First time getting a buyer that wants to return an item: advice please?

[maakieblablabla]

Hello eBay community,

Just now I got my first return item request. I don't accept return requests as a seller because I mostly sell smaller lower value items and the shipping costs in general are easily half of the item value. So it doesn't seem worth the hassle. In this example we also have a $8 item with $5 shipping.

Reason for returning: "Just didn't like it" with a full caps lock comment about how the quality is not as good as he thought it would be and he also expected the item to be bigger.

This is an older item and I personally thought that with the information in the listing and the added pictures it was very visible what you were going to buy. I regularly sell similar quality and type items to other people that give me positive feedback, so it seems like this buyer in general might not really know what to expect when buying these kind of goods.

So looking into the eBay help & info it seems like I don't have to accept this return. Although I got a very heavy feeling that this buyer is probably allowed (and going to?) give me a negative feedback if I don't help him in at least some way (?)

For now I have decided to answer the following:

"I am sorry to hear you are not happy with the purchase. From what I understand you prefer to return the item.

From what I see in the listing with the pictures and information mentioned, I personally thought the age and size of the item were pretty clear. In this situation you could return the item, but to do that you would have to pay your own return shipment. Also keep in mind that it would have to be returned with a tracking code, which might be more expensive than the value of the item.

Please let me know if you would like to continue with the return or would prefer another solution.

best regards,"

So yeah, any advice in what to do here? It seems that within 3 days we either have to agree on the return shipment or find another solution, similar to a person opening a request in the resolution center. What do most other sellers that don't accept returns do in situations like this? Just give a (partial) refund and get it over with?

Also another question, if it turns out this return goes through and he does pay for a return shipment, then I would only have to pay him back the original $8 + probably the PayPal refund fee? So no shipping costs or eBay fees refunded?

[maakieblablabla]

Thank you, it's very appreciated! I guess IRL I am more the type to explain things or tell my side, but that is not the way to do it here. I prefer communicating, but I was also pretty intimidated by this buyer with their full caps lock original message. That's why I also asked them to tell me what they wanted as I didn't know how to please them with the return not being worth it. My original message should have had more focus on that.

This is off-topic for the original message, but yes, people have been recommending me for lower value items I should make bulk packages of them so they are worth at least $15 or $20. My main issue I have noticed with that is that it becomes hard to make good titles with the count limit, because then I can't mention all related item names, making it harder to find for people that are looking for one specific item from the bulk.

Yeah I will definitely work on the wording to the buyer (although I'll be honest: personally I still prefer to reason rather than only please, haha), just something I have to work on to change here then. I still hope to be able to brush away the negative feedback, though! I had best intentions and would still (partially) refund the buyer if needed, the wording just didn't come off well.

[maakieblablabla]

Seems like my reply didn't send (and it was a long one), so I'll just summarize it as "Thanks for the advice. I always had the best intentions for fixing this with the buyer (and would still (partially) refund if needed), so it seems like it was really my wording."

[k6artimage]

I have a buyer wanting to return a $8 hat and the wording in their return reason matches "just didn't like it" and the size and quality comment  is also similar. All wording seems very similar like same buyer??

[maakieblablabla]

It's been 2+ years since I opened this thread and in my experience since then, every person that has such behavior/comments on a low value item I treat as: "just refund, block and go".

You can separately report the buyer to the eBay customer support if you feel by the comments and their other feedback that they commonly do this. But to protect yourself I do really recommend blocking them.

[albertabrightalberta]

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@k6artimage wrote:

I have a buyer wanting to return a $8 hat and the wording in their return reason matches "just didn't like it" and the size and quality comment  is also similar. All wording seems very similar like same buyer??

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Although this thread is DEAD and has been dead for 26 months, I'll respond. 

@k6artimage 

You have a return policy and if a buyer wants to return an item, they can do so for any reason, which per your policy is:

Returns:

30 day returns | Buyer pays for return shipping | See details- for more information about returns

[kh-vince]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.