Problem buyer; Postage due on return

[jorfreatbay]

Hello, I am posting a seller who is having some trouble with a buyer.

I sold the buyer an autoharp a few weeks ago and believe I did an excellent job with the listing and shipping.

Then a few weeks later, the buyer left negative feedback saying it "sounds horrible" without sending me a message first.

A few hours after leaving the negative feedback, they initiated a return because "My granddaughter wants nothing to do with it it was just taken out of ackage yesterday". Today the return arrived via USPS with postage due (I originally shipped it to them via UPS Ground because it is a large package). So now I owe $46 if I wish to accept the package, otherwise it will be returned to the buyer. The return policy on the listing was "30 day returns accepted; buyer pays return shipping".

Do I have any recourse here to either have the negative feedback removed or have the buyer pay the return shipping, as per the original sale terms? It is my understanding that eBay will automatically refund their money in 2 days since the tracking says "delivered". Wondering how I should proceed from here.

Thanks.

[jorfreatbay]

Thanks to everyone for the replies. I think I have a better understanding of the situation now.

My local post office is only open for about 2 hours on Saturdays, so I might not be able to make it there tomorrow, but I will post an update once I figure out some more information and/or resolve the situation.

[wastingtime101]

If you can't make it there, try to call them.

If the problem ends up being a clerk not knowing how return service labels works and attempting to charge postage due when it's not owed, you may have to get another clerk, manager or the postmaster involved.

Point out the return label says "no postage necessary if mailed in the united states" because that speaks to the contract between eBay and the post office.

[jorfreatbay]

Alright, the situation is resolved now.

As many of you suspected, It was an error with USPS. Someone put a "postage due" sticker on the package but the buyer did use the return label provided by eBay, so there was no postage due.

If anyone is viewing this thread in the future with the same problem, the USPS policies for return service labels are listed in the "Domestic Mail Manual" section 505:
https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/505.htm#ep1225056

I didn't have to reference the policy though: The postal clerk was very polite and noticed that the "postage due" sticker was incorrect without me having to explain.

Thanks again for the replies.