What would you do?

L

luvamoramore

Member
Apr 27, 2007
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#1
I am in the US. A buyer from Germany won my auction for a scarf valued at $950. My auction specifically stated that I do not send my items as gifts or lower their values for insurance purposes. Before shipping, the buyer asked me if I can mark the item as a gift even though the auction stated otherwise. I told her that I will do so but I won't lower the value that she paid ie $950. She agreed. So, I shipped the item last Wed as a gift but I did declare the full value. Up to today the transactio was very smooth. This morning I got an email from her saying that she has to pay 200 euros before picking up her package and she wants me to give her a partial refund of 100 euros or she will return the item to me. She wants me to pay 100 euros and she will also pay 100 euros. She doesn't want to pay the full amt by herself. What would you do? Give her a partial refund or accept her return? My auction also says that all sales are final. I feel that she is punishing me (even though I have been super nice) for something that it is not my fault. I have done nothing wrong. Any advice is greatly appreciated as she is awaiting for my reply. Thx.
Sorry for the long post.
 
#2
this has happened to me before...both times I've refused to talk a refund and to pay anything when I've clearly said that customs fees will be up to the buyer. I think I got lucky, though, because in both cases, the buyers finally just paid the fees and it was over with. If your buyer refuses to pay the whole thing, though, I'd just take the return...I wouldn't send her any money. HTH, good luck! Stuff like this is SO frustrating....
 
#3
Thx, Kimalee. It is so unfair that she wants me to help her pay. The funny thing is that before shipping I lay all the ground rules to her and I told her that I will mark the item as a gift but declare it for the full value. She gave me the go ahead, it is ok. I've never had this kind of pbl w/ my intl buyers.
But if I tell her to just return it , the pbl is that I don't have her money anymore. I'll will to refund her in full, right?
 
#4
luvamoramore,
Customs charges are the responsibility of the buyer. You are under no obligation to refund her anything. Period.
Furthermore, she has no ground to return your item for a full refund of what she paid you. Just tell her no, and move on. The worst is that she'll give you unfavorable feedback. In that case, you put your response in the feedback. Your future buyers will see that she is dead wrong.
 
#5
Let's say that I send her an email right now saying that I won't give her the partial refund she is asking, and then she files a Paypal claim for item not as described ( if she returns the item, she will probably file a SNAD) then what happens? I know that the moment she files the claim, my Paypal acct will be in the negative for the full amount that she paid but will Paypal side w/ her? Also, won't she have to pay the fees anyway to collect the package b4 returning it to me?
 
#7
Christiflora is right, customs charges are the responsibility of the buyer, not the seller. And why on earth should you give her a partial refund because of the customs fees her country charges? Furthermore, the buyer should know her own country's customs fees, if she didn't look it up beforehand well then it's a 200-dollar lesson learned.

If she wants to pick the scarf up to return it to you, she'll have to pay the customs charges. If she doesn't pay, I think the package will be returned to you from the customs office. If I were you I would tell you that you are in no way responsible for customs fees charged by her country, and that she should've looked the fees up before buying. I'd also tell her that you do no accept returns, as stated in the auction, or, if you want to be nice, tell her that she can return the scarf and you will refund her minus shipping charges (and ebay fees, if she doesn't agree to mutually withdraw from the transaction) I think it would be better to refund her rather than risk her snagging the scarf on purpose to file a SNAD. If she returns it in the same condition as you sent it out, at least you can resell it.
 
#8
Customs fees are the responsibility of the buyer and are not your problem or your fault. She has no justification to ask you to split those fees with her. If she tries to file an SNAD, you have proof that the real reason is because of the customs fees.
 
#10
You gave her an inch and now she wants a mile. You should've never marked the item as a gift for her. Because you did, now she thinks she can take total advantage of you.

Stick to your guns on this. Don't offer her a refund and tell her you will not accept the package if it's returned to you. You will send it right back to her.

I would also tell her that you will be reporting her to eBay and PayPal for trying to extort money from you. Save your messages from her and get in touch with both eBay and PayPal.

It really does not matter what your auctions says about being honest on the customs form. It's always the buyer's responsibility to pay customs fees.
 
#11
Thank you so much everybody for your advice. Keya, you are right. If she returns the scarf to me, then she will to pay the customs charges anyway. For someone who couldn't wait to get her item, it wouln't make much sense to me for her to pay the 200 euros and then return the scarf to me instead of keeping it. Print*model, I won't give her a refund b/c I have done nothing wrong. I will get in touch w/ Ebay and Paypal right now to explain the situation. I saved all the messages that I got from her.
 
#12
luvamoramore said:
Let's say that I send her an email right now saying that I won't give her the partial refund she is asking, and then she files a Paypal claim for item not as described ( if she returns the item, she will probably file a SNAD) then what happens? I know that the moment she files the claim, my Paypal acct will be in the negative for the full amount that she paid but will Paypal side w/ her? Also, won't she have to pay the fees anyway to collect the package b4 returning it to me?
Click to expand...

Don't worry about any SNAD claim? She has no ground for winning the claim. Remember, as some fellow tpfer has pointed out, you have all her email messages to prove that she is just trying to threaten you for money because she does not want to pay her own custom charges. You have a high probability (99.9%) of winning.

In the rare event that Paypal sides with her (I normally would say zero chance, but can never predict the strange actions of eBay/Paypal for sure), she needs to return the item first before you would issue any refunds. As someone has already mentioned, she would have to pay customs first in order to obtain the item. I would say it is extremely unlikely that she would bother paying customs and going through the claim process.

There are two worst case possibilities (but extremely unlikely events). One is that Paypla freezes your account. All you have to do is to withdraw all your Paypal balance. Leave the account negative until the isse is resolved. The second possibility is that she would not pick up the item from her post office, and that the item will be returned to you. So what? You will just relist the item and sell it to someone else. eBay will refund you Final Value fees and give you credit for relist.

Just relax and tell her no.
 
#14
I reported her to Ebay as trying to extort money from me and I just got off the phone w/ Paypal. They said that if she files a claim for item not received she will not win but if it is a SNAD, there is no guarantee that they'll side w/me. They say that it all depends on what she puts as reason for the claim. Like Christiflora pointed out, the worse that can happen is my Paypal account being in the negative. If she doesn't pick it up from the P.O. and it is sent back to me, will I have to pay customs here in the US?
 
#15
HAPPY UPDATE! She just sent me an email saying that she picked the scarf from the post office and she is keeping it. She says she is very happy w/ her purchase. But for all the anxiety that she caused me, I am seriously considering blocking her from my future auctions. THANKS AGAIN SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR ADVICE & SUPPORT! I am so relieved!
 
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