mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
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@summercasual wrote:So am I out of luck on the pants that I accepted a partial refund of 5% of the value for haha?
If you sent the buyer a 5% partial refund, then you used that feature the way most sellers do -- offer a small refund to make the issue go away. It lowers your profits, true, but a LOT less than if you had accepted the return request and the buyer sent them back...because that would require you fully refund the customer.
If you sent the buyer a partial refund and only kept 5% for yourself BEFORE the pants were received back, or thru the Return Request partial refund option, then you just sold those pants for 5% of the original selling price. An expensive lesson, to be sure, but those are the ones least likely to be repeated. 🙂
-Bob.
When you refund a buyer for any reason whether if full or a partial, you do get your FVFs refunded to you. Not the 30 cent per transaction fee, but you will get your FVFs back for the amount you refunded.
If you do a partial refund, then no the buyer is not required to return the item to you. That would be a real issue for the buyer because they would then only be getting part of their money refunded instead of all of it, so they would be the ones losing on this kind of situation.
Wow that is low, a 5% refund for pants that they can't even wear. That would make so sense at all for a buyer to accept that.
@summercasual wrote:So am I out of luck on the pants that I accepted a partial refund of 5% of the value for haha?
If you sent the buyer a 5% partial refund, then you used that feature the way most sellers do -- offer a small refund to make the issue go away. It lowers your profits, true, but a LOT less than if you had accepted the return request and the buyer sent them back...because that would require you fully refund the customer.
If you sent the buyer a partial refund and only kept 5% for yourself BEFORE the pants were received back, or thru the Return Request partial refund option, then you just sold those pants for 5% of the original selling price. An expensive lesson, to be sure, but those are the ones least likely to be repeated. 🙂
-Bob.
I am really confused here @rosachs , why do you and the OP think a buyer should return the pants for a 5% partial refund? I don't understand.
The have the right to return the pants for a 100% refund to include shipping. Why would a buyer say they would day a 5% refund AND return the pants too?
@summercasual wrote:Yeah, I messed up big time! Really unfortunate.
We've all been there - it's part of the learning experience. 🙂 If you're still willing to sell, then you'll be OK.
It took me several mistakes to pay much closer attention to which option was selected (eBay defaults to full refund, no return) before hitting the continue button -- ended up having to pay for returns, and then refund in full, for items where I didn't really want to do that... I had the option to decline the return (buyer changed their mind requests) and would usually give the customer the option to return, at their expense, and then refund them less my shipping costs (which had been paid to USPS). I get about a 50/50 acceptance/declined rate -- some customers would rather just gift the item to someone they know, others are fine with paying the return shipping and ultimately getting 95% or more of their payment back.
The fact that you are not screaming about eBay being unfair or how you're going to leave and never sell here again tells me that you are a basically smart person who's just learning the ropes of a new activity. I personally find that to be the best of times... learning something new is always good. Like when I learned how to learn from the experiences of others. 🙂 I'm so smart that it took me a couple years to figure that one out - quite embarrassing actually, but I think it just proves I'm as human as anyone else. My doctor is not quite as sure... but that's a story for another day. 🙂
-Bob.
@summercasual wrote:My intentions were to use the partial refund option as way to save money on sellers fee's because of the return the customer was asking for.
I had no idea, that if you offer a partial refund, you do not get your item back and the return is automatically canceled.
I understood your intent. I just don't understand how you could actually expect that. Why in the world would a buyer accept a 5% refund AND return the item to you???? That makes no sense at all. That means you would end up with 95% of their money and the product too. How is that fair to the buyer??? I doubt you could get ANY buyer to agree to that when they could simply refuse the partial refund, return the item to you and get 100% of their money back.
@summercasual wrote:Yeah, I messed up big time! Really unfortunate.
If your buyer actually accepted the 5% partial refund, you did not mess up. You likely saved yourself money because if the buyer refused it and still wanted to return it, you would have had to pay for the return shipping of the item and once you had it you would have had to refund the buyer in full including whatever they paid for the original shipping.
While it is strange that you thought the buyer would accept the partial refund and still return the item, you ended up making out OK and likely saving money.
@summercasual wrote:No no, I only got 5% of the value of the item back. The buyer got a 95% refund.
With the way you worded it, it sounds more like you gave the buyer a 5% partial refund. "So am I out of luck on the pants that I accepted a partial refund of 5% of the value for haha?"
OK so it was you gave them a 95% refund and you issued that before the buyer returned the item to you. Do I have that correct? Whenever a seller issues a refund on an open claim, in part or in full, if the buyer accepts it, the case closes. This is how it has always worked. Did you happen to read the policy page on how to process a claim?
When a seller refunds a buyer before they return an item, there is simply no incentive for a buyer to go through the effort of returning the item.
