Seller requesting e-mail address for return label but nowhere for me to add it

[rnranimal]

I received a damaged item. I clicked to return item and chose arrived damaged option. Seller approved return and the Ebay message at the top says seller will be sending me a return label before the 30th. However, in the "here's what happened" section of the return, they added a message requesting my e-mail address for the return label. Problem is, I don't see any way for me to add comments to return case.

I was ready to message the seller and tell them this, but after looking over their feedback closer, I see a lot of people who had problems with returns. So they must be pretty familiar with the return process and makes me concerned they might be trying to pull something. It seems I am not familiar with the current return process. Last time I was involved in a return as a seller was over a year ago- I agreed to the return and Ebay send them a label. The item arrived back and I refunded. I can't remember the last time I had a return as a buyer, but I don't recall any issues.

So my questions are-

Is there some known seller trick they might be pulling here? Why would they need my e-mail address and how don't they already have it?

Why doesn't my return show up in the resolution center? Is it because it hasn't been escalated? If so, when will the option escalate it show up? Should I wait for that time to come and escalate it? Or will I be viewed as having ignored their request for an e-mail address even though I have no way to provide it?

[rnranimal]

I messaged the seller and told them I can't add comments to the return page or include e-mail addresses in Ebay messages. They then replied that they sent me a label to XXXX address which was one of those cloaked Ebay e-mails, but I received no label and nothing is showing up in the return page. Still says the seller will send me a label. I replied telling them all this and they just replied asking for me to provide an e-mail address for the label. So this has turned into a who's on first game. I asked one more time how I should provide them an e-mail. Next I guess I'll just wait until I can have Ebay step in.

I don't know if they are just hoping that if they make this a pain, I'll drop it or if there is something they can actually pull to get away with not having to actually follow through with the return but I'd appreciate any guidance on what I should do in this situation. Their feedbacks have mentions of them making the return process very difficult and also not actually giving refunds.

[lac358232 · Accepted solution]

Your seller is a scammer.

After clicking to accept the return, they can either click to have eBay issue a prepaid return label, or upload their own prepaid return label, either of which will be available for you to download and print.

Instead, your seller has used the last option on the list to message the buyer to ask for an email address and to pretend that a return label has been emailed to the cloaked email address.

So the best course is to go silent and await the deadline to ask eBay to swoop in:

But if you're still intent on sharing your email address, now or in a future fiasco, you could always attach a photo of your email address to an eBay message:

[rnranimal]

Sounds like a good plan. I'll just wait until I can ask Ebay to step in. It's been so long since I've returned something that I wasn't sure what was normal and what wasn't. Seeing that they can just upload their own label to Ebay confirms they are trying to pull something.

So what's the seller's angle here? What do they hope to gain by acting this way? That maybe I'll get tired of this and just give up? Seems like the outcome is inevitable so why risk losing a potential future buyer and still having to refund? Looking at the shipping box, my assumption was that the item was damaged in transit (I sent pics of both the box and item) and so I didn't think poorly of the seller based on the damaged item. Had they just acted properly in the return process, I would've definitely purchased from them in the future.

Thanks for the pointer about the e-mail pic. I'm done going around in circles with this seller but will maybe have use for it in the future.

[rnranimal]

This was their response to me asking how I am supposed to send them my e-mail if I can't add comments to the return page where they asked for it and I am not allowed to include my e-mail address in Ebay messages:

"If you are not able to provide an email for us to send a prepaid return label to directly then please contact E Bay for further assistance as we are unable to assist without your cooperation."

I had previously asked them why they would need my e-mail since they can upload the label to Ebay but they ignored that. They are trying to pull something and/or have extremely poor customer service. I'll just wait for Ebay now.

This will be my first negative feedback in as long as I can remember. I wish I read further into their feedback before purchasing. Even though they have 10s of thousands of feedbacks and nearly 99%, a lot of the negative were specifically about their poor and frustrating customer service with returns.

[pjcdn2005]

You can’t send an email address via eBay messages if you have not yet had a transaction with the other person but in this case you are allowed to because you did make a purchase with them.   I have no idea if the seller is trying to pull  something or not but I would give them the benefit of the doubt and would send them the email address through messages.

I’m not in the US  and can’t use eBay labels so I’m just guessing on this but it’s possible that if the seller is using their own ups, FedEx etc account rather than ebays account, that they aren’t able to send a label through the return platform. That’s why they might need the email address.

[rnranimal]

If that's the case about being able to send contact info to those involved in transactions, then that does change things. However, when I go to type a new message to them, I still get a warning at the top to not include any contact info so I have made it a point not to and I have told them why but they ignore that. If they attempted to in anyway be helpful during our communications, there likely wouldn't be an issue. But I feel like I'm getting computer generated responses which just keep telling me the same thing and ignoring anything I say or ask.

Are you sure it's still the case that e-mail addresses are allowed to be sent between members in a transaction? I'm not finding that rule on Ebay and when I search online, more recently I see people talking about e-mails being changed to the cloaked email and people sometimes get the message forwarded to their own e-mail and sometimes not.

Can't they upload their own label as shown above in this thread?

[uncle-papaw]

The seller can click on order details in the seller hub and see an email address for you. It's actually an email address that goes through ebay first and then they forward it to you. They do this to prevent people from contacting you directly to offer sales outside of ebay.

[rnranimal]

The seller claimed to have sent a label to such an address but I never received one. I also have no idea if the address they quoted to me is actually attached to me. Am I able to see somewhere what my Ebay e-mail address looks like to others? Or is it not the same every time?

I would prefer to stay within the Ebay system for this return and don't understand why they can't provide me a shipping label without me giving them a way to contact me outside Ebay.

[rosalove3]

what happened in the end? im on the same boat now