When automatic returns is on, can you stop a label from being printed?

[mickdog]

Sold a brand new in package corkscrew a few weeks ago. Buyer opened a return this morning which was accepted automatically because they said the corkscrew snapped after a few uses and selected: Doesn’t work or defective.

I immediately messaged the buyer today and asked for a photo of the damaged item and once received I would refund immediately as I didn’t want the item shipped back. So of course no response at all, and tonight I got the item has been shipped notice. Sigh.

In the future, is there I way I can halt the label from being printed while communicating with the buyer? I guess I could’ve just auto refunded immediately before the buyer shipped, but getting proof of the damage first seemed wise.

It is not a big deal but now I’ll have to refund return shipping, probably $5 on top of the original sale and I would have loved to have avoided that.

[sonia]

Not that I know of. It *used* to be that when a return came in, you could choose to just refund the buyer immediately and a shipping label would not be issued. But this went away once ebay started automatically accepting returns on our behalf.

[mickdog]

I think it did give me a refund immediately option once the refund had been accepted automatically, but I wanted to see the damage and didn’t do that. Now that the label is printed, I don’t want to refund until I get it.

[sonia]

You’re right, you can refund immediately before receiving the item back if you want to. But it doesn’t stop the label from being provided like it used to.

[mickdog]

Got it. Yep, I guess now we have to be faster refunding them than the buyer is at printing the label!

[Jay]

My understanding that if a buyer prints a shipping label but never mails the item, you’ll get a refund. The label has to get scanned, not just printed.

[Inglewood]

Does it not only have to get scanned, but delivered for the buyer to get a refund?

When I get delivered returns, I typically get an email from eBay stating something like “the tracking on return XYZ shows that they item has been delivered – please refund your buyer as soon as possible”.

[Jay]

My point is the cost of the label itself will be refunded if its not scanned. So the buyer can print the label, but you wont get charged till they actually put it in the mail.

[Inglewood]

Thanks for clarifying – This is a good technique…give them the label, wait a couple days for it to start showing up with tracking, if not, cancel it and get the refund.

[trash_elf_dev]

You can delay a label from being created by requiring an Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA). This gives you the option to create an RMA before issuing the label. I’ve used this a few times to either offer a partial refund, a full refund for INAD, Damaged/Defective, or when I want more clarification on a return reason. This should be the link to do that – https://www.ebay.com/rtn/Return/SellerRules. Or you can go to Account Settings > Site Preferences > Return Preferences.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 10 months ago by trash_elf_dev.

[mickdog]

Thanks for the info everyone! Unfortunately in this case I received message that the return was opened at 11am, sent a message asking for photos at 12 noon, and by 5pm the customers post office already reported it scanned in their possession. So my message was ignored/not seen and sadly I’m paying for a return I didn’t even want back. In the future I will using the RMA function to slow the process down, if needed.

[mickdog]

UPDATE! Got the item back today (they were in California I’m in Oregon, First Class Mail is fast!) and they sent me a different item back! Same maker but the handles are different. Now I understand why they didn’t want to take photos and upload them on ebays system and instead immediately returned it! Sneaky!

So here’s what I’ve done so far:

1) Blocked the buyer
2) Took pictures of returned item and return slip and packaging
3) Used the report buyer link on this refund (unfortunately it doesn’t let you attach pictures)
4) Called eBay
5) Got normal rep and they escalated it to fraud dept.
6) Talked to fraud department and they sent me a link to upload photos which I did.
7) They said to wait at least one hour and call back. Which I’m doing right now 🙂

We will see how it all resolves. Will add another message with completion. What a silly person trying to run this scam for a $24 corkscrew….

[mickdog]

Called eBay today after they received photos. Got a very weird response to how they are handling it.

1) They stated fraudulent returns are a “business risk” that I take as a seller and they would not refund in traditional way.
2) Said they would give me a $25 buyers coupon to use on eBay instead (item plus shipping was $24.34.
3) However, I said but I have free returns and will also have to pay for the return shipping label (another $8).
4) She said “oh, I didn’t notice you had free returns, you are allowed to refund 50% and we will take care of the other 50%, but you’ll have to do it on paypal as that option isn’t allowed in the return on ebay (which I confirmed, it was return in full only if I did it through ebay).
5) I will still get my $25 coupon? “Yes in the next 72 hours.”
6) Should I write anything in the note to the buyer in paypal about it being fraudulent? “Whatever you feel comfortable putting in there. If they give you a negative because of all this, it will be removed in 24 hours automatically.”
7) She stated that a flag has been put in the buyer’s account and if any other activity like this occurs they will either be removed from ebay or lose their buyers protection.
8) This all sounds weird to me but I want to see how this all plays out, so I: refunded the person exactly 50% and wrote in the note “Partial Refund given per eBay for fraudulent return. Contact eBay directly for more information.”
9) Right now the return case is still open. And I don’t have a coupon in my email. So I may get screwed by all this. But now I’m just fascinated as what will happen next. Will keep updating for other’s info in case they run into similar problems.

[Jay]

Good news is that this scenario is extremely rare (at least for us). I think only one return in 10,000 sales were returned incorrectly. And I think that was just a mistake.

What was the item? Electronics? Certain items definitely seem to attract more bad actors.

[mickdog]

Weirdly it was a new in package wine corkscrew for $16. I usually don’t even pickup things that cheap (I like to make $20 min per item) but because it was new and I could list it so quickly with a upc code (and paid $2) I did it. Agreed on the rarity. I had one of these back in the early days of eBay (and was electronics). Since then nothing else.

[Sharyn]

I thought that with free returns you could refund 50% directly in eBay. I don’t have free returns myself, but maybe someone else can confirm.

[mickdog]

Maybe because they selected item was defective you can only give a full refund? I’ve seen the partial refund before as well on some returns, but not this one.

[mickdog]

Last note. So if everything goes correctly I refunded $12.17 (50%) + return shipping (around $8 I’m guessing) so out $20-21. But I’ll have a $25 buyers credit. So I’ll make $4-5 off the whole thing but lose an hour of my life dealing with it. 🙂

[mickdog]

Update. Case was closed by ebay after I refunded 50% ($12.17). Original cost of item was 3.99, so I’m out $16.16. I can’t find anywhere (eBay invoice or paypal) that I paid or was charged for the return shipping. So maybe they took that away which would be great. However, over the phone I was promised a $25 buyers credit in 72 hours, which never materialized. I have requested it twice via ebay messages but nothing. Maybe I’ll call and persue it, maybe not.

[Elle]

I’m sorry Mickdog. That stings.

[mickdog]

Thanks, I thought the $25 buyer credit thing sounded super weird anyway but she offered it, so I hoped it was coming through. Ah well.

[Author]

Posts