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Looking for a bit of advice.
I sold a few yards of expensive upholstery fabric to a buyer for $100. It was new, just cut off the bolt and folded up. I don’t have any more.
She asked to return it because she “just didn’t like it.” I accepted the return and she paid for shipping. It arrived today and it’s clearly been washed and dried. It smells like laundry detergent/dryer sheets, the original “hand” is gone, and it’s slightly faded.
How much would you refund her?
I do have a 20% restocking fee, which I was going to hold back anyway, but I feel that as this is no longer new fabric it’s worth a good bit less. It’s not a famous enough brand to easily resell. It took about a year when new.I have spoken to eBay and I can escalate a return by referring it to them, but I’d like to try to message with the buyer first.
Thoughts?
Thanks.
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Good points, thanks. I sent the buyer a message saying, basically:
“Thanks for the quick return. Sorry you didn’t like the fabric. Because it was washed (wrote a description of fading, frayed cut ends, etc.), I can’t sell it as new any longer. What do you think a fair return amount would be?”If she ignores me or is hostile, I will escalate to eBay. If she’s reasonable, then that’s easy.
I’m just wondering whether any fabric folks would have an idea of what’s a fair amount. I’m thinking 50% is fair.
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Well, this has developed strangely. The buyer messaged me back saying that she DID wash the fabric but that it’s still worth $100.
I called eBay. They transferred me from the Philippines to their U.S. ‘dispute resolution’ center, or some such. They looked at all our ebay messages, put me on hold for a while, and then came back and said, essentially, “Well – since they did admit to altering it, you don’t need to refund them. The case is going in your favor. But we will refund them their money, because they did return it.” Essentially, eBay was going to eat this one. I figured: Case closed.
A few days later, she says “where’s my refund?”, and I got an email from eBay reminding me to refund her money. I told her the situation and suggested she call eBay and ask them herself, since they told me they would refund her.
But I also called again. The eBay email warning me to refund her was troubling me. In Round 2, eBay said they had made a mistake. In reviewing the buyer’s account, they found some sort of violation from 4 years ago and had frozen her ability to get a refund. They advised me in very strong terms to block her and ignore the auto-generated emails from eBay asking me to refund her. They said they couldn’t tell me anything more.
Well, this was awkward. Because I’d given her wrong information the first time, I felt I should give her an update. I told her eBay said not to refund her, and to call them herself.
Round 3: She wants the fabric back. “I’m not paying $105 for nothing!!!! Send it back!!!”
What the heck do I do? I think this person may be someone whose ire I do not want to draw. She knows who I am and my address. The eBay rep was very firm in telling me to not deal with this person any longer.
I can ignore, or I can mail the fabric back. I paid $5 for this fabric, and sold it for $100. I still made great money. If I mail it back, it may cost me less than $10. It may be worth it to make this go away. I also don’t know who would buy it now that it’s washed. It took a year in beautiful condition. I have blocked her, but she can still message me and has been doing so. I don’t think asking her to pay for shipping again would go too well. I will call eBay yet again but I wanted to ask the hive mind.TL;DR: eBay gave me misinformation and a sketchy buyer is mad. Dang it! Should I make $85 instead of $95 to make this go away?
Enjoy your vacation, Scavengers.
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Lesson learned: eBay told you to block and ignore her. You should have done this.
I would now take their advice and block and ignore. I would not message her anymore. Why keep antagonizing the situation? She has a beef with eBay, but the problem becomes yours if you keep jumping in. At this point, “being nice” just makes you a target of an angry person. If you choose to communicate, it’s on you.Also, I’m also not sure I understand why “washed fabric” is no longer sellable. It’s certainly not new, but it was just cotton fabric, why can’t it be sold again?
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Ah – it can be sold again. But it’s “luxury” fabric now faded, shrunk and “altered”. Retails at something like $50 a yard new. Think of a cashmere sweater that’s been put in the dryer. It is now worth less. It should have been dry cleaned or at least not put in a hot dryer. My question to eBay and to the buyer was how much money is fair to return to her? All of it? Some of it? If so, how much? Ebay said: None – we will refund her. The buyer said (before eBay told me to block her): All of it.
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Okay, now it seems more clear. She didn’t just wash the fabric. She ruined it. Drying wool ruins the item. The buyer admitted this mistake. Why would she deserve any refund?
Anyway, just listen to eBay’s last decision. No refund and ignore. eBay will back you up if she tries to appeal the case or leave bad feedback. That’s it.
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This issue brings up an issue that is on my mind occasionally and I really should go through the effort to resolve. When I ship, my home address and real name goes on the label just like the OP.
So, what if I get a crazy person who wants to take out a personal vendetta against me over a bad transaction?
I would like to change to one of the USPS virtual address PO boxes with only my company name attached so as to take all my personal info out of the equation. I’d also love to have a virtual phone number that forwards to my real number.
Now back to the OP’s issue, if I were you I would get on the phone and demand to speak to a supervisor and have them fix the situation. Cite the fact this person has all your personal info and is holding you responsible. Ebay needs to hold up their end of the deal to resolve this. If you exhaust your options on that front and ebay refuses to budge on refunding the buyer, then I would probably just send the fabric back on my dime.
This is a weird case. If the buyer had done something so wrong to not be eligible for a refund and ebay is telling you to block them and such, then in my mind that would be a case where ebay just deletes their ebay account.
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Well, this appears to be getting worse. The buyer has again messaged me asking for me to mail the fabric back to her. I ignored her. Just a few minutes ago, she sent me a message saying that she called ebay and ebay told her THAT I HAD BEEN TRYING TO REFUND HER. WHAT?! I have no idea what that means. She kindly sent along an alternate PayPal email and her thanks.
I’m really frustrated here. I immediately called eBay but am on hold and have been for some time. But my call “is very important” to eBay. And they’ll be back in a moment! ARGH.I will update with whatever I’m told next. Is she mistaken? Is eBay a giant octopus where one tentacle doesn’t know what the other is doing? Stay tuned.
Retro: You make very good points. I might just put it in the mail today and reply to her refund request with a tracking number and be done with it. But still waiting for eBay to pick up the line.
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Well, after 25 minutes on hold, yet another rep tells me she’s going to close the case in my favor and I will get money back in my PayPal account. Which is interesting, because the last rep told me she HAD closed the case in my favor and the money was already released back to my PayPal account. When I checked just now, it was still there, and looked like it had never been on hold or left. ????
She also told me the buyer was lying about calling eBay. She probably was…But eBay reps have told me lots of things and then the next rep told me a different story.
I asked her if they would step in and contact the buyer and explain the situation, since they in a way created this expectation of a refund (from 3 reps ago), and she said NO.
At this point, I can tell this buyer may be really disturbed and I may just send her the money and/or the fabric to protect my family and myself from harassment. I told the rep this and she said DON’T DO THAT!!!!
I think it’s worth $100 to make this go away, though. Seriously.
The rep said she would call me back (???) after “looking into this” more. And do what? Confuse the situation even more?
I know there’s probably less than a 1 percent chance of a safety issue, but there is 100% chance of hours of wasted time and frustration for me and the buyer both because of eBay’s misinformation and lack of coordination.
eBay is great for many reasons and in many ways, but in this case, it’s been incompetent. -
Annnnd… eBay did call back! They said PayPal has a hold on my money for 30 days so they can’t close the case, but that it would close naturally after the 30 days has expired. They said the buyer has been banned from eBay. I asked how she was then messaging me, and they said she has access for another 24-48 hours and then she’s cut off (?).
So, calling PayPal because I cannot see any indication of a hold on the money in there, or what is going to happen with it.
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Annnd …PayPal is saying that what eBay is telling me is not true. That there is no hold on the payment. They told me to contact the buyer and tell her to open a case against me. NO. WAY.So: Why is the case not closing? Because of a non-existent hold. The eBay Rep told me I wasn’t seeing the hold in my PayPal account “because you must have too much money in there and your balance is not going negative.” Ummmm… OK.
The PayPal Rep is telling me that eBay cannot see into my PayPal account so they can’t know that.
I AM SO FRUSTRATED.
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Annnd. On with eBay again, asking about this case and the mythical PayPal hold. This rep says “I’m looking in your account and I’m very confused.”
Then she says that she’s going to close the return in the BUYER’S FAVOR and I can appeal if I want. She’s transferring me to the “appeals department…and don’t worry! It will be overturned in your favor! I guarantee it!”
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And I’m now talking to “Cherry” in the appeals department. She says there is no hold on the account. But she can’t escalate or close the case because the buyer is no longer covered by the money-back guarantee and can’t get her money back for any reason. She said the buyer has been “restricted” for a period of time, but it has been reinstated. -
What in the bloody H E double hockey sticks??!?
FYI, paypal is just as bad with making crap up as they go and then telling the seller that the buyer is lying and vice versa – been there done that.
This whole mess is unacceptable. The Ebay CSR should document the call and send you an email or message with the summary for documentation. From now on I will be asking for this just to see what they say.
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Retro – thanks for your thoughts.
The latest development goes to your first point, Retro: I got a message from eBay saying that the buyer had requested my personal information – name, home address and telephone number. Whether it was intended as a threat or not, it feels like one. Plus, who knows what story eBay has been telling her? The whole thing is exhausting.
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I have been told by an ebay rep that the notice of a buyer wanting your name, address, phone is just a notice and that the information is given (without you first being contacted) if the buyer identifies the need to communicate with you because it is part of ebay’s policy. I think this policy provides no protection to sellers and simply takes ebay out of the conversation by giving your personal information without first contacting you to let you know of the situation. If the buyer contacts you, let them know that it is your policy and the policy of ebay to only communicate through ebay messaging.
I agree with calling and having them check to see if your information was given and to bring the entire situation to the attention of a supervisor. If your information was given out, make sure to escalate it and speak to a supervisor. Ask how and why your information was given to a buyer that has been banned. How does that protect you in anyway as a seller?
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Well,
I got this sent to my personal email yesterday (I am cutting off her personal information):
“Hello, You have not responded to my messages,, I phoned Ebay .. They told me you were going to Refund me.. But I still have not Received the Refund .. They will be contacting you . Please send my Refund . Use my Paypal acct or send a money order Please, ”I am tending to believe her. I did get emails from eBay asking me to refund her at some point in this nightmare, but was told to ignore them. I think eBay has been telling each of us different stories. I believe this based on the numerous DIFFERENT FAIRY TALES the reps have told me.
I’m going to contact her about this email through eBay. And I’m going to ask her to give me the name of the rep she contacted and when she contacted this person. How much is my time worth? I’ve probably spent 5-6 hours of phone time on this already, including a completely unacceptable 25-30 minute wait for a rep to come on the phone TWICE.
I have lost confidence in eBay’s customer service department and I’m on my own. That said, I’ll still sell, because it’s a wonderful venue, but also be prepared to have absolutely no sane support network.
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You mentioned earlier that you paid $5 for this fabric – I know I use to get frustrated with buyers like this and spend hours on the line with eBay trying to sort things out, stressing out, thinking about it, losing sleep, etc.
At the end of the day, you sometimes just need to take a deep breath, accept the loss of $5 and any shipping, and move on. You’ll feel a lot better with buyers like this just moving on quickly and taking it as a cost of doing business on eBay.
I use to get so mad at buyers like this, but it’s a lot easier on yourself to take a loss sometimes and let it go. It’s not the best outcome, but sometimes the least stressful.
Sorry about the frustration you are having!
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