Home › Forums › Customer Issues › “For Parts/Not Working” not protecting against return
- This topic has 5 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 3 months ago by sonia.
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01/23/2020 at 11:51 am #73209
Like Jay & Ryanne, I sell plenty of electronics in “For Parts/Not Working” condition. Many of those are electronics that I don’t have the means to test, or things with minor problems that I can’t resolve. In general, this works great: these listings are de-prioritized in search rankings so regular people don’t often order them by accident. I also emphasize their issues in title and description; often times the people buying them are computer/electronic specialist who can refurbish them, either for themselves or for resale.
Until just now, I had assumed that the “For Parts/Not Working” category acted as an insurance against returns. If we categorized the item as something that shouldn’t be assumed working, how could someone start a return for it not working? But yesterday, someone opened a “Doesn’t Work / Defective” return for a “For Parts/Not Working” laptop I sold them. That return category is processed automatically without an option for appeal, so I called eBay (anchor support). To my surprise, the rep explained that the “For Parts/Not Working” condition doesn’t insure against or override the Money Back Guarantee, that a buyer can file a return like this despite the “Not Working” category. I asked him how I could compile future listings to avoid this type of return of a broken electronic, and he said that we can only act to minimize this type of thing, not guarantee against it.
Was I just being silly in assuming we held seller protection if we were careful enough in crafting the listings? Whenever I hear other people talk about selling defective electronics, they sound to be operating under the same assumptions I was.
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01/23/2020 at 12:35 pm #73211
@DantheDiner: This does seem to be more of a problem on eBay lately.
eBay follows Amazon’s lead as far as spoiling buyers with easy returns. So it seems more and more that buyers do not even read the listings.
Of course, for ‘For parts or not working’ items, eBay must enforce a money back guarantee so that sellers cannot be untruthful about the item or unprofessional as far as the pack and ship, etc.
Below is my minimum list of things that a seller should do to help prevent a return of ‘For parts or not working’ items:
State ‘As-Is’ in the item Title.
Select ‘For parts or not working’ in the item condition field. (Not all categories have this)
Re-state ‘As-Is’ and ‘For parts or not working’ in the item description.
State ‘No Returns’ in the item description.
Adjust your return setting for this item only to be ‘No Returns’. (Important)Saying less about the item is better, because eBay states: “The item can always be returned if it doesn’t match the listing description.”
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01/23/2020 at 1:34 pm #73213
everything you just listed is what i did on my listing.
didn’t matter, i had to accept the return as INAD (you have to even if you have No Returns).-
01/23/2020 at 4:10 pm #73219
@Ryanne:
It seems like the eBay pendulum is swinging way out in buyer’s favor again lately. Even though eBay has been talking big about supporting sellers in the last year.Hope you talk about your transaction on the podcast soon.
I think the buyers get irate after they come to realize that it is really their own fault for not reading the listing. They are really mad a themselves but seek eBay’s help to get their money back.
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01/23/2020 at 5:05 pm #73224
It’s kinda funny that eBay was talking about building more tools for sellers to handle returns, but none of them have surfaced. Seemingly each time a return is opened I’ve had to deal with a different process – sometimes it’s automatic, and sometimes I get choices to intercept the return and offer a refund. All I ask for is consistency.
But more in line with the thread: eBay customer service reps are seemingly less powerful than they used to be. It’s unfortunate that even Anchor seems less useful from what I’ve heard. Case in point, I got a return opened that said I charged too much for an item and should have sent the buyer more of said item as a courtesy. My only options were to accept the return, refund in full, or send a partial refund. I called eBay and they said there was nothing they could do since the return was opened under “missing parts”, and that I just had to eat the return (international) shipping cost. CS said “Yeah, the buyer is wrong, but there’s nothing we can do.” Not that I was going to let that stop me – I kept calling until I got the problem elevated to a supervisor who just said, “What? This is wack. I’m closing this.”
But eBay seemingly only works in half-measures, as they paid the buyer out of pocket to close the return. No impact on me, but now the buyer walks away thinking they were 100% in the right and I’m left here thinking the next seller who comes along and deals with this person will just assume it’s legit and issue a partial refund or something.
I’m beginning to understand that eBay only cares about the buyer’s impression of the item – not the description itself. If a straight-up “This item is 100% busted, doesn’t work, never will work, and is useless” doesn’t prevent an INAD, we’re SOL.
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01/24/2020 at 1:09 pm #73250
re: the question of whether the ebay pendulum is swinging in the buyer’s favor or the seller’s favor these days, I actually had a very positive experience with ebay today as a seller with a *maybe* false INAD. Sold a Kate Spade bag which the buyer said was inauthentic “b/c they know Kate Spade bags”, but didn’t provide any proof of this, and opened a return. Since I got the bag for just a couple of dollars and I’m no bag expert, I decided I didn’t want to risk having to pay for return shipping, so I refunded the buyer the price of the bag (not including original shipping) and let them keep the bag. They then opened a case, which ebay resolved by refunding them the original shipping from their own funds and not charging me, which I think is great! I then blocked the buyer and am going my merry way. Note: they did this even though I *do not* offer free returns.
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