Warning if calling about a return, don't hang up!

[Blackcat]

A buyer bought a pair of new skinny jeans with tags and opened a return saying he just didn’t like them and they were too skinny. I did provide the measurements too by the way. I asked if the tags were still attached because it’s going to drop the value if their not, he never wrote back. I decided what the hell it’s not worth the headache and just approved his return request. 6 days go by and he hasn’t shipped them out yet. So i tried to do what you guys do and i call ebay. I was on hold for a while and had to go so i just hung up. I noticed later that night on my account it said a case was opened on my behalf. I called back today to try to get the return closed and to inquire about that case. The ebay rep kept trying to tell me he called in about the return but finally i got her to see that I called in and it was opened on MY behalf. Evidently she found out from her supervisor or someone she put me on hold to speak with that the system itself opened up the case when i called in based on the info it already had and made the decision for me. It opened a force return case which gives the buyer 10 more days to initiate the return. And the ebay rep can’t close it. Once its open, it’s open. So the guy by the end of it will have had my pants 17 days before i can close it or release those funds. Or he could return them next week and it still bites because i lost a sale on a very slow week when i needed it and i don’t really expect them to come back in the same condition i shipped them. Bottom line, be careful of hanging up before you get to speak to someone. The system may be psychic and decide what you are calling about and take action for you.

[Jay]

I’m confused. If the buyer opens a return case, but does not upload tracking within 5 business days, we call to have the case closed. We’ve done this successfully over 100 times.

I would call again and talk to someone else. The information I would give is this: the buyer has not uploaded tracking within the 5 business days and I would like to close the case.

[Blackcat]

That’s exactly what I did but she said she couldn’t close it since the forced return case was automatically opened by the system when i called the day before and hung up before speaking to someone. I’m assuming when you guys call, you actually get someone on the line and they close it. Had you hung up before speaking to someone, the system might have opened up an automatic case for you. I don’t know how it picks and chooses what to do. It shows on my account that ebay opened up a case on my behalf. It’s the same date I called and didn’t speak to someone.

[Ryanne]

that really is weird, that ebay would automatically open a case for you via a hung up phone call. i’ve hung up a bunch, but i’m calling the anchor support line directly, not choosing call reasons and getting a call-in code. did you do that first? or just call the 800 number directly?

[Jay]

Thats the question: if you hung up the hone, how would they know why you were calling?

[Blackcat]

I had a code so they knew the topic i was calling about but not exactly what I wanted to know about that topic or do about it. An update though, the buyer did ship the jeans back and I got them today. But due to however he opened the case or however ebay re-opened a case on my behalf, it made me refund him the original shipping which is certainly not right. There was no other option. I’m not a novice seller so I’m used to dealing with problems on ebay and handling them but this one was just screwy all the way around. I guess I could have called ebay, waited forever, and they may or may not have fixed it so I didn’t have to pay the shipping costs. Usually the system handles everything correctly but not on this one. I just hope this week improves. I’ve had 2 dinky sales in 4 days. Yikes lol.

[WBird]

I have called just to ask questions about a return someone started who then told me they were angry about the restocking fee and were not going to return it. The rep opened a new case on my behalf without telling me and forced the return. Arggh! I was just calling for information!

[Inglewood]

Something is going on – I had a buyer open a return a few weeks ago, I provided a shipping label for the return, and never got the item (the label was never used and tracking shows no shipment). I called to ask about when they were going to close the case so I could cancel the shipping label, and 5 minutes later they decided to give the buyer all their money back without returning the item.

What’s going on???

Spent 30 minutes this morning bouncing from CS rep to manager to senior manager that are “looking into it”…

[Jay]

Difficult for anyone of us to say what happened since there’s a lot of missing info in this story.

–When you asked to close the case, what did they say?
–When they decided to give the buyer a refund, what did they say?

eBay can certainly be clunky, but they always have reasons.

[Inglewood]

A few hours later I got a call back, and my funds were returned. They apologized and said they made a mistake in closing the case in the buyer’s favor instead of mine after the call.

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