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My postal carrier said I had a “postage due” package I would need to pay $28 to receive. The sender’s name was given simply as “Catlin,” someone unknown to me. I refused the package. It turns out it was a pair of jeans a buyer was returning. Ebay showed tracking as delivered to me, so I opened a case saying they had mailed it back C.O.D. for “doesn’t fit.” I don’t have free returns. Ebay found the case in their favor and refunded them anyway. I don’t see any way to prevent this in the future, but I thought I’d let you all know it’s a hazard and it works for the buyer.
I had another case during this time of email-only customer service where a buyer messaged saying shoes didn’t fit, but then claimed INAD. I filed a case disagreeing with INAD and they gave the buyer all their money back without forcing a return. I appealed this outcome and lost. Now I’m afraid to fight INADs because if I hadn’t, I would at least be able to resell the shoes.
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Yes, I wouldn’t fight the INADs. The only way you can is if you offer free returns. I don’t, so I’m in the same situation.
The COD package is strange, though. That seems weird. Did the buyer open a case before they sent it? If they had opened a case, and you refused the return, perhaps they used COD to force the issue. If you opened the case, why would they have refunded the buyer?
If the cost of the jeans are less than the $28, then it was a good idea to refuse the package. I wonder what happens now. Will the PO return the package to the buyer? I would think not.
Maybe you can get additional information on how to handle such a situation from the Facebook group “eBay for Business”?
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I fight INADs even though I don’t offer free returns. The key here is that you have to accept the return no matter what. Ebay does not like it if you refuse to take a return – that’s how you get into trouble. When I get the item back, I simply don’t refund original shipping, and also subtract the cost of return shipping from my refund. The buyer typically appeals this with ebay, and then ebay gives them the rest of their money back, but from their own account, not mine. That said, I haven’t had one for many months, so it’s always possible that things have changed again.
Another thing to note – this is really just about shipping costs. That INAD stays on your record (service metrics) no matter what. There’s no way to get ebay to delete it.
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COD clearly states:
“COD may not be used to return merchandise over which there is some dispute.” -
Just to clarify, the buyer opened a return for “doesn’t fit,” which I accepted. No other messages from the buyer. I was expecting a package from the buyer, just not a C.O.D. The mail carrier didn’t show me a package, just the slip and a request for payment to receive a package from a name I didn’t recognize. (I truly thought it was the INAD shoe buyer trying to salve their conscience). The value of the jeans was $21, so I would have refused even if I had known it was the jeans return.
During the INAD shoe return, I said repeatedly I was willing to accept a return, just not with a defect and not at my own expense.
In these two customer service cases, it’s been like I’m dealing with robots, or people who don’t speak English who copy and paste text, or people who just want to side with the buyer no matter what the facts are. It’s been discouraging.
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Once a buyer opens an INAD, there is absolutely nothing you can do to prevent the defect in your Service Metrics. Period. And there is nothing that the customer service rep can do to change the return type to something else. The only course of action is to accept the return, and perhaps later fight the shipping costs (or tell the buyer not to ship back). Once I realized all of this a while back, ebay life got a lot less frustrating for me.
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In my experience as a seller, “attempted delivery” counts as delivered as far as seller protections. If the recipient no longer lives there, has no mailbox, etc., and the package comes back to me, I still have seller protection. I’m speculating that because delivery was attempted and I refused it, that counts as the buyer attempting to return it. Ebay return case says return tracking was uploaded by the buyer, but it is not visible to me. It just says ebay is satisfied it was delivered to me.
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@Sharyn: I saw your comment “Yes, I wouldn’t fight the INADs. The only way you can is if you offer free returns.” Most of my listings are free returns. So are you saying if a seller offers free returns on an item, the seller won’t get an INAD defect?
This is one of those subjects that eBay is so obtuse about when you look for a definitive answer. Or maybe I wasn’t looking in the right place.
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@Kentucky Picker
I guess I meant that you can chose to partially refund if you feel the customer was abusing the INAD process, and eBay will back you up. If you don’t offer free returns, then you have to refund the full amount. I’m in the latter category, although, I should rethink it.
I will say, though, that eBay did remove some defects for me several months ago. I had lost Top Rated seller because I couldn’t find a two things that sold (my stupid mistakes, they were there) and then I had a grumpy buyer with an INAD return, but I did all the right things.
My impression was that they were being more lenient these days. Of course, this was well before COVID (might have been at the end of last year or beginning of this one), and I was speaking directly to a customer rep.
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If you don’t offer free returns, then you have to refund the full amount.
I think that this used to be the case, but not anymore. I don’t offer free returns, and I’ve had luck not refunding the full amount. The process for doing this may be easier if you offer free returns, though.
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