Please excuse the long post, but I am yet to find a helpful answer to a recurring issue.
I have seen a significant uptick in damaged packages. over the last few months. As such, I am familiar with filing a USPS claim through their website, but where I am struggling is the relationship between eBay's expectations and the process of claim approval through USPS.
To give more detail, I received a message about a damaged package about 6 weeks ago. Despite proper packaging, the box arrived damaged and the item inside was broken. After looking into the claim process through USPS, I was informed the broken item and packaging materials would need to be inspected at a local post office.
I felt this left me with 2 options-- I could either pay return shipping on a broken item and file a claim on the original tracking number (because this was when the item was originally damaged) and assume I would not get reimbursed from the post office for the return label. Or, I could request the buyer take the broken item in for inspection. The problem with the latter of these options is that I would not want to withhold a refund to my buyer while the claim was being processed and the issuance of a refund would essentially be a forfeit of any expectations of the buyer to actually take the item into the post office. With these options in limbo, I finally just decided to fully refund the buyer and file a claim with the photo evidence they provided me in their original request. This claim was denied because the item was never brought in for inspection.
Since this incident, similar scenarios have happed two other times. Both times I have just issued a full refund because if they were to formally open a case through eBay, I would be expected to do so anyway.
With all of that context, I am wondering about the best way to handle these situations. If a buyer contacts me about a damaged item, is it okay for me to open a claim and wait to issue a refund until the claim is resolved? My fear with this is that they could just open a return case and I would be charged an additional return shipping charge or be forced to go ahead and refund them anyways.
To make matters more complicated, I spoke with an eBay shipping representative on the phone and received some information that I did not trust. I was told to simply not respond to damaged item claims because it was USPS fault, which would keep me from needing to pay for a refund out of pocket because of seller protections. After they opened a claim, I would wait for eBay to step in and he said it would automatically be decided in my favor. When I asked about how they would know this wasn't due to faulty packaging, I was told to take photographs of my packaging and send it to buyers prior to shipping, which would count evidence if a case was ever opened. As mentioned, I don't trust this information because it is filled with the exact opposite of information I've heard everywhere else, yet this was communicated directly from an (outsourced) eBay call center.
I hope all that makes sense. Again, very sorry for the length of post here, but would appreciate any insight from someone who is familiar with situations such as this.
