eBay Return, then not?
- Thread starter Kidclarke
- Start date
TPF may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others
Argh, so I had a ring up for sale. Buyer messaged me asking if I could mail her if I lowered my price. From there I should have guessed they were a pain, I stupidly sent an offer of $10 off. They accepted, then started asking me questions (like 6 messages in a row) and eventually asked if I could add signature confirmation. Even though that was not apart of my free shipping, it wasn’t much extra so I figured I might as well.
They received the ring today and immediately opened a return case claiming they received the ring all bent.
(Left pic is mine from the listing, before I shipped it out in perfectly fine condition - right is theirs they added to the listing)
Knowing how eBay treats sellers, I figured I might as well accept the return, plus I’m not sure how on earth it ended up bent like that (I have my suspicions). I did the “return item for full refund” thing, then sent a message to the buyer apologizing for the condition that the ring ended up in when it got to her. She promptly replied saying that she was going to take it to a jeweler to be repaired and she could show me the receipt for $20 to fix it. She replied soon after without me replying asking if I received that message and that should would like to keep the ring.
I said sure (I’m over this transaction already) but I had to call eBay to figure out how to do partial refund. eBay tells me to refund via PayPal then give them the transaction ID to close the case, I connect to PayPal and they say send her the $20 refund via friends/family. I do so and call eBay back with the transaction ID and they have me send them a screenshot, they say I have to wait till “it goes through” in order for them to close it. Then they say I need to have the buyer message me acknowledging they received the refund. I messaged the buyer and nothing yet. I also see eBay decided to “open a case” saying I said to escalate it, it says they told the buyer to “mail the item.”
After all of this if they have her mail the item, I’m going to be out the shipping and $20. Now I have to wait on the buyer. So annoying! I thought calling eBay would make it less of a headache.
Don’t think there’s anything I can do now so at the very least I know this rant would make me feel a little better. Lol. I guess it could be worse. Hopefully the buyer replies and this can all be over soon.
They received the ring today and immediately opened a return case claiming they received the ring all bent.
(Left pic is mine from the listing, before I shipped it out in perfectly fine condition - right is theirs they added to the listing)
Knowing how eBay treats sellers, I figured I might as well accept the return, plus I’m not sure how on earth it ended up bent like that (I have my suspicions). I did the “return item for full refund” thing, then sent a message to the buyer apologizing for the condition that the ring ended up in when it got to her. She promptly replied saying that she was going to take it to a jeweler to be repaired and she could show me the receipt for $20 to fix it. She replied soon after without me replying asking if I received that message and that should would like to keep the ring.
I said sure (I’m over this transaction already) but I had to call eBay to figure out how to do partial refund. eBay tells me to refund via PayPal then give them the transaction ID to close the case, I connect to PayPal and they say send her the $20 refund via friends/family. I do so and call eBay back with the transaction ID and they have me send them a screenshot, they say I have to wait till “it goes through” in order for them to close it. Then they say I need to have the buyer message me acknowledging they received the refund. I messaged the buyer and nothing yet. I also see eBay decided to “open a case” saying I said to escalate it, it says they told the buyer to “mail the item.”
After all of this if they have her mail the item, I’m going to be out the shipping and $20. Now I have to wait on the buyer. So annoying! I thought calling eBay would make it less of a headache.
Don’t think there’s anything I can do now so at the very least I know this rant would make me feel a little better. Lol. I guess it could be worse. Hopefully the buyer replies and this can all be over soon.
Last edited:
Why did they tell you to do it as F&F? When you issue a refund, partial or full, it's through the PP transaction and that way, you get credit for that portion of the fee you'd paid. Plus if you do the refund through the transaction, ebay sees that automatically and there's nothing to "wait to go through."
My guess is that the buyer had another damaged ring of the same style and is claiming it's yours. And if she sends back a ring, you'll get her damaged one.
My guess is that the buyer had another damaged ring of the same style and is claiming it's yours. And if she sends back a ring, you'll get her damaged one.
They told me that since I already offered the return item for full refund that there was no option to do partial refund anymore. I thought it was super strange (like they can’t just make it go back??) since they even saw the messages from the buyer saying she wanted to keep it after all and would be okay with $20 refund.
That was my guess as well, there’s no way the metal could have been bent the way it was in the post. It was that or she’s going to resize the ring so she decided to bend it a little and try to get some money. I figured I’d either get a different ring or no ring at all if she returned so I thought the partial would help avoid that. I should have foreseen this headache in the beginning.
I guess at least she's not ignoring me.
I imagine that the minute the return request was opened, the original transaction money was frozen in paypal, so the only place you would have been able to issue it was within the return request, but since you accepted the return, the F&F option was the only one available. That would have made me very nervous!
You’re exactly right, it is making me nervous. I just have to sit back and hope for the best. You’d think eBay would have some kind of option to redo a return so if the buyer decides to keep then you could both agree and do partial or another option. It’s just stupid they do it the F&F way with no protection at all. When they told me that I was like uh are you sure?
Just received this, assuming eBay saw I sent the money (I sent a screenshot) even though it hasn’t gone through yet. Good to know the buyer can’t leave feedback, I can only imagine what they’d say. In my opinion they were scheming from the start. Lesson learned and luckily it wasn’t a super expensive one. Glad it’s over with (at least I hope it is!).
I'm so sorry for this annoying case you had to deal with, and it is true, some buyers who ask a lot questions would end up being pain in a butt, I sometimes got so scared that I would immediately block the buyers prevent them from making purchases from me, of course there could be mistakes, well, just don't want to deal with fuzzy buyers. Glad your case was solved smoothly, and I can't believe they would told you to fund buyer through family and friends!Argh, so I had a ring up for sale. Buyer messaged me asking if I could mail her if I lowered my price. From there I should have guessed they were a pain, I stupidly sent an offer of $10 off. They accepted, then started asking me questions (like 6 messages in a row) and eventually asked if I could add signature confirmation. Even though that was not apart of my free shipping, it wasn’t much extra so I figured I might as well.
They received the ring today and immediately opened a return case claiming they received the ring all bent.
(Left pic is mine from the listing, before I shipped it out in perfectly fine condition - right is theirs they added to the listing)
Knowing how eBay treats sellers, I figured I might as well accept the return, plus I’m not sure how on earth it ended up bent like that (I have my suspicions). I did the “return item for full refund” thing, then sent a message to the buyer apologizing for the condition that the ring ended up in when it got to her. She promptly replied saying that she was going to take it to a jeweler to be repaired and she could show me the receipt for $20 to fix it. She replied soon after without me replying asking if I received that message and that should would like to keep the ring.
I said sure (I’m over this transaction already) but I had to call eBay to figure out how to do partial refund. eBay tells me to refund via PayPal then give them the transaction ID to close the case, I connect to PayPal and they say send her the $20 refund via friends/family. I do so and call eBay back with the transaction ID and they have me send them a screenshot, they say I have to wait till “it goes through” in order for them to close it. Then they say I need to have the buyer message me acknowledging they received the refund. I messaged the buyer and nothing yet. I also see eBay decided to “open a case” saying I said to escalate it, it says they told the buyer to “mail the item.”
After all of this if they have her mail the item, I’m going to be out the shipping and $20. Now I have to wait on the buyer. So annoying! I thought calling eBay would make it less of a headache.
Don’t think there’s anything I can do now so at the very least I know this rant would make me feel a little better. Lol. I guess it could be worse. Hopefully the buyer replies and this can all be over soon.
By the way, the rings don't look the same, I enlarged your pictures, they don't look the exact same ring to me if you look close to the details especially where the "y" shape metal close to the stone.
Yes upon further inspection I agree they aren’t the same ring. I really wish I could have fought this but how eBay treats it’s sellers made it discouraging. Luckily it wasn’t too pricey and she’ll get hers eventually.
For now all I can do is put her on blocked list, I need to post her name to the block list so she can’t do this to anyone else.
Agree with you, not worth the fight if not that pricy, and I would like her name too to add in my block list.
PMed you and also posted it to the "eBay Non-Paying Bidder List" too.Agree with you, not worth the fight if not that pricy, and I would like her name too to add in my block list.
I'd like the ID too, please.Agree with you, not worth the fight if not that pricy, and I would like her name too to add in my block list.