What's going on with these returns?

[iamalwaysright]

Usually when I get a return filed from a buyer I get an email from ebay (and ebay message) that looks like this

That's pretty straightforward and clear. Today I see two new returns filed from the same buyer, but I got an email/message from ebay for each of the returns that has weird verbiage. I assume I got these messages immediately after the buyer filed the returns and nothing prior to that. Take a look.

I've never seen a message like that whenever I get a return. Has anyone else? What's the deal with saying they closed the request? Do they mean the return? Because I see in my Returns page that these two returns are very much still open. And what does that mean about the "service center" (I marked in red)? It says I'm not required to refund the buyer. Yet on the bottom of the message it says to inspect the item and issue a refund. 

Has anyone gotten something like this too?

[lacemaker3]

No, you're not the only one.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Need-help-with-a-return/m-p/34976133

It's thought to be a glitch.

[hartungcards]

 This is due to an annual increase in system activity experienced during this period, which has caused processing delays.

[iamalwaysright]

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@hartungcards wrote:

 This is due to an annual increase in system activity experienced during this period, which has caused processing delays.

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Isn’t that the same excuse that caused the auto-relisting of listings to lag two Thursdays ago? Can devon@ebay or kyle@ebay confirm any of this?

So like too many people are using eBay? Too bad this increase in system activity isn’t affecting any of my sales.

[hartungcards]

Apparently there's an "increase in system activity experienced during this period" every year.  But it doesn't seem to correlate to my sales either.

[iamalwaysright]

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@hartungcards wrote:

Apparently there's an "increase in system activity experienced during this period" every year.  But it doesn't seem to correlate to my sales either.

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Sounds like eBay needs to make better system activity volume estimates then. There’s more to it than just flipping a coin. 

[12345jamesstamps]

Looks like it might take a bit of time for 'Part A' to get to 'Part B' as stated above.

No 'hold on funds'?...I would say don't worry about it.

[iamalwaysright]

I wonder what do the buyer sees on their end.

[jcrongstad]

Could this have been an international transaction? I've never had an international sale returned, but it's my impression that eBay handles it.

[iamalwaysright]

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@jcrongstad wrote:

Could this have been an international transaction? I've never had an international sale returned, but it's my impression that eBay handles it.

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No that’s one thing I immediately checked. It’s a domestic and as far as I know it’s not a freight forwarder neither.

[richard1rst]

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@iamalwaysright wrote:

Usually when I get a return filed from a buyer I get an email from ebay (and ebay message) that looks like this

That's pretty straightforward and clear. Today I see two new returns filed from the same buyer, but I got an email/message from ebay for each of the returns that has weird verbiage. I assume I got these messages immediately after the buyer filed the returns and nothing prior to that. Take a look.

I've never seen a message like that whenever I get a return. Has anyone else? What's the deal with saying they closed the request? Do they mean the return? Because I see in my Returns page that these two returns are very much still open. And what does that mean about the "service center" (I marked in red)? It says I'm not required to refund the buyer. Yet on the bottom of the message it says to inspect the item and issue a refund. 

Has anyone gotten something like this too?

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Yep - I got 2 of them today. Both domestic sales. Both reasons were "Didn't like it".

[iamalwaysright]

Thanks @richard1rst . Let me know if either of them ships it back to you and I’ll do the same here.

[iamalwaysright]

So I'm back with an update. The buyer just filed a chargeback payment dispute with their bank. They used the "I don't recognize the charge" excuse. Weird.

The item hasn't even reached them yet. They bought in March 5 and USPS says it's set to deliver to them today on March 10. The return details on these had the reason that the buyer purchased by mistake. But those returns are really closed now (since I think the "glitch" message was lying about them being closed), so I guess it doesn't matter anymore right?

Was the chargebacks just a coincidence or is it part of this "glitch"? I think I'm going to have to contact ebay now to figure out what actually happened. Ugh. I'm not going to take any action until the packages scan up as successfully delivered.

[richard1rst]

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@iamalwaysright wrote:

So I'm back with an update. The buyer just filed a chargeback payment dispute with their bank. They used the "I don't recognize the charge" excuse. Weird.

The item hasn't even reached them yet. They bought in March 5 and USPS says it's set to deliver to them today on March 10. The return details on these had the reason that the buyer purchased by mistake. But those returns are really closed now (since I think the "glitch" message was lying about them being closed), so I guess it doesn't matter anymore right?

Was the chargebacks just a coincidence or is it part of this "glitch"? I think I'm going to have to contact ebay now to figure out what actually happened. Ugh. I'm not going to take any action until the packages scan up as successfully delivered.

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I have had a couple of those as well. Typically the charge back will come through eBay. If you provide the proof of shipping to the address on your eBay screen eBay will typically deny the charge back. As I said, I have a few of those and that was the result.

In the mean time I have already sent a message to customer service asking for clarification. For what is worth as an anchor store I usually get a response within one day. And not the offshore blah blah agents everyone complains about. It seems that anchor stores get a better class of more educated agents. I'll let you know what they say,

[iamalwaysright]

Yea I'm not worried about losing out on any payment dispute chargeback with that reason. I keep knocking those outta the park, lol. But sadly it will likely be out of ebay's pocket though. 

I just sent a shot out to ebay facebook. I'm not sure if my concierge agent will help me here because these returns are from a smaller newer account of mine that hasn't really accumulated much cred. We'll see what facebook says.