Buyers refusing to ship returns, and eBay refusal to close cases when shipping date passes

[albany_sellers]

Is anybody else having the issue of their money being tied up for weeks on end by buyers who request returns and then refuse to ship items back?

Every single time I contact eBay about a return where the buyer has refused to meet their obligations, all I seem to get is "oh man, that's a shame and must be annoying, but because Covid, we have to give buyers 35 business days now to ship a return."

Let me just say, I do not get many returns, but this is really starting to get on my nerves. I should not be having to have returns opened for 35 business days, just for the buyer to even print a label. I see no situation where Covid can possibly be an excuse, unless I am expected to believe that every return I have gotten is by a buyer who got sick and needed to fully recover before shipping a return out.

If that is the case, then what happens to a seller if they should get sick and need 35 days to ship an order? Are buyers going to be expected to have their money tied up for 35 business days as well?

There is simply no reason to be having returns dragged out for such an excessive amount of time by buyers who clearly are not going to return an item.  Feb. 3rd was the date given to have the return in the mail, but i'm told that is now just something they state to "encourage" the buyer to actually return an item, but is not REALLY  the TRUE date.

All I get is statements that "the return has to time out" at some unspecified, vague point that nobody can give me any solid timeframe on.

[albany_sellers]

Quick update. I was just told via twitter....

"The case can take up to 35 days to close, once the decision is made on the case, so if a decision was made on 01/30/21 then the case should close between then and 03/07/21."

So from what I gather, a buyer can ignore the return for over a month, and then another 2 months can pass before the return is closed and you have access to the money from the sale. Just wow.

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[larry14871]

I have to agree with you, not as a seller, but as a buyer.

A buyer's money are also tied up because they have already paid and it's not their fault if the item is not as described or even worse, if it is defective.

I had a case as a buyer that I returned a defective item back in a foreign country. UPS informed me that they couldn't find the seller to accept the item and after 3-4 days this item would be returned back to me and I would have to pay for that. I managed to communicate with the seller and guess what he told me, when I told him to pick it from the Post : "You know I work every day, I don't have so much time as you do, I will pick it up when I have time". I have bought a product and I was going through all this that broke my nerves...Why?

I would suggest to Ebay  more strict time limits. That would do the job. No need to wait, especially for the sellers. If you can't go to the Post to pick an item, then just stop selling.

Simple enough.

[bigdeals.etc]

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@albany_sellers wrote:

Is anybody else having the issue of their money being tied up for weeks on end by buyers who request returns and then refuse to ship items back?

Yes. This is an old ongoing issue even pre-covid. Ebay supposedly has a system that auto-closes  the return after the return time window has passed. The system is obviously broken from the beginning. Some CS agents acknowledge this, some don't.

Every single time I contact eBay about a return where the buyer has refused to meet their obligations, all I seem to get is "oh man, that's a shame and must be annoying, but because Covid, we have to give buyers 35 business days now to ship a return."

Yup. 35 business days is the longest time window I've heard from CS. It's not because of Covid. I believe this was here pre-covid.

Let me just say, I do not get many returns, but this is really starting to get on my nerves. I should not be having to have returns opened for 35 business days, just for the buyer to even print a label. I see no situation where Covid can possibly be an excuse, unless I am expected to believe that every return I have gotten is by a buyer who got sick and needed to fully recover before shipping a return out.

See my reply above. I don't believe the 35 business days was a result of Covid. It's a result of buyer leniency.

If that is the case, then what happens to a seller if they should get sick and need 35 days to ship an order? Are buyers going to be expected to have their money tied up for 35 business days as well?

I got sick with Covid during November and ebay expected me to ship out within 1 business day. I couldn't because I was a little busy dying. I did what I could and shipped packages out late... luckily I was able to absorb the hit and messaged buyers who mostly understood and were okay with it. There were a few that didn't.

There is simply no reason to be having returns dragged out for such an excessive amount of time by buyers who clearly are not going to return an item.  Feb. 3rd was the date given to have the return in the mail, but i'm told that is now just something they state to "encourage" the buyer to actually return an item, but is not REALLY  the TRUE date.

Ebay continues to give buyers more and more leniency. Pretty soon ebay will not require the buyer to return the item at all and just get a refund.

All I get is statements that "the return has to time out" at some unspecified, vague point that nobody can give me any solid timeframe on.

Yes. It's like Fight Club. CS isn't supposed to talk about it. The ebay higher ups probably intentionally leave these CS agents in the dark too. So they don't accidentally slip up and give us info they aren't supposed to tell us. The less we know, the better in ebay's eyes.

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[be_4101]

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@larry14871 wrote:

I had a case as a buyer that I returned a defective item back in a foreign country. UPS informed me that they couldn't find the seller to accept the item and after 3-4 days this item would be returned back to me

I managed to communicate with the seller and guess what he told me, when I told him to pick it from the Post : "You know I work every day, I don't have so much time as you do, I will pick it up when I have time".

I would suggest to Ebay

No need to wait, especially for the sellers. If you can't go to the Post to pick an item

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eBay already does that @larry14871 and considers a return Delivered back if it is within reach of the seller, whether it is

-- Out for delivery,

-- No such address,

-- Available for pickup, etc.

A SELLER CANNOT AVOID A REFUND BY AVOIDING A RETURN.

All you do is contact eBay, and eBay will step in and FORCE THE REFUND.

[larry14871]

What I meant, is that the whole procedure takes too long.

Picking up a package : You can do it at the first day, you can do it at the last day of the time limit.

If a seller or a buyer doesn't want to cooperate, he will deliberately take his time and that is unacceptable for me.

Yes, I know that I will get a refund by Ebay, but having my money sitting there , it bothers me a lot.