Opinions on partial refund!

[winelover1286]

I sold a foot massager on June 28th for $233 that retails for $600.  It was new, open box.

2 days after she received it she messages me saying that it worked fine for 2 days and then all of a sudden it isn't working.  I told her I would contact the company to see if there is any warranty.  I wrote back 2 days later and told her that the company said she would have to return it to a store....the buyer agreed to do that.

Fast forward to August 26th when she messaged me and said that she was traveling in and out business but that she was able to return it to the store and get another one but she wants a 35% partial refund.

She never opened a case.  It is now 61 days later.

Do I have to give her a partial refund ($81).....also what about chargebacks if she does that?  She has a working massager!

Please help!

Thank you!

[ed8108 · Accepted solution]

No partial refund seems justified here, buyer has been made whole by receiving the replacement unit, & your buyer can no loner return the defective unit to you since it is no longer in her care & custody.

Retain all correspondence related to this matter.

[ge-254604]

Call her bluff, tell her to return the original unit for a full refund

[a_c_green]

---

@ge-254604 wrote:
Call her bluff, tell her to return the original unit for a full refund

---

Or, for that matter, tell her to return the nice new one she got from the manufacturer for a full refund. 

[winelover1286]

lol.....great idea! 

Thank you!

[2015mhfashions]

Not a chance, fishing for money, absolute chancer, what's wrong with these people ? She has exactly what she paid for and only her word it was broken in the first place, I'm not aware of any store that takes back items without your receipt, many stores sell the same items, how would they know it was purchased from them without a receipt ? I bet this was a false story from the start in an attempt to extort money. 61 days no feedback can be left so do not worry about that,what case would they open on Paypal ? She now has a used item, purchases need to be returned in the condition sent.

[winelover1286]

She said she took it back to a store that sells them without a receipt and got a new one!

She never opened a case with eBay (not as described I guess)...I just gotta hope she doesn't do a chargeback.

I agree that if it didn't work from the beginning then why didn't she open a case and send it back then?  lol....some people!!!

Thanks for the input!!  🙂

[2015mhfashions]

I don't think she's telling the truth at all, how does that store know it's their product ? I don't know of any store that exchanges broken products for new ones if you cannot prove you purchased it from them in the first place,

I guarantee you she doesn't pursue this. Ignore all further messages, she has what she paid for. Oh and place on BBL.

[a_c_green]

---

@2015mhfashions wrote:

I don't think she's telling the truth at all, how does that store know it's their product ? I don't know of any store that exchanges broken products for new ones if you cannot prove you purchased it from them in the first place,

---

Well, Walmart does, in my experience. I can't recall what the item was now, something I buy routinely and for which I don't bother to save receipts, but the latest purchase turned out to be bad. I brought it back, explained my situation and that I just wanted an exchange, not a refund, and they did it.

If you're returning an item that's a match for what they're selling (i.e. all original packaging, identical to what's on their shelf, etc.), and you're looking for a straight swap rather than a refund, retailers will generally go along with that.

I'm not going to say that they all do; for example, if I'm taking a big-screen back to Best Buy, you can bet that they're going to want to see paperwork on that (and they log the serial numbers of your purchases anyway), but for an item like a foot massager, I can imagine some retailer of the same item allowing an exchange.

All that aside, the buyer in this case needs some sort of Chutzpah Award for trading up an open-box purchase to a New In Box exchange at a retailer, saying so in print, then demanding a discount on the open-box purchase that she doesn't have anymore anyway. She's a keeper. 

[winelover1286]

I just noticed too that in her very first message on July 5th about it she said that she used it for 2 days and it broke but in her message on August 26th she said she used it for 2 weeks! Maybe she meant 2 days but at this point I don't believe anything she says!! I agree that an item of that expense would be really hard to return for a new one without a receipt. So I shouldn't reply at all to her message? Thanks!

[a_c_green]

---

@winelover1286 wrote:
So I shouldn't reply at all to her message?

---

I would not respond at all unless or until she files an actual case. Before she does that, nothing you could say would help your side of things (her claim is ridiculous anyway), and any reply you could send at this point would simply perpetuate things.

[2015mhfashions]

I agree you might get away with it at Walmart, but this was also an open box, that's not how the store sold it, i absolutely doubt any store would have exchanged in that condition without a receipt, I'm sure it was not broken and no store exchange took place, I think she is simply fishing for money period. Where I am i don't know of any store that will deal without the receipt.

[2015mhfashions]

Absolutely ignore, she has what she paid for, what case would she open ? She just thinks your buckle and hand over free money.

[winelover1286]

Agreed!  Thank you so much!