Return to different country?

[ru1es]

 
I bought an item that shipped from Kentucky . Turns out I don't need the item. Buyer's policy is that I have to pay the return shipping. No problem, righ ? Well the return address isn't in Kentucky. It's not even in the United States . It's China. And the return shipping costs just about the same as the actual item.

Is this really allowed? Seems like a deceptive policy. I would have never bought the item to begin with if I knew that if I didn't need it I'd have to pay 40 dollars to ship it back or be stuck with it.

[edwedw8383]

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@ru1es wrote:

I bought an item that shipped from Kentucky . Turns out I don't need the item. Buyer's policy is that I have to pay the return shipping. No problem, righ ? Well the return address isn't in Kentucky. It's not even in the United States . It's China. And the return shipping costs just about the same as the actual item.

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Nope, the item dislocation policy requires that the buyer's cost must be about the same to return the item either to the item location stated in the listing or to a similar location, and if the seller wants the item returned to another location that would entail a vastly higher cost, that the seller pays the difference.

This is one of the situations which brian.t@ebay indicated here would qualify you to contact eBay via special media to escalate your return request early, ahead of the normal timeframe.

[penguins_dont_fly · Accepted solution]

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@ru1es wrote:

 
I bought an item that shipped from Kentucky . Turns out I don't need the item. Buyer's policy is that I have to pay the return shipping. No problem, righ ? Well the return address isn't in Kentucky. It's not even in the United States . It's China. And the return shipping costs just about the same as the actual item.

Is this really allowed? Seems like a deceptive policy. I would have never bought the item to begin with if I knew that if I didn't need it I'd have to pay 40 dollars to ship it back or be stuck with it.

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The seller needs to provide a U.S. return address on an order that originally shipped from the U.S..

They cannot require you to return it to a different country.

I would contact eBay. Tell them that the seller is violating the Item Location policy ... and that you need them to give you a U.S. return address.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/selling-practices-policy?id=4346 

Item location misrepresentation

When a buyer purchases an item, they expect it to be shipped from the item location included in the listing. Including false, inaccurate, vague, or misleading item location information may lead to confusion around delivery time and shipping costs.

What to do

• Include accurate item location descriptions. The city and state, or city and country should match appropriately. For example:
  • Hong Kong, China
  • Sydney, Australia
  • Omaha, Nebraska, United States

What not to do

• Provide incorrect or inaccurate item location
• State 'U.S.' when the item is actually being shipped from China
• Include inaccurate, vague, or misleading item location descriptions, such as:
  • Beijing, United Kingdom
  • Hong Kong, United Kingdom
  • Worldwide, Singapore
  • Direct from manufacturer to, United States
  • Somewhere in Florida, United States
• Include item location information in the item description that doesn't match the information in the item location field
• Include inconsistent information in your return policy around the item location which may result in higher return costs or confusion for buyers

[ru1es]

Amazing! Thanks guys ! I feel a lot better knowing this! We'll see what the seller says first and if that isn't productive I'll end up escalating it . 

[edwedw8383]

Link Item location misrepresentation is something that we will take action on a listing for even if both locations are within the United States, it just wouldn't change the way we handle a return request.

For example, if a listing states an item is located in New Jersey, but it ships from Germany and the seller's return address is in Germany, we would expect the seller to provide return shipping compensation for the international shipment or to provide a domestic return address in both a remorse return and return for the item not matching the listing description, specifically because the item location being misrepresented in this way would classify the item as significantly not as described because the difference in return shipping postage would pose a significant increase in cost for the buyer than what the listing would have led them to believe.

If a listing states an item is located in New Jersey, but it ships from California and the seller's return address is in California, we would expect the buyer to pay for return shipping for a remorse return (when the seller does not offer free returns) because the difference in shipping an item back to New Jersey vs. California would not be a substantial amount of money. The seller would would still be required to cover return shipping if they offer free returns, or if the item did not match the listing description.

One final note of clarification is that if for some reason the difference in shipping costs did prove to be significant due to a misrepresented domestic location, we would be able to hold the seller accountable for return shipping in the same way we would for the international scenario outlined before - this is generally not the case, however, as domestic shipment costs do not often times vary significantly.