Returned Item But Missing A Part

[ThisVNchick]

I sold a pair of earrings on eBay last week. The buyer received the item and told me a rhinestone had fallen off but she didn't want to glue it back on so instead she's returning it back to me (she sent it the next day and then sent me that message). I apologized for the inconvenience, told her to send it back and I'll refund the purchase once I get the item back. It took her over a week to get the item back to me, because apparently, she bought the wrong postage 2 times (the item was returned back to her because she didn't pay enough for the postage). So today I received the earrings back but the rhinestone that had fallen off is nowhere to be found. I immediately contacted the buyer to let her know in case she forgot to ship it with the item. Her response was basically "give me my money or I'll open a case".

The item isn't really worth that much but based on her response it made me think that maybe she bought my item to just pry off the rhinestone. She sent the item back in a dinky envelop and didn't bother to wrap it with anything. When I sent it out, I wrapped it with a thick coat of bubble wrap, you could stand on the thing and it wouldn't damage the goods inside. Is this a case worth fighting? Advice welcomed

 

[Love Of My Life]

I sold a pair of earrings on eBay last week. The buyer received the item and told me a rhinestone had fallen off but she didn't want to glue it back on so instead she's returning it back to me (she sent it the next day and then sent me that message). I apologized for the inconvenience, told her to send it back and I'll refund the purchase once I get the item back. It took her over a week to get the item back to me, because apparently, she bought the wrong postage 2 times (the item was returned back to her because she didn't pay enough for the postage). So today I received the earrings back but the rhinestone that had fallen off is nowhere to be found. I immediately contacted the buyer to let her know in case she forgot to ship it with the item. Her response was basically "give me my money or I'll open a case".

The item isn't really worth that much but based on her response it made me think that maybe she bought my item to just pry off the rhinestone. She sent the item back in a dinky envelop and didn't bother to wrap it with anything. When I sent it out, I wrapped it with a thick coat of bubble wrap, you could stand on the thing and it wouldn't damage the goods inside. Is this a case worth fighting? Advice welcomed

No I don't think it is. The buyer was careless in wrapping the item & did she mean the rhinestone
fell out & wasn't in the package to begin with or did she send it back?
You would think if the rhinestone fell out & it was in the package that she would have packed that
rhinestone separately for you to see easily.
Can that rhinestone be replaced fairly easily?
Buyers can be careless sadly speaking

 

[ThisVNchick]

No I don't think it is. The buyer was careless in wrapping the item & did she mean the rhinestone
fell out & wasn't in the package to begin with or did she send it back?
You would think if the rhinestone fell out & it was in the package that she would have packed that
rhinestone separately for you to see easily.
Can that rhinestone be replaced fairly easily?
Buyers can be careless sadly speaking

She told me the rhinestone became loose and fell out as she opened the package. I told her to please send back everything including the loose stone and she agreed that she would. The stone coming loose was an easy fix- simple case of super glue and place the stone back on the setting.

When she first contacted me about the loose stone she told me she didn't want to fix it because it was going to cost her about $10-15 to fix. I found that rather odd because it was a super simple fix and at most would cost $2-3 (for the cost of super/crazy glue). But I didn't want to make a fuss about it so I just said I would take the return, as long as the stone came back as well. The stone is an odd shape; therefore, cannot be easily replaced.

 

[Love Of My Life]

She told me the rhinestone became loose and fell out as she opened the package. I told her to please send back everything including the loose stone and she agreed that she would. The stone coming loose was an easy fix- simple case of super glue and place the stone back on the setting.

When she first contacted me about the loose stone she told me she didn't want to fix it because it was going to cost her about $10-15 to fix. I found that rather odd because it was a super simple fix and at most would cost $2-3 (for the cost of super/crazy glue). But I didn't want to make a fuss about it so I just said I would take the return, as long as the stone came back as well. The stone is an odd shape; therefore, cannot be easily replaced.

Your buyer was careless very careless. To fix I understand can be done easily with jewelers glue
& sending it back to you would have saved her that expense.
I would try to replace the stone obviously if it can be done & just relist the earrings.
At this point because you have the earrings back just refund & save yourself a lot of aggravation by doing so.
Going back & forth with a dispute on this is time consuming & while I certainly don't like what this buyer did,
you have to put it in perspective, IYKWIM...( there is a principle here sending an item in one condition & receiving
it back in another, but IMO not a big enough deal for a dispute & all that goes along with it)
Again, sorry for this careless buyer

 

[restricter]

You received the item back in a condition different than it was sent. You can file a dispute with eBay and considering it's been returned to you in an unsaleable condition, you definitely should.

 

[Tulip2]

I'm very sorry that this has happened to you. My experience has been that Evil Bay will always side with the Buyer, and I'm very serious here when I make the statement "ALWAYS". Don't put yourself through the aggravation of filing a claim. You, as the Seller will lose. I sell high end Louis Vuitton and I've lost every case that a Buyer has filed no matter how wrong the buyer is. In the most recent case, the buyer even agreed with me about the item!!! Evil Bay still sided with the Buyer and I had to pay for all of the shipping (and that's not cheap anymore for expensive items). These are just my experiences.
Again, sorry this happened to you!

 

[whateve]

You received the item back in a condition different than it was sent. You can file a dispute with eBay and considering it's been returned to you in an unsaleable condition, you definitely should.

I have recent experience with this. I sold a planner, complete with calendar, dividers, etc. I accept returns for any reason. The buyer returned because "it didn't fit." She had to pay shipping both ways. I received it back and all the inserts were gone. All I got back was the binder. I called ebay and they told me to contact the buyer. She told me she didn't remember removing anything. I spoke to 3 people at ebay and their policy is that no matter what you get back, you have to give her the refund, unless she admits she altered the item or removed a part. If she admits it, then ebay will allow you to negotiate a partial refund.

 

[ThisVNchick]

I'm very sorry that this has happened to you. My experience has been that Evil Bay will always side with the Buyer, and I'm very serious here when I make the statement "ALWAYS". Don't put yourself through the aggravation of filing a claim. You, as the Seller will lose. I sell high end Louis Vuitton and I've lost every case that a Buyer has filed no matter how wrong the buyer is. In the most recent case, the buyer even agreed with me about the item!!! Evil Bay still sided with the Buyer and I had to pay for all of the shipping (and that's not cheap anymore for expensive items). These are just my experiences.
Again, sorry this happened to you!

I have recent experience with this. I sold a planner, complete with calendar, dividers, etc. I accept returns for any reason. The buyer returned because "it didn't fit." She had to pay shipping both ways. I received it back and all the inserts were gone. All I got back was the binder. I called ebay and they told me to contact the buyer. She told me she didn't remember removing anything. I spoke to 3 people at ebay and their policy is that no matter what you get back, you have to give her the refund, unless she admits she altered the item or removed a part. If she admits it, then ebay will allow you to negotiate a partial refund.

Agreed.

I also noticed that she stained the jewelry pouch as well but I've decided to not invest anymore time into this as it is not as worth it (and the likelihood of me losing is quite high). A couple of years ago, I sold my Celine Micro Luggage on evil bay. The buyer received it, kept it for a week and decided to return it. She stated that the handles were too crooked (they were only slightly bent to one side in my photo, but that's how the bag came from Nordstrom, that's just the style). Anyways, I lost that fight and she shipped the item back in this dinky box. It came all smashed up when I received it. Thankfully, the bag wasn't too damaged, although, she did bend the handle even more to one side (probably to make her case in case eBay required a photo). I had to bring the bag to my cobbler to reshape the handles back to their original positions. I did call eBay about it and told them this was not how I shipped the bag out. They escalated me to a supervisor who told me "that was the cost of doing business". Well, OK then- I guess I'll never sell another bag on eBay ever again.

ETA: I did end up refunding her and blocking her.