You shipped an expensive item, and it sounds like you dropped the package on the counter and walked away or in the USPS package drop box inside USPS rather than waiting to get a printed receipt of acceptance along with not entertaining 'signature require' at delivery. Did you ever enter the tracking number on eBay and keep watch of it?

The other is that it seems you shipped the item to someone else. How and why? If you shipped the wrong item to the person who returned it, where is their order at?

sapphire_studio · ‎11-07-2023

It's obvious to me this poster would have resold to this buyer if they would have had reasonable response to their honest mistake. The buyer could have stated their disappointment but they got aggressive and threatening in regards to reporting to eBay and made false accusations that were simply untrue about them reselling elsewhere. Why would they want to willingly deal with this buyer again who is obviously fairly aggressive and jumps to conclusions and could easily cause them more problems? I don't think there is anything morally wrong with making the decision to block them and sell Elsewhere based on the buyer's Behavior.

4pawsup* · ‎11-07-2023

I to think Monica has the right idea.

buzzapparel · ‎11-07-2023

“It was accidentally shipped to another buyer”? So you mean you mixed up the labels then yourself.

albertabrightalberta · ‎11-07-2023

@sextons-sweet-deals wrote:

You shipped an expensive item, and it sounds like you dropped the package on the counter and walked away or in the USPS package drop box inside USPS rather than waiting to get a printed receipt of acceptance along with not entertaining 'signature require' at delivery. Did you ever enter the tracking number on eBay and keep watch of it?

Many post office clerks refuse to do acceptance scans on prepaid shipping labels, their thinking being that you got a discounted shipping rate because you don't need to interact with a clerk.

None of @marketbsb items were expensive enough that s.c. would have been required so it's unfair to blame the victim (and I do believe both the seller and buyer are victims).

@sextons-sweet-deals wrote:

The other is that it seems you shipped the item to someone else. How and why? If you shipped the wrong item to the person who returned it, where is their order at?

I wondered this too. We assume the person who received this wrong item also bought from you. Did you send their item to someone else or did you accidentally print two of the same label?

Count me as another who votes for @monica-sells 's advice.

albertabrightalberta
Volunteer Community Mentor

I can explain it to you but I can’t understand it for you.

marketbsb · ‎11-08-2023

Thank you everyone for your input! I’m newer to this so the same label accidentally got printed twice and the one buyer got what they ordered plus this item (I’ve implemented a new shipping process to minimize this mistake in the future).

marketbsb · ‎11-08-2023

I live in a big city so my local post office is always busy. I drop it in a drop box to avoid waiting upwards of 30 minutes to get everything scanned.

The tracking was updated to eBay since that’s where the label was purchased. I did require a signature on this but I didn’t print the right label, so it didn’t make a difference.

The buyer that this got delivered too received this item plus what they ordered (Not sure how USPS didn’t get an error on the second label).

marketbsb · ‎11-08-2023

Yeah, you’re right. I would have resold to them without hesitation if I wasn’t getting accused of lying. After two weeks, I didn’t think I’d be getting this item back so I explained the situation to them and issued a refund. They told me that they didn’t want a refund and that they wanted the item. They then went on to accuse me of selling it elsewhere and demanding proof that I purchased shipping to their address on the date that I said I did. I provided all the proof I had and they still weren’t satisfied.

Up until this point I was very honest and did everything I could to rectify this situation. If I sell to them now, I’d have to sell it to them at a heavy discount and will likely still receive a bad review since they’re convinced I sold this through a different avenue at a higher price.

marketbsb · ‎11-08-2023

No, the same label was accidentally got printed twice. This buyer didn’t receive anything and another buyer received their order plus this one.

marketbsb · ‎11-08-2023

Yeah, this was 100% on me. I’m newer to selling and this identified an error in my process that has since been fixed.

The same label got printed twice and placed on two different orders. This buyer received nothing and another buyer received their order plus this one.