So buyers can abuse ebay's return system with no repercussions?

[unicron9tj]

Someone bought a 1/6 figure outfit from me then an hour later asked me to cancel, then a few minutes after that sent me a message telling me not to cancel. After that he started asking if I had other things I could add to the sale, and I said no. He said fine, go ahead and send it. I had a feeling it would be trouble but did my part as I was supposed to.

Buyer gets the figure and asks to return it, saying there is a stain on the outfit. I told him there was no stain before I shipped, as my listing photos show, and it was sealed in package too, so I asked for a photo. The next day he sent a pic with a tiny dot of lint or something on the unopened outer package. I told him my listings are marked "no returns" but if there is a reason to return it I will anyway. I asked him to please try wiping off the little speck of whatever on the wrapper before we go straight to a return. His response was "No, I'll just wait and have ebay get me my refund. 

I told him there was no need to do that, and I accepted the return.

Later that same day I noticed he left me a negative feedback claiming I made up reasons not to take returns and harassed him, which is FAR from true.  I hit the report button on that and explained that the feedback statement was not true and the item I sent was as described.

Buyer then waited until the very last possible day to send the item back, and when I got it back, as expected, there was nothing at all on the package or the dress. It was in perfect condition just as I sent it. 

When I finished the return with the refund I had the option to report that I didn't agree with his reason for return and attached pics of the outfit I got back with no "stain" or anything else on it, then I called ebay and asked if there was anything else I could do about this abuse of returns. By telling me he'd just wait and have ebay refund him, he knew I had to do what he wanted whether it was right or not, because we all know ebay would just let him have his money back and keep the item. I had to pay his return shipping and got my first and only negative feedback just for trying to work out the problem with the guy then allowing the return despite it being based on an obvious lie.  The ebay rep said I did what I should do and they will review it. If they find that he did use a false reason to return, I'd be refunded my return shipping and his account would possibly be banned.

Seriously though... They just tell you what they think you want to hear and nothing will come of this, right? Buyers can just lie and do whatever, forcing a return for no reason but buyers remorse, I wont get that return shipping cost back, and I am stuck with the negative feedback. Do I have that about right?

[gwzcomps]

Yup eBay screws the sellers and lets buyers do as they please. There are no consequences or repercussions. Even if they do ban a buyer they will just allow them to make a guest account or another account using the same registration information. They do give you limited protection if you accept returns. Anything high risk I won't sell here anymore. Unfortunately you should have just canceled from the get go. Never hurts to call CS and see if you can get the feedback removed. Don't forget to block them:

https://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?bidderblocklogin

[ten_o_nine]

Seriously though... They just tell you what they think you want to hear and nothing will come of this, right? Buyers can just lie and do whatever, forcing a return for no reason but buyers remorse, I wont get that return shipping cost back, and I am stuck with the negative feedback. Do I have that about right?

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Yup....That's about right.

My advice, never go back and fourth on returns, when you see one, accept it and move on.

[bgt_masters_of_tiki_d]

Short answer, Yes. 

Long answer, You betcha. 

[2015mhfashions]

Abuse the return process and has also recently been discussed on another post yet another feedback abuse, clearly lying, you didn't send him extra gifts with the initial sale, and now claims harassment, looks like you paid for that with the Negative, Returns and feedback abuse has become an absolute joke.

[fashunu4eeuh]

The buyer asked to cancel the transaction. At that point, the focus should be on protecting one’s account, as the buyer just broadcasted his unwillingness to see the transaction through. Cancelling the sale would have nipped the future problems in the bud, before they became a financial drain and a defect earned on one’s account. It is never a good idea to force a transaction on a recalcitrant buyer.

[chapeau-noir]

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@fashunu4eeuh wrote:

The buyer asked to cancel the transaction. At that point, the focus should be on protecting one’s account, as the buyer just broadcasted his unwillingness to see the transaction through. Cancelling the sale would have nipped the future problems in the bud, before they became a financial drain and a defect earned on one’s account. It is never a good idea to force a transaction on a recalcitrant buyer.

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Yes, cancelling would have nipped it in the bud, but there was no forcing of anything in the transaction. The buyer asked the OP to go ahead and ship the item after OP was willing to cancel.  The OP acted in good faith.  Cancelling the sale would be the right idea, but that's 20/20 hindsight. My CS is pretty good and I would have gone ahead with the sale in good faith, too.  The fact that this is allowed to happen is the shame of it.

[bargainbigly]

Unfortunately, this is extremely common here especially when dealing with clothing. 

If you don't have free returns, in our experience, 9/10 of buyers will choose a seller fault return reason so they can get free return shipping anyway, so you will be paying for it one way or another. 

I'd say if you can afford to offer free returns and it makes sense for your business model, just go ahead and accept free returns. 

If you cannot afford to accept free returns I would say it may be worth not selling here anymore, as it seems eBay is still set on copying everything Amazon does, except they've been referring to it as the "retail standard" recently. Same old strategy dressed up with lipstick. 

We started out years ago selling only on Amazon and our website. After that we added Walmart.com, and several other sales channels in addition to wholesale. 

Around 14 months ago we started listing some of our inventory on eBay. 

Since then we maintained around 10,000 - 12,000 listings at any one time as this was approx. what is included with an anchor store. 

After 14 months of selling on eBay on average of between 800 - 1,500 orders per month, we have decided to close down our eBay account over the next few months to focus on our other sales channels. 

Across all channels we ship thousands of orders per month so we can afford to lose eBay (replace really as we're in the process of adding Facebook marketplace). However, we absolutely consider ourselves to be a small seller. 

By the time we turn the lights off in March approx. it will be around 18 or 19 months selling here. 

A few tidbits I've come away with during that time:

- eBay sellers work very very very very hard

- As a seller with reasonable volume, I don't understand how anybody makes a good profit here unless they value their time at zero. See lots of YouTube videos by small eBay'ers saying they made $200 today, or $400 today. I wonder if any of these people are putting a value on their time. If you worked 8 hours and made $200, are you factoring in a salary for yourself of at least $20/hour???. You can go to a river fulfillment center tomorrow and earn $16, so $20/hour IMO should be a bare minimum considering you are taking on all the risk as the business owner. So if you worked 8 hours to make that $100, I would say you lost $60 instead of earning $100.

- Free returns and rock bottom prices don't work unless you have a $500 billion cloud business to cover your selling losses with. Anybody else who tries to do this will not exist in 5 years. 

Just read that in 2019 $90 billion of merchandise was returned to stores. This is in no way efficient nor is it sustainable. Whoever solves this problem will cash in big IMO. 

Best of luck to all during 2020 🙂

[unicron9tj]

I didn't force the transaction on him. I didn't even lightly suggest that he go through with it. If anything, his initial request to cancel made me worry, so I wanted to cancel it. He told me to disregard his cancel request and send the item so I did. 

[chapeau-noir]

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@unicron9tj wrote:

I didn't force the transaction on him. I didn't even lightly suggest that he go through with it. If anything, his initial request to cancel made me worry, so I wanted to cancel it. He told me to disregard his cancel request and send the item so I did. 

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You did nothing wrong in this transaction, and you're not alone in having this happen. Be sure to report the buyer - it's the only way that this kind of thing can be logged and chronic abusers booted off the site.

[apple-2-online-store]

"They just tell you what they think you want to hear and nothing will come of this, right? Buyers can just lie and do whatever, forcing a return for no reason but buyers remorse, I wont get that return shipping cost back, and I am stuck with the negative feedback. Do I have that about right?"

You are exactly right.  Welcome to eBay.

[fashunu4eeuh]

@unicron9tj wrote:

"I didn't force the transaction on him. I didn't even lightly suggest that he go through with it. If anything, his initial request to cancel made me worry, so I wanted to cancel it. He told me to disregard his cancel request and send the item so I did."

Hi, you know what? you are absolutely right. Pardon my reading the opening post from the wrong point of view. Upon reflection, I agree with @chapeau-noir , you did nothing wrong.

Sometimes I feel like my brain is lagging behind. Many apologies for a rather stupid response! Going to my corner now...

[unicron9tj]

Nah stay out of that corner. We all make mistakes and misread things sometimes. I know I do anyway. 

[this*old*attic]

Honestly, “no returns” just causes problems now. It isn’t 2001 anymore.

[bgt_masters_of_tiki_d]

Yes, but it shouldn't.  As a seller I go out of my way to describe my product properly and if I hold up my end of the bargain and I do not want to accept buyer's remorse returns because people are too lazy to read, ask questions I shouldn't be punished for it. If I had a free return policy a good number of my returns would run me $20-$100 in shipping costs alone. 

I have no problems absorbing that cost if I am at fault (which is very rare but does happen), but to absorb that cost on a regular basis because of lazy/dishonest buyers is asking too much. I just had someone request a return and prior to buying from me they asked for measurements of the item. (It was an oven glass window). I measured it, told them and they bought it. Today they want to return it because THEY measured theirs wrong. There is a  price to pay for stupidity and I am fine for paying it when I'm the one being stupid. I have no interest in footing the bill for stupid/lazy/dishonest buyers on top of my own mistakes.