Home › Forums › Customer Issues › Simplified Returns INAD – Obtaining Customer "Admissions" in Messages
- This topic has 19 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 4 months ago by ThriftShift.
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12/11/2018 at 8:36 pm #53144
I had a return request today for a $68 casserole dish, pattern was Franciscan “Starburst”. It’s a MCM piece of stoneware. The buyer claimed it was “defective” because it had three chips and several brown spots. I explained all those items in the listing and had specific photos of them too. I messaged the buyer and asked “I’m sorry you are not happy with the item. You said the dish had three chips and several brown spots. Did you see photos 5, 7, 9, 10, and 11? They show all the items you mentioned. If you do return the dish, please pack safely. Thank you”.
He messaged me back about ten minutes ago “I did not see any place where I could look at photos……I would never have purchased them. My set is in perfect condition and I only want extra pieces that are the same. Thank you!!”
So I think I will be good to call ebay tomorrow and tell them it’s not an INAD, since the buyer never even looked at the photos. Hopefully with this new policy, ebay doesn’t make me wait until I get the dish back to fight the INAD. If they do, I should still win I hope.
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12/11/2018 at 9:03 pm #53146
Please update us with what they say! What a mess. Annoying.
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12/11/2018 at 9:14 pm #53149
How do you buy on Ebay without looking at photos?
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12/11/2018 at 10:07 pm #53153
There is no way to fight an FINAD (false inad) until you get the item back. Here is how I have done it in the past several months (via the instruction of several ebay reps) and it’s actually worked well so far. But it’s different from how it used to work. Note: I do not offer Free Returns – I think those sellers get a different workflow.
Here’s how the process works for me now:
– get as much info from buyer as you need to prove your case (as you did)
– wait to get item back AND for ebay website to say that the item has been delivered to you (ebay tracking updates may lag a little)
– Go to your account activity to see how much they charged you for return shipping
– Refund the buyer via PayPal the price of the item minus the return shipping cost ebay charged you
– Immediately send a msg to the buyer explaining how much you are refunding them and why (ie, “I’m not responsible for shipping charges b/c item WAS as described and you didn’t look at photos”).
– Buyer may message you back and argue – just ignore or send short polite responses
– Within a day or so, your partial refund via PP will be reflected on the ebay website, and it will prompt you to refund the rest. Just ignore this. If the buyer doesn’t do anything at this point, the return will stay open for a few weeks and then automatically close at some point.
– If buyer calls ebay to object to partial refund, ebay may force you to do a full refund, and then you can call back to appeal.In the 3 FINADs I’ve had in the past several months, the first worked exactly like this, and the customer must not have contacted ebay, b/c the return closed eventually. I have 2 more FINADS in progress where I’ve done the partial refunds and one of the buyers was pretty angry about having to pay for shipping both ways, but so far ebay has not forced me to refund the rest of the money. I’m waiting for the returns to auto-close in the next week or two.
The thing that all the reps stressed to me was the part about emailing the buyer myself to explain why they weren’t getting a full refund including shipping both ways – I think they are getting big on sellers working things out directly with the buyers.
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12/12/2018 at 9:32 am #53168
Yeah, let us know how it goes. I feel eBay returns are unfortunately becoming like Amazon returns. Great for the buyer, but tough for small sellers.
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12/12/2018 at 1:04 pm #53197
Sonia – I have free returns and that is exactly how it worked for me. The eBay rep agreed that the customer had not read the description and defective was not the correct return reason. She too told me to reach out to the customer and partially refund her. I did and never heard back from the customer and the return closed itself out automatically.
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12/12/2018 at 5:21 pm #53232
Elle,
Did you do the partial refund from within the ebay app, or via PayPal? I thought that if you have Free Returns the ability to do a partial refund shows up on the ebay website as part of the returns process. -
12/13/2018 at 9:55 am #53289
Sonia,
I do have that ability. But this was a few months ago when the return/refund process was changing. I used to be able to call and get the rep to agree with me and then do a partial through PayPal and then they would close the case right there. I was hoping I could do that again. I couldn’t 🙂 It was worth a try… -
12/13/2018 at 4:48 pm #53325
OK, so the difference is that with no free returns, you have to do the partial refund via paypal, and then wait several weeks (maybe a month?) for the return to auto-close, keeping your fingers crossed during that time that the buyer doesn’t call ebay demanding more money.
I, too, remember when you could get the rep to close the case right there on the call. I’ve decided to like the new way better (despite the drawbacks) b/c it reduces the number of times I need to call ebay.
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12/14/2018 at 3:53 pm #53377
Update on the FINAD process for those without free returns:
After I refunded (via paypal) the price of the item minus return shipping, the return auto-closed 2.5 weeks later. Success!-
12/14/2018 at 4:51 pm #53385
Thats awesome. I know that if the buyer complains about not getting their shipping, eBay will automatically refund them unless we call to fight the refund.
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12/15/2018 at 2:33 am #53416
Does this also remove the INAD strike on your account?
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12/15/2018 at 4:43 pm #53433
Good question. Where do I find out how many INAD strikes I have? When I look at the Seller Performance section, I have 0% transaction defect rate, but that doesn’t seem to count INADs.
Somehow I doubt INAD strikes will be removed by any automatic method. But it would be good to know how many I have.
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12/15/2018 at 4:54 pm #53434
OK I found it here:
https://www.ebay.com/sh/prf/service-metricsInteresting… I don’t think I’ve ever looked here before. They haven’t gotten to adding in November returns yet, so I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing that if you don’t contact ebay, then an INAD stays an INAD, even if I’m not out shipping costs. Right now I have an INAD rate for clothing of 1.5%, which should be rated “average” but they adjusted to “low” b/c of my low # of transactions. Oh, and I see they are including a return that the buyer opened b/c she couldn’t find the belt part of the clothing, but then she found it so no return was needed in the end! Ugh.
Has anybody here ever had success getting INAD strikes removed? If I had time, I’d call ebay to try to get them removed, but for the next couple of months I’m too swamped with other stuff.
Thanks for alerting me to this, IndySales!
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12/15/2018 at 9:43 pm #53438
No problem! I don’t check that page often either, but apparently having a higher return rate than your “peers” can cause your FVF to go up in that category. Fun stuff!
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12/19/2018 at 11:57 pm #53719
Last week, I did get eBay to close out an INAD case for me before the person had a chance to actually return the item. Of course, it was a super obvious situation, but I was still impressed they were willing to shut down the person’s ability to return it.
I sold a 1960s Creepy Crawlers set that was not working and in poor condition (other than the box, which wasn’t too bad). I listed it as “For Parts or Repair” (in the title, condition description, and item description) and I took photos showing everything. The person opened an INAD return, saying the item was not new (as was supposedly advertised) but used, was beat up, and what they received looked nothing like the item in the pictures. The buyer had no feedback. I think they just looked at the main picture with the listing that showed the box / box art and didn’t look at any other photos or even read anything but the first part of my title.
I’ve come across my fair share of online shoppers who only see what they want to see, then are disappointed when the real item arrives (even if it was accurately described). It’s so frustrating, but I’m glad in this instance at least, eBay had my back.
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12/20/2018 at 7:43 am #53741
That’s good to hear. I have an as-is for parts or repair INAD return right now. I didn’t call ebay because I’m out of patience for ebay Customer service for the month. I did tell the buyer that I am happy to accept a return, but I will not refund original shipping or return shipping if he ships it back. He has until tomorrow to ship it and hasn’t yet.
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12/20/2018 at 12:43 am #53723
OK, so that’s new – ie, ebay shutting down the return completely at the beginning. Every time I think I have a handle on ebay’s false INAD process and policy, it always changes almost immediately afterwards. But great that it turned into a good outcome for you, Zach!
For a long time now, the story has always been “you have to let the customer return the item no matter what, and you can fight the reason with an appeal after the refund.” So if other people are able to get false INADs shut down right at the beginning, please let us know, as this may mean an overall shift in ebay’s policy.
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12/20/2018 at 1:52 am #53732
Isn’t the buyer automatically given a return label right away, though? I’ve never actually returned something so I’m unaware of what the buyer actually sees.
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12/20/2018 at 8:48 am #53745
Report on: Atomic Starburst Casserole Dish return
Customer shipped the casserole dish back. I refunded via PayPal minus the $12.87 that ebay charged me for the shipping label. Customer opened a case and ebay gave them the money. I called ebay and the rep agreed with me and reversed the case; refunded me the $12.87. I don’t know if they took it from customer or whether it came from eBay’s coffers.
Re-listed the casserole dish; of course I blocked that buyer!
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