eBay

doibr90 · ‎12-13-2025

Sold an item. Buyer claimed damaged during shipping...requested refund. I agreed and paid for return shipping. Buyer didn't return item and ebay closed the case even after I reported that the item was not returned. Unable to get any assistance from ebay help.

rugerskick · ‎12-13-2025

This doesnt normally happen this way. If you provided a return label and they didn't return it in the time specified, they should find in your favor. What other details are we missing here?

gurlcat · ‎12-13-2025

Your post has so much vagueness there is no way anyone could help unless you edit the post to provide a lot more details. What were the dates? What do you mean by "didn't return the item" -did they not use the label at all, or did they return an empty package? What updates did you see in the return details page? Did you receive any messages from the buyer or eBay after you issued the label, but before the refund was taken? And when you say eBay "closed the case" are you even sure they took the money from you, rather than close the case in your favor because the buyer didn't return the item?

an-36344 · ‎12-13-2025

@doibr90 wrote:
Sold an item. Buyer claimed damaged during shipping...requested refund. I [refunded them] and paid for return shipping. Buyer didn't return item and ebay closed the case even after I reported that the item was not returned. Unable to get any assistance from ebay help.

Yes @doibr90 here's what happened:

-- When you have issued a refund to the buyer ahead of the return

-- before they can use the return label to return the item

-- the label to return the item is canceled.

The buyer got their payment back, and you don't get your item back. Next time, follow the procedure and wait for your item to be returned, inspect the return, and only then refund the buyer.

gurlcat · ‎12-13-2025

They didn't say they issued a refund. They said they "agreed" which I took to mean agreed to accept a return. But maybe you're right.

doibr90 · ‎12-17-2025

So when the buyer received the item, they claimed it was damaged. They requested a return. I never got the funds for the sale. Ebay reported this to me and I approved the return and ebay then showed that I still owed a balance after buyers refund to cover the return shipping label which they deducted from my saved card. The buyer never sent the item back. He told me he never received a label from ebay. I reported all this to ebay. When I checked back it shows that the return is closed. I tried following the ebay help section to contact them to report that this was never resolved but I end up on a page that prevents me from filling a report. I have unsuccessfully tried several times to reach customer support.

gurlcat · ‎12-17-2025

I notice you're not giving any dates on when these things happened. So it sounds like you weren't watching the details of the return, namely the tracking to see if the package was on its way back to you. No wonder you were surprised when so much time had passed that eBay finally just yanked the money from you.

You have to pay closer attention to what's going on. And if you want help from the Community, you need to post here WHILE a problem is still preventable, not after it's all over and there's nothing that can be done.

cereal_shopper · ‎12-17-2025

That's not how it works - if you do a return through ebay buyer get a (way too long) window to ship it back, but if they don't eventually you get an email that says "Hi ****, We've closed your buyer's return because we have no record that they shipped the item back to you."

gurlcat · ‎12-17-2025

@cereal_shopper wrote:
That's not how it works - if you do a return through ebay buyer get a (way too long) window to ship it back, but if they don't eventually you get an email that says "Hi ****, We've closed your buyer's return because we have no record that they shipped the item back to you."

That's how it's SUPPOSED to work, yes. But I suspect this buyer knew a lot more than the OP seller, and pulled a scam. The buyer doesn't have to use the eBay-issued return label; they can buy their own and upload that tracking number to the return, then when it gets a Delivered scan, eBay prompts the seller to issue the refund. The seller gets 48 hours to do that, and if they fail, eBay yanks the money.

So if this buyer knew how to pull the tracking scam, he could have simply "returned" an empty box to some random address in the seller's same zip code, and eBay would be none the wiser, because tracking doesn't show the address.

What I don't understand is why the OP Seller is saying he owes money for the eBay-issued return label. That makes no sense because they claim the buyer "never shipped it back". So if the label never got an accepted scan -whether because the buyer really never shipped anything, or used a scam label, the eBay label shouldn't be charged for. -We get charged ONLY if it gets at least an Acceptance scan from the USPS.

So with that, the only thing I can guess is the buyer DID ship it back, using the eBay label, but the package got lost (maybe will eventually reach the OP, maybe not).

But the OP hasn't told us enough details to know anything for sure. They either don't know how to find the details or just aren't saying them here for some reason.

deltilogical · ‎12-17-2025

When people open a payment dispute, you pretty much have no choice but to refund. Ebay will find in buyers favor even if takes months for the bank to determine liability and then fines you for it.

Ebay accepts the payment but puts ALL the risk for that decision on the sellers.

gurlcat · ‎12-17-2025

The OP hasn't raised any protest about refunding. They are wondering why they didn't get the item back before eBay took the funds for the refund, and why they got charged for the return label if it wasn't ever scanned. -But we don't know if that's true or not because it sounds like the OP doesn't know where to find the Return Details page, and isn't participating in this thread very much.