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I have thousands of sales under my belt but I’ve never had a combination of a return I didn’t want to accept and a buyer who pushed the limits of a 30 day return window, and now I realize I don’t know how ebay counts the window.
Is it 30 days from shipment or from delivery? Is it 30 days to get it back to me or 30 days to initiate the process? Do I start counting the day after, like if it was delivered the 11th, the next day is day 1 of 30?
Or if anyone wants to help with the math, I have a package that was shipped 8/7 and delivered 8/11, is it outside the window yet?
Thanks!
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“You’re eligible for the eBay Money Back Guarantee as long as you contact your seller within 30 days of the estimated delivery date.”
http://pages.ebay.com/ebay-money-back-guarantee/
(Bold highlight mine.) So, 8/12 would be day one.
That being said, eBay strongly advises leniency when dealing with buyer return requests, and the option to request a return stays open on the buyer’s purchase history page indefinitely.
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Thanks folks. I searched ebay help and didn’t find that, I should have used google to search ebay.
I have a no hassle return policy so I typically always accept returns, that’s why the situation is new to me, but this buyer is clearly renting a purse, and while contacting me within days of delivery has delayed and told tall tails for the past month. She’s a seller herself and has kept it in email rather than use the automated returns I accept. At this point, I want to keep my $60 and be done with her.
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Ebay messages I mean not email, but she messaged using the “I have a question about my item” path and asked to return.
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Im still confused.
–If she’s contacting you within the 30 days return window, just send her to Hassle Free Returns. Sounds like her reason will be “doesnt fit” or something where its not your fault. She then pays for shipping (and 20% restocking fee if you have one).–If she chooses a reason where you have done something wrong, the you can appeal this to eBay. So far, it doesnt sound like she has a reason for a return because you’ve made a mistake.
–If its outside your 30-day return policy, the buyer cannot return it unless you make an exception.
Is there another scenario going on here that I missed?
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You are correct that is exactly the situation, and what I decided yesterday was to tell her that at this point it is in both our interests for her to handle the return through ebay. I haven’t heard back from her since.
I asked the question on the 30 day window so I could understand where I was in the scenario before responding to her after I believe she lied about trying to send it back and having it returned to her as undeliverable. The only thing you’re missing is my conscious pivot away from no hassle customer satisfaction. At that point, I absolutely did not want to give this woman her money back, and I needed to leverage my position to make that happen.
A “sure just send it back” approach to returns makes business and emotional sense and I’ve been following it for 10 years now. But I’ve had enough with this one. Story after story starting before the sale.
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Totally understand. I guess my point is that you have an “official corporate return policy”. This is the 30-day Hassle Free Returns through eBay. We love it because its clear and simple.
If a buyer wants to return an item, we just say “Return through Hassle Free Returns”. That’s it. If they can’t figure out Hassle Free Returns, eBay will back us up. If its past the 30 days according to eBay, then its outside our stated policy.
We NEVER deal with returns through messages.
We don’t waste time with stories, excuses, drama, manipulation, etc.
There’s a clear return policy. They use it or they dont.
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Yes definitely, that was my mistake. In this case, we had already had an ongoing “dialog” prior to the sale and after the sale in which she eventually added in that she wanted to return and I just responded sure. Should have sent her to ebay at that point, which would have curtailed all the nonsense.
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Yeah, all lessons are expensive. Because we’ve had many of these long, complicated discussions with buyers in the past, we keep our communication brief and professional. It really weeds out the kookiness and confusion.
When eBay reps read our communication during case reviews, they see we’ve done exactly what the rules demand of us. No less and no more.
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As others have said ebay defines the return window as 30 days from received date. (i.e. the day the buyer received the item)
IME when people start complaining and asking about returns via ebay messages they are looking for some type of discount. I DO NOT respond to them and wait for them to open a return case. Believe it or not this actually works.
As far as I’m concerned if there’s no return case open, there’s no return.
If your buyer is also a seller they know how the return system works.
For fun you can also check that buyers feedback to see if they have a history of leaving negatives (usually due to returns). I had a buyer like that once who left something like 12 negatives in a row on other sellers for return reasons.
Strangely enough they didn’t neg me and I ignored their requests for returns thru the message system. They never opened an official return.
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