eBay allows almost two months for a return

[rippets]

Buyer bought my item on Thurs May 9; it was delivered on Mon. May 13.  On June 10, he filed a return claim giving the reason "changed mind".  So he took a month to decide whether to keep it and filed the claim at the last minute.   Then eBay says he has to return the item by July 5.  So that is another three weeks that he can have the item if he wishes.     By the way, it's a $300 item. 

After I saw the claim, I looked at his feedback and saw that he is also a seller and guess what he sells?  The very type item he bought from me.

So, I'm guessing he bought it hoping to resell it for a profit and used the month's time to try to sell it and now he has an additional three weeks before he has to return it.  If he can't sell it, he sends it back to me for a refund and the only thing he is out is the postage for returning it to me.

I have always thought eBay's return policy was a little too generous time wise, but IMO a buyer should not have almost two months to mess around sending something back.

[crownmarketsco]

May 13th was 29 days ago (from today). Unless you meant April 13th? Also sounds like you had 60 day returns on if thats the case

[mtgraves7984]

Well, I don't see any Sold listings here, so I don't know your Returns policy. Do you offer Free Returns, or will the buyer (at least) have to pay the return shipping cost with his/her remorse reason Return request? (I hope it's the latter.)

For what it's worth, I don't care for the buyer having 'Forever + 1 Day' to return an item either. We sellers empathize.

[rudy2828]

Check the buyers "completed listings" and see if it shows up there. I'd like to know.

[mam98031]

Some sellers do misunderstand what a Return Policy actually means, so you are not alone.  A 30 day return policy means a buyer has 30 days from the date they received the item or the latest ETA date on the purchase, whichever is sooner, to file a Request for return.  It appears your buyer was within those terms.

Now Ebay is currently giving entirely too much time to buyers to actually return items once the seller issues a return label to the buyer.  Ebay extended the length of time a buyer has to accomplish this during the pandemic and since then, even with all kinds of requests from sellers, so far has refused to bring it back to what it was pre-pandemic.

If you can find where they buyer had your item listed for sale on Ebay, you might be able to convince Ebay to deny this return request.  Once upon a time, years ago, there was an unwritten rule about this as I personally helped a couple seller through the process, but IDK if it is something Ebay still does.

What was your return policy as you aren't posting with the account you sold this under, so I can't go and look?  If you have a 30 day return policy with the buyer pays shipping, then unless the listing stated free shipping, your buyer is responsible to pay the return shipping.  But if you offered a 30 day w/ seller pays shipping, then you are responsible for the return shipping.

I hope you will participate in this thread you started so we can hopefully help you through this process with the least amount of cost to you.

[rippets]

Sorry, I had to be out of pocket today...

My return policy is 30 days, buyer pays return shipping.  Even with that, on the rare occasion I have a return request, I pay for the return label.  (I don't have many returns, maybe one or two a year, if that.)  In this case, the buyer didn't say anything about the postage and since he is a seller and chose a remorse reason, he probably knows he has to pay to send it back.  However, it is small and won't cost much to send. 

Occasionally I read about someone buying something on eBay, trying to sell it for a profit and then returning if it doesn't sell,  so I guess this is why I "assumed" this is what this buyer is doing.   I don't actually know that he was trying to resell the item; it so, I didn't find it on eBay and I didn't try to look on any other venues.    It just seemed strange that he waited until the 29th day to file a return claim for "changed mind" when he sells the same things and now he gets another three weeks on top of that. 

That's my main complaint  with this whole thing.  For eBay to give a buyer seven weeks to do whatever with an item before actually returning it is more than excessive.    I can't think of any circumstances where a buyer needs that much time to return an item.  

[funnymaniac2]

This is why I don't offer returns, some sellers are big warehouses and sell goods based on easy returns, not me, I'm just a small timer, If you don't want it, please don't buy it.  I can't  allow a return for change of heart a month after it's been delivered, that's pretty lame but that's eBay's guarantee to reel in buyers (so they think).  Those are sales I don't want. 23 years on eBay, less is more. Sell unique items, if they can get your stuff in many places, they will buy from whomever offers free returns for no reason.  The only hassle is for the small seller. This is the price they expect all sellers to pay to do business on "their" platform.  Shipping costs these days also make easy returns a reason for going out of business.  

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Nobody wants to receive returns.

What you sell and how often you are asked to take a return is a determining factor on what you decide to make your return policy.

Since we all have to accept not as described returns, we allow ourselves to use our return policy to encourage or discourage certain buyers from making a purchase.

It is all about the profits. No point in offering free returns or buyer faulted returns if it does not increase your sales and profits.

Of course, there are many products which are prone to returns and some of us know what they are and never offer them. Others of us can only seem to source products in categories with high returns rates.

Let me provide a specific example of why some of my products are NO RETURNS, I sell a lot of items to collectors. When I offered returns, or sold on Amazon where everything is returnable, I would sell items to women who were buying these collectible items as gifts for collectors they knew. They did not know what the collector had. They did not know what the collector wanted. They did not know the exact focus of the collection. Sometimes they found another item from another seller before they gave the gift. No returns discouraged those buyers. They were more often bad business than not.

[mam98031]

Occasionally I read about someone buying something on eBay, trying to sell it for a profit and then returning if it doesn't sell,  so I guess this is why I "assumed" this is what this buyer is doing.   I don't actually know that he was trying to resell the item; it so, I didn't find it on eBay and I didn't try to look on any other venues.    It just seemed strange that he waited until the 29th day to file a return claim for "changed mind" when he sells the same things and now he gets another three weeks on top of that. 

If they were trying to sell it on other sites, it would not matter, so no need to waste your time looking for that as it will not change a thing.  

I don't understand.  You offer a 30 day return policy, why is asking for the return on day 29 an issue.  You offer 30 days.  It doesn't make sense that you feel it is bad in some way to open a return within your stated return policy.  It is just as valid on day 1 as it is on day 29 or 30 for that matter.

It would get my imagination working if I noticed the buyer sold the same stuff I did.  That I get.  But if you researched it and didn't see where they tried to sell this item, there should not be a problem.

You need to understand that carrier time does NOT count against your 30 day return policy.  How would that be fair to the buyer?  If you were the buyer I can bet you wouldn't like that either.

[mam98031]

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@funnymaniac2 wrote:

This is why I don't offer returns, some sellers are big warehouses and sell goods based on easy returns, not me, I'm just a small timer, If you don't want it, please don't buy it.  I can't  allow a return for change of heart a month after it's been delivered, that's pretty lame but that's eBay's guarantee to reel in buyers (so they think).  Those are sales I don't want. 23 years on eBay, less is more. Sell unique items, if they can get your stuff in many places, they will buy from whomever offers free returns for no reason.  The only hassle is for the small seller. This is the price they expect all sellers to pay to do business on "their" platform.  Shipping costs these days also make easy returns a reason for going out of business.  

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With a no return policy the only type of claims you can deny are properly filed Buyer Remorse claims.  If any buyer files an INAD, you need to either process it, allow the return or just refund it.  But you can't deny or other wise refuse to process an INAD.

[fm2000]

One thing to bear in mind is that the eBay return window is 30 days, but buyers actually have 6 months or even longer to do a credit card chargeback and get their money back from you (time can vary depending on the card).

[mam98031]

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@fm2000 wrote:

One thing to bear in mind is that the eBay return window is 30 days, but buyers actually have 6 months or even longer to do a credit card chargeback and get their money back from you (time can vary depending on the card).

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It is also important to keep in mind that most credit cards don't allow their customers six months to file a dispute.  Most are 60-90 days.  I'm sure there are others that allow more time, but it isn't most cards.