Home › Forums › Buying and Selling › Selling on eBay › How To Handle Global Shipping NOT AS DESCRIBED Returns ( Please Read )
- This topic has 31 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 3 months ago by ctebay.
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10/31/2020 at 4:55 am #83009
There has always been confusion about not as described returns through the global shipping program, do you accept the return? do you have to pay for the return?
All of this was answered by Griff on the ebay radio show back in 2018. According to Griff the way to handle ANY not as described global shipping return is …
#1 – DO NOT ACCEPT THE RETURN AND DO NOT REFUND THE MONEY
#2 – TELL THE CUSTOMER TO OPEN A CASE
#3 – EBAY WILL STEP IN AND HANDLE IT FROM THERE ( This will NOT impact your account in any way)Griff said under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you “accept” the return or you could be responsible for returning shipping charges that you never received.
According to Griff normal returns do not work in the global shipping program so don’t try to handle it yourself.
I made a video about this and included the original audio of Griff and Lee talking to a seller about this in detail. Now I have told you all you need to know above but for anyone that wants to hear it for themselves let me know and I will provide a link.
I hope this helps clear up how to handle global shipping not as described returns. I know this subject pops up from time to time so I am making this thread so it will be here for you guys to refer to if the problem comes up in the future.
Now if you made a mistake and accidently accepted the return just call eBay and explain what happened and they will take care of it.
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10/31/2020 at 12:54 pm #83012
If I remember correctly if a buyer says the item was lost or damaged, eBay will definitely step in. Its why Global Shipping is so great.
But if an international buyer says “item not as described”, even GSP will make you accept the return. The rub is that you dont pay for shipping, so the item rarely ever gets returned because the buyer doesnt want to pay for shipping.
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10/31/2020 at 3:07 pm #83014
Just never accept the return, if it’s damage, not as described, whatever, Griff says Do Not accept the return, make them open a case and eBay will take it from there and your right, once eBay tells them they have to pay shipping it’s almost always over.
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10/31/2020 at 3:12 pm #83015
Jay is correct. Under the GSP rules on eBay’s Program information page
https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/shipping/global-shipping-program.html#m22_tb_a15__1
Typically when a buyer opens a case claiming that an item that doesn’t match the listing description, no further action is needed by the seller. If further action is needed both seller and buyer will be contacted by an eBay Customer Service representative.
However, if the item was damaged when it arrived at the Global Shipping Center, or if an item is defective or not described properly, the seller would then be responsible for the refund.
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10/31/2020 at 3:54 pm #83017
So… if a buyer claims that the item doesn’t match the listing description then the seller’s not liable. But if the item’s not described properly then the seller is liable.
I got a headache now.
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11/01/2020 at 8:51 am #83053
Yeah, that is very weird wording from eBay.
Good news: we’ve probably had three overseas buyers 10 years claim an INAD on a GSP package.
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11/01/2020 at 10:11 am #83058
It’s as clear as muddy water on the ebay site. I was really happy that Griff got cornered on this issue and actually gave a blow by blow so to speak on how to handle it.
Cheers!
Tony
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10/31/2020 at 4:15 pm #83018
I feel like this is a circular conversation, I’m only telling you guys DO NOT accept the return, make the buyer open a case. This is so eBay can handle the shipping situation otherwise you could find yourself on the hook for the shipping. I’m not saying what eBay will or won’t do beyond that, but for your part you have to tell the buyer to open a case to allow eBay to step in and handle it. eBay will instruct you what to do from there.
Just DO NOT accept the return. Make them open a case and that is the way you do it. eBays got it from there and if you need to take further action they will let you know.
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10/31/2020 at 9:59 pm #83030
Well, I’ve had different experience when handling GSP Not as Described cases. Basically, how we have handled these cases is when we get one, we do not accept the return, however, we do call eBay. Every single time we have called eBay they mentioned we need to pay for return shipping since the item is not as described. So, one item that we remembered have sent back (fortunately it was only from Canada), we had to request (all of these were steps from eBay reps) a quote from buyer for return shipping. Once we knew what the quote was, we had to go to Paypal and issue the return shipping funds. After this we had to call eBay so they’d escalate the return and make the buyer uploaded the tracking. Once tracking showed delivered, we needed to issue a refund. Never had a situation where buyer was responsible for shipping item back on Not as Described cases.
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10/31/2020 at 11:18 pm #83035
Normal eBay reps are trained this way Joe, they have no clue about how to deal with global shipping returns and this is specifically why you have to make them open a case. The odds of getting a eBay rep on the phone that handles global shipping returns is almost null.
When the case is opened its automatically assigned to the global shipping dept. so it’s dealt with correctly.
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11/01/2020 at 12:12 am #83036
skip to the 2:30 mark to hear the original audio.
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11/01/2020 at 1:38 am #83039
OK I know it’s a bit confusing because the caller had made the mistake of excepting the return so Griff was explaining to the guy what to do since he had already made his boo-boo so this is not how you would handle it. If you do it correctly you do not except the return and you tell them to open a case and this will not impact your account in any way.
Griff even says specifically you do not send them a shipping label, the buyer has to work through the global shipping program to get it back to you.
so to recap, do not except the return and have the customer open a case and EBAY will take it from there. don’t call EBAY that is not the way it’s done the customer has to open a case that’s the only way it works.
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11/01/2020 at 1:50 am #83037
It is still not 100% clear. At mark 5:16, Griff mentions the shipping label cost for returning the item has to be negotiated with buyer, which is what all of the eBay Anchor reps have told me. Also, at mark 6:04, it is mentioned that return has to be accepted??
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11/01/2020 at 1:50 am #83040
Sorry, replied to myself, anyways I know it’s a bit confusing because the caller had made the mistake of excepting the return so Griff was explaining to the guy what to do since he had already made his boo-boo so this is not how you would handle it. If you do it correctly you do not except the return and you tell them to open a case and this will not impact your account in any way.
Griff even says specifically you do not send them a shipping label, the buyer has to work through the global shipping program to get it back to you.
so to recap, do not except the return and have the customer open a case and EBAY will take it from there. don’t call EBAY that is not the way it’s done the customer has to open a case that’s the only way it works.
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11/01/2020 at 10:03 am #83056
Thanks for the info. I feel I’ve been lied to all this time by the eBay reps. Good info to know for the future.
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11/01/2020 at 10:07 am #83057
Your Welcome Joe, yeah I do hear you though, you can talk to 3 different ebay reps and get 3 different answers to just about any question. I hope this saves a few people some aggravation down the road.
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11/28/2020 at 10:36 am #83777
HI! Glad to see this thread – I have 2 GSP return issues this year. In years prior, I called eBay they clicked a few buttons, and it was in clear, buyer was made whole somehow and we all moved on.
1. July 2020 – GSP to Canada – buyer claims item not received (shows attempted delivery and item got sent back to KY and NEVER to me). They opened a case. I called eBay, they said refund the customer and it would work on their end to credit me after. Well, it did NOT, I was out $30 and they refused to refund ME b/c I “should’t have refunded a GSP item. I should have waited for the case to escalate.” ?? I don’t want to leave some buyer hanging for 3 days during escalation, but I guess I should have.
2. October 2020 – GSP to Europe- buyer opens a INAD. I know better this time, so I call and they have a very long explanation on getting customer to give shipping quotes, I would be responsible for the ship return ($5o in shipping). I said hell no, I am not losing money on this, so I just refunded them again myself directly and told them to keep the item. I called ebay again and they were like “you went outside the process, we won’t credit you.” Well, going WITHIN their system would have costed me $-50, so yeah.
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11/28/2020 at 10:47 am #83778
Hiya bcfol440, yeah I hear you and I know how frustrating ebay can be. They have a process which they don’t even advertise and that is just crazy to me. I wouldn’t have known about it if I hadn’t been listening to ebay radio back when it was on. The funny thing is even though I provided the audio and you can hear Griff tell step by step how it’s done, some ppl still won’t believe that is how these are handled. For me, I don’t care, I put the information out there and if ppl choose to use it or not that is fine so i feel like I did my part for the community.
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01/25/2021 at 10:55 am #85372
Help! I made the mistake of accepting a return on a global shipping INAD. I chose the option that I couldn’t buy a shipping label for that country. The buyer says he got a message from eBay saying I am responsible for shipping and asked for my address. How should I proceed?
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01/25/2021 at 11:22 am #85373
Since you have already accepted the return then I would suggest you contact eBay to see how to proceed.
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09/17/2021 at 3:54 pm #93127
So I just received an Item NOT AS DESCRIBED case for Global Shipping Program order. I have not accepted the return or done anything to it, but in the eBay instructions it is asking me to provide them a label. I want to know how to approach it right this time. Does NOT doing anything still apply even under Managed Payments? Previously, how the eBay reps have instructed me to proceed was to get a shipping quote from the buyer and then provide them with the funds via Paypal. So what is the process under Managed Payments for an item not as described? Has anyone had this issue strictly under MP and how did you handled it? Thank you
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09/17/2021 at 4:41 pm #93129
Just got off the phone with eBay and they mentioned the same line as always, to get a quote from the buyer so we can send the funds to them for the return shipping label.
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09/17/2021 at 7:37 pm #93132
Griff said to tell the buyer to open a case. Is that still valid in 2021? I have no idea but that is what I would do. Have the buyer open a case and let ebay step in.
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12/03/2021 at 12:51 pm #94099
I just got a false Not as Described return request and didn’t realize it was Global Shipping and clicked to accept the return. The next page about buying a label clued me in that it was Global Shipping. I called eBay and the representative agreed it was a false claim (I listed as size US 10 which matched the photo of the label and buyer was claiming not as described since it seemed smaller than a size 10 to them). I’m not actually sure what is happening next. While I was waiting on the eBay rep, I was reading this thread about needing the buyer to open a claim, so I asked the eBay rep about that and she said a claim was already open with the return request. She said it would take 6 days for this to be resolved. I haven’t always had good experience with ebay phone reps following through so I am apprehensive. Chat wasn’t available so I had to phone so wasn’t able to get a transcript.
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12/03/2021 at 3:22 pm #94100
Just re-reading this thread again. It’s almost 2022 and eBay’s systems for returns and customer support are still straight out of the 90s.
As for the “we can handle this case in X days” stuff: eBay has a case system that emails you when a case is open. If the rep won’t give you an ID for the case, you should have no reason to believe it exists. They’re trying to get you off the phone.
Recently I had to do the math on how much money I was making from international sales vs. what I was losing to tracking failures, nondelivery, and returns. I also took into account time spent trying to work with international buyers and time spent on the phone with eBay trying to resolve issues related to these orders. I highly recommend doing that math yourself. In my case, the best way to prevent issues with international orders was to not sell international at all, although I realize I’m probably in the extreme minority when it comes to that conclusion.
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12/03/2021 at 3:48 pm #94101
In my case, the best way to prevent issues with international orders was to not sell international at all, although I realize I’m probably in the extreme minority when it comes to that conclusion.
our answer is still Global Shipping. We probably get fewer international orders because its more expensive for the buyer, but it’s zero stress for us. I think GSP is a better chice than having no international orders.
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12/09/2021 at 7:30 am #94175
9 time out of 10 when I try to get a quote for a buyer when they complain about GSP costs, I am not able to beat the price GSP given to them that INCLUDED customs fees. About the only way you can beat GSP is shipping to Canada with simple export rate on light items. Once upon a time I added 1st class shipping to light items for Canada only. It did not result in significant extra sales so I quit doing it.
The last time I did kick an item out of GSP was when I sold a large lot of star wars toys to a person in the Netherlands. I was able to find a shipping quote that was cheaper than GSP, but he ran the risk of getting absolutely slammed on EU customs fees since the total package value was over $200 and his package delivery was significantly delayed. He was willing to roll the dice in hopes he didn’t get charged.
Well he did and ended up paying more than GSP quote. He was still happy though, so all’s well that ends well.
I think buyers are realizing that the customs/duties loophole is closing rapidly and are more open to GSP.
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12/03/2021 at 8:00 pm #94104
IndySales–thanks for the advice about getting a case number. I called back and the rep gave me a case number and also double checked that he agreed it was a false INAD. He said he put documentation that it was a false claim in the case and that it would be 3 business days until eBay would act and to call back then. No message/e-mail about the case. Fingers crossed that there actually is a case with documentation.
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12/08/2021 at 4:59 pm #94172
This worked out. I called back today (3 business days) like rep told me last week since today was the day the case could be closed, and talked to ebay rep (voice sounded like person I talked to last week). It was closed in my favor.
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12/09/2021 at 7:36 am #94176
Regarding the case thing for a legitimate GSP INAD, I have a real hard time acting on faith that when the case is escalated ebay will side with me and screw the buyer. I guess they just make buyer and seller whole?
Typical operating procedure when a case is escalated because a seller took no action is to fully refund the buyer and give the seller a transaction defect. Why would this be any different?
Having said that, in all the years I’ve been doing this I have had only one GSP INAD and it was legitimate. I fully refunded the buyer. Aside from that I’ve never even had a return request for an international order. I think most international buyers understand they are taking a calculated risk.
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12/09/2021 at 8:07 am #94177
This thread just will not die it seems, lol. We are a few short weeks away from 2022 so just bare that in mind. I don’t know how accurate this information is today. eBay policies change regularly so I’m posting this disclaimer … Old information use at your own risk.
An early Merry Christmas everyone !
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12/09/2021 at 10:26 pm #94182
Retro–you are correct that eBay refunded the buyer still even though it was closed in my favor. So ebay made both of us whole.
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