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Hi fellow scavengers – Without fail, when we get a return request, the buyer freaks out about having to pay for return shipping and restocking fee. I wouldn’t be upset about this if it was our fault but when someone returns boots because they don’t fit then I’ve got a problem. We had this recently with a woman who couldn’t get her feet into some pull on Keen boots. She claimed they were defective because of that. I got ebay to agree with me and I refunded her minus shipping and restocking fee. Well, she went to Paypal and got the rest of her refund from them! I talked to Paypal and they basically told me that they only protect the buyer and not the seller.
All the time lately buyers want free returns for any reason, and they know that if they choose “defective item” instead of “changed my mind” they can get free returns.
I hear Jay saying “just send it back” but I can’t do that since our buyers ALWAYS claim item is defective if they don’t want it. How is everyone dealing with this growing problem?
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Won’t work for everyone, but for a year or two now I’ve been 30 day free return shipping. Very few returns, no false INAD claims. Works for me.
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@MyCottage – How do you build the shipping into your prices? You never know if an item will go one town over, or across the country.
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For us, it may happen once every three months.
One sale out of 600.
And I’d say 25% of those returns are actually never sent back.Just curious: in a month, how often does this happen where a buyer returns an item and unfairly blames you?
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We don’t get a lot of returns but whenever someone wants to return something they always choose some reason so that they don’t have to pay the shipping or restocking fee. Maybe once a month? Not sure but it’s so aggravating. If it was our fault I’d be like – Here’s all your money back and keep the item. I’ve done that a couple times. But when a buyer wants to return boots that don’t fit, and claims they are defective?! Sheesh! Still haven’t heard back from Paypal.
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Yeah, it does stink when buyers do this. I’d say once a month would be frequent for us. But even if it did, that’s not too bad. Unfortunately, it’s the cost of doing business online. I know Amazon sellers can struggle with these fake returns.
On eBay, we can usually dispute at least half the cases where a buyer is blaming us. A buyer cant blame us if the item didnt fit IF we provide all the measurements and take photos of size tags. eBay understands “buyer’s remorse” is not our problem.
Obviously if someone just lies, we just eat the cost. But this is so rare. Once or twice a year? We dont lose sleep over it.
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I have no returns on all of my items. I still always honor return requests though. If a buyer asks about returns I tell them I accept returns.
I’ve only had one INAD return that I truly feel was abuse of the system. I may have another this week if the item actually gets returned. Generally buyers who want a return put in the request for the real reason and they don’t complain about return shipping or not getting original shipping back.
My assumption is that the fact they bought the item knowing there wasn’t refunds set the bar low enough that they are happy to get a refund at all. -
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I’ve only had a handful of returns for fit but nothing major…until this week. I sold an expensive item that required signature confirmation. The postal carrier tried to deliver it unsuccessfully so it sat at my buyers PO for a few weeks.
Tracking shows it’s at the post office and I’ve called them, requesting they send it back to me ASAP as unclaimed. Then yesterday I get a return request from the buyer claiming missing parts/broken. Haha, it’s still at the post office!
I called eBay and they said it’s clearly buyers remorse, don’t issue a refund, and call a rep again when the refund window closes.
We’ll see what’s next on Thursday…
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Update on my return issue. The item came back to me from the post office as refused, return to sender. I called eBay this morning to see what’s next. The rep checked it out, saw the bogus return request, then opened and immediately closed a case in my favor.
I’m anticipating an appeal today.
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I have two open returns for INAD right now. One was a $22 70s shirt that obviously had a faux fur collar but I said “fur” (did not say faux) and she said “I thought it was real fur”. Ok, no problem, I accepted the return. She hasn’t mailed yet with the label that was sent to her, so I am calling today to close it. Wed morning is 7 business days and I forgot to call on Tuesday.
The bigger one is a Gucci briefcase from the 1980s. It’s a hardcase and classic with logos and gold hardware, awesome. I sold this briefcase for $480. She claimed “doesn’t seem authentic”. I accepted the return last Thursday night and am waiting for 0001 on Thursday morning tomorrow to call on the 6th business day and CLOSE it. She was extremely nasty in the message, so I’m glad I stayed pretty calm. Do I think it’s authentic? Yes; it came from the same online estate sale where I bought a lot of unopened vintage 80s Gucci perfumes, designer purses, and a bunch of jewelry that happened to have a $5K white gold watch in it (I paid $600 total for everything). But to be on the safe side, I had planned to send in pics to an authenticator if she mailed it back in time and be able to say that when I listed it again…so we will see. It’d be a real bummer if she later went to PayPal and got to keep a refund, AND the briefcase. Maybe because I offered a return, and she DIDN’T mail it back, I would be allowed to keep the funds. Waiting for Thursday morning anxiously!
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Even if she opens a case with Paypal, then its the same deal.
–You accept the return.
–The buyer has to shipping back and provide tracking.
–If they dont, you can close the case.I always think its weird when sellers complain that Paypal “just refunded the buyer and let them keep the item!” That means the seller chose to ignore the case and Paypal stepped in and resolved it because the seller chose not to participate.
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ThriftShift, I’m glad to hear that the Gucci INAD case worked out (thanks for the update).
Question for you: Had you already spent your own money to create a return shipping label for them at the time that you accepted the return? If so, did ebay refund you this money when they closed the case? -
How did you handle this on the eBay side? I also have a return request where the person has said they want to return the item because it doesn’t fit, but chose “doesn’t match photos or description” as the reason. What is the process? Accept the return and then what do you do when you get the item back so that you aren’t stuck with paying for shipping?
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Bam… just got hit with another one. Just like you ThatAnonymousW. Same thing, doesn’t match description or photos etc’ and in the comments ‘loved the blouse! It just doesn’t fit.’
And once again, I freeze up? Do I call Ebay, how do I have the buyer change the reason for return? I’ve tried various ways and it’s usually a big mess (Ebay gives wrong advice, buyer doesn’t respond etc) I wish it was a cleaner system. I’m all ears! -
It is discouraging. The last one I had she didn’t like the color and opened a case as defective. I don’t think she wanted it in the first place since she sent a best offer which I accepted and then waited until an unpaid item case opened to pay. Anyway she knew the system since I responded to her request saying that was not a legitimate reason to claim defective and she could send it back but i would not be paying shipping. She refused to communicate until the deadline for the request was up and escalated it to ebay who automatically accepted the return. Grr. I had called ebay before she escalated and they agreed it was buyer’s remorse and said to wait. I was very nervous letting her escalate it because that normally does not turn out well. Anyway after she escalated I called and they said wait until it comes back and call us back. I did and they agreed it was buyer’s remorse and had me refund her through PayPal for only the cost of the sweater minus my restocking fee and then closed the case with no defect to me. They did charge me for the return label so I called again and they credited that to my next statement. I was happy it turned out well but wish there was an easier to navigate system. The funniest part was I did the math for the refund and said I am refunding her X. Does that sound right and the rep said he didn’t know. 🙂 So do call but be prepared for it to take awhile though. This one took three weeks to resolve.
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Hi Elle
That is how one of my returns went (Ebay paid me back for giving me the wrong advice re: a return). I called Ebay this morning re: this morning’s return. Ebay ‘agreed’ it was buyer’s remorse, told me NOT to accept the return, message the buyer and tell them they have to ship it back on their dime… call them back by Monday to close the case in my favor. Sure. Not going to happen. 😉
I just accepted the return: it was lightweight, under $100… and I sense the buyer wasn’t looking for free return shipping and/or getting out of a restock fee.
Good luck-
LAwoman, how are you going to handle the refund when you get it back? I know there is a way to dispute within the case but that never goes well for me. And if you just refund the purchase price in PayPal, it doesn’t close the case. I’m looking at about $25 in shipping between original and return.
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$25 is a lot, I know, sorry. I will refund fully in this instance; it’s an unusual vintage top, very light postage and will resell. The Ebay rep this morning was giving me lip service, it felt very scripted. She agreed it was buyer’s remorse and told me to call back in three days and ‘no need to worry, it will close in your favor’ didn’t work for me this time.
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I had something similar happen last year. I had an eBay rep who said it was her first week of work. I tried contacting the buyer who ignored me. So I called eBay in the final hours I had for the return. The new eBay employee said she would close the case in my favor. I hung up and it was immediately closed in the buyer’s favor. I tried calling back and appealing. They wouldn’t appeal it. It was a heavy item. I ended up eating about $80 in shipping and I still have a defect on my account. I think I will just accept the return, refund through the case and then call eBay to appeal the shipping afterwards.
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I just had one that went just as Elle described. I asked the buyer for photos which he did send, then i accepted the return, and once I received the item I called ebay and they had me do the paypal refund while on the phone with them and closed in my favor. Crossing my fingers that buyer doesn’t appeal – we’ll see.
In the past, I’ve also done it the other way that LAWoman describes, where ebay told me to accept return but not print out label and tell buyer to ship on his own dime, and then called them after i received it and all was resolved.
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