Customer tried to return an item to the wrong address and from outside the US

[conexcycle]

Here's a weird situation I'm still trying to understand what the buyer was trying to pull. The buyer purchases a proven working item, then contacts me to say it is defective. Ebay auto approves the return he put in and he is given a return label. several days later I get a message from the buyer that he has sent it to a fedex ( not the USPS label given to him )drop near me and gives me the tracking. The tracking says it was sent from outside of the US, far from where I sent it in the first place. What gives..? The issue has been resolved by ebay, thankfully. But I'm trying to understand what this guy was trying to do in the first place, is anyone familiar with this? Is this a common scam of some kind? Just trying to understand and hopefully prevent this from happening in the future if possible.

thank you

[orangehound]

Not a scam.  You do not ship overseas, so if a foreign buyer wants to buy an item of yours then they would need to use a re-shipping service - you would ship to a US-based company, and then that company would re-ship it to the foreign customer.  This is likely what happened with your item.

Your customer likely returned it to the re-shipping service here in the United States.

By the way, with a re-shipper, the money-back guarantee is voided.

[conexcycle]

That's atleast what I figured, half of it anyway. That he had it re shipped to him. doesn't seem like he sent it back to the re shipper company, he sent it to a Fedex drop off near me and expected I go pick it up. It required a signature. It was a new situation so I contacted ebay before I would go get it so I wouldn't be liable if something wrong was happening. I'm guessing if I did sign for it it would've ended in the buyers favor?

[orangehound]

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@conexcycle wrote:

 I'm guessing if I did sign for it it would've ended in the buyers favor?

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If you signed for it, you would have to refund the money for the purchase.

It is the buyer's responsibility to get the item back to you, and not to some nearby location.

[ed8108]

Apparently a clever buyer attempting to circumvent ebay policy.