eBay

kitty888cat · ‎12-29-2015

How to handle this situation.? Mailed a parcel to another province, it was returned to me as refused. I would have to pay for the return shipping., I haven't did anything yet, its still at the post office. I sent her an email asking why it was refused, no reply as yet. I am sure she will say it never arrived and I will have to refund.

pierrelebel · ‎12-29-2015

There is nothing to gain by you leaving the parcel unclaimed at the post office.

Go and get it. Pay whatever you have to.

Then wait patiently for the buyer to contact you.

sylviebee · ‎12-29-2015

@kitty888cat wrote:
How to handle this situation.? Mailed a parcel to another province, it was returned to me as refused. I would have to pay for the return shipping., I haven't did anything yet, its still at the post office. I sent her an email asking why it was refused, no reply as yet. I am sure she will say it never arrived and I will have to refund.

I would not pay to retrieve an item of low value.

Return shipping can cost more than one paid for the item initially, so there is no good reason to pay to get it back.

Sellers do not have to refund when items are refused by buyers because they did not want to pay import fees.

That may well be the case for items shipped within Canada and refused for other reasons.

Other posters will be able to tell you more about how eBay deals with a situation such as yours, but you may be off the hook.

dutchman48 · ‎12-29-2015

There were no import fees, it was mailed from one province in Canada to another one

sylviebee · ‎12-29-2015

@dutchman48 wrote:
There were no import fees, it was mailed from one province in Canada to another one

Yes, I realize that.

I was pointing out that the same process/principle may hold true for items shipped within Canada and refused for a different reason.

That is, items refused for any reason may be treated the same way.

reallynicestamps · ‎12-29-2015

But do you need to refund the entire amount she paid? Or only the asking price of the item?

EBay does allow us to include a 'restocking fee' in processing returns.

A restocking fee equal to the cost of shipping seems fair to me.

momcqueen · ‎12-29-2015

I have a similar yet different problem. A buyer form the USA gave me what proved to be an undeliverable address and the parcel (upgraded from small packets to tracked packets at my own cost) is coming back to me now. I'm waiting for the card that says I have to pay to pick it up. In the meantime, the buyer has stated they'd like it re-shipped to another address which appears to some kind of unmarked warehouse in a different part of their state.

What is a seller required to do with parcels that are Undeliverable? In this case, the initial address provided was a business name and address and it matched both their ebay and paypal accounts although it was an account they apparently use to sell and perhaps bought on it in error. The 'new' address they want it reshipped to next was provided through ebay messages and, therefore, would not be covered under Seller Protection should I decide again to ship it back. Which will cost me out-of-pocket above and beyond being on the hook for the international Return shipping back.

As a seller, what am I supposed to do? As required, I mean. It occurs to me that if I were to ship it to their new, second address, the buyer would at that moment be able to open an Item Not Received Claim via paypal who wouldn't give a rat's butt that I had it reshipped to a second location not matching the user paypal account.

momcqueen · ‎12-29-2015

@kitty888cat wrote:
..... I haven't did anything yet, its still at the post office. I sent her an email asking why it was refused, no reply as yet. I am sure she will say it never arrived and I will have to refund.

I think you should go and at least have a look at it. The buyer might have refused it on delivery because it was smashed or something. You may need to open a claim, providing you sent it via a service that is insured. Or the carrier may have taken it to an incorrect address and the person who was standing at that door wanted no part of it. Or the wrong code might have been scanned into tracking as sometimes is the case.

pjcdn2005 · ‎12-29-2015

In most cases, a buyer isn't eligible for the money back guarantee if they have refused the parcel. I'm not sure how closely eBay follows that rule and there are likely exceptions in some circumstances. Technically, that would mean that you may not have to refund the buyer at all although if you do receive the package back, you should refund for the item less original shipping costs.You might also be able to hold back the amount you paid to recover the package from the post office although I'm not certain how that would work or if I would do it. I suppose it depends on the circumstances.

It is important to find out why the package was refused before making any decision on how to handle it.

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/money-back-guarantee.html When a buyer doesn't receive an item

Generally, the buyer is responsible for accepting the item when it arrives. If the buyer refuses delivery, their claim is not eligible for the eBay Money Back Guarantee.

sylviebee · ‎12-29-2015

@mjwl2006 wrote:
I have a similar yet different problem. A buyer form the USA gave me what proved to be an undeliverable address and the parcel (upgraded from small packets to tracked packets at my own cost) is coming back to me now.

As a seller, what am I supposed to do?

I had a similar situation. The buyer forgot to change her address when she moved and the item went to her old address.

I told the buyer to call USPS right away and redirect the package to her new address.

It took some time for the package to get there, but it did eventually arrive at her new address.

Anonymous · ‎12-29-2015

I do received packages that were refused and returned to me and I have never been charged for the return postage at all.

gifts_of_elegance · ‎12-30-2015

Pick it up and refund. I had a similar situation and eBay advised me against refunding. Said I did not have to and if I do, then I am on my own, without their protection because I did not take their advice. I should never have listened to them, I should have followed my own conscience.

Next step was receipt of Negative Feedback which eBay did not remove even though it referred to claim. Then customer filed dispute with their credit card company and at that point refund was made.

Costumer bid on two similar items. The other one was cheaper than mine. He never said anything, just refused my parcel upon receipt. He claimed the Post Office sent it back without his knowledge because he was on holidays, which was a lie. I doubt eBay did anything against him.

I know its upsetting but the best thing is to bite the bullet and go on. Nothing is worth the aggregation and stress.

treasure.hunter.d · ‎12-30-2015

@mjwl2006 wrote:
I have a similar yet different problem. A buyer form the USA gave me what proved to be an undeliverable address and the parcel (upgraded from small packets to tracked packets at my own cost) is coming back to me now. I'm waiting for the card that says I have to pay to pick it up. In the meantime, the buyer has stated they'd like it re-shipped to another address which appears to some kind of unmarked warehouse in a different part of their state.

What is a seller required to do with parcels that are Undeliverable? In this case, the initial address provided was a business name and address and it matched both their ebay and paypal accounts although it was an account they apparently use to sell and perhaps bought on it in error. The 'new' address they want it reshipped to next was provided through ebay messages and, therefore, would not be covered under Seller Protection should I decide again to ship it back. Which will cost me out-of-pocket above and beyond being on the hook for the international Return shipping back.

As a seller, what am I supposed to do? As required, I mean. It occurs to me that if I were to ship it to their new, second address, the buyer would at that moment be able to open an Item Not Received Claim via paypal who wouldn't give a rat's butt that I had it reshipped to a second location not matching the user paypal account.

As a seller you are NOT REQUIRED to ship to any address that does not appear in the transaction specifics of Ebay/Paypal. You are always free to do so but you run the risk of getting burned with no recourse.

You have some choices.

Option 1. You can cancel the sale citing address problems and refund all but the cost of shipping as you have already paid that and cannot recover it, You would then re-sell the tiem to the buyer once they have corrected the address issues in their accounts. You would have of course communicated your intent to go this route with the buyer and made sure that they were on board with it. No guarantees that they follow through but in a case like this all we have is their word.

Option 2. You can simply cancel the sale, again refunding all but the shipping expense and simply move on. This option I guess would be the path to go on if the buyer gives you any grief over the address change etc. In my mind, the only reason someone would not correct the address issues on their acounts is if they have intent to burn you and other sellers. Why else not have current and correct address info.

Whatever direction you choose to go make sure to communicate your full intent with the buyer so there si a record of it all for Ebay to have a look at should there be any problems.

As a last resort I suppose that you are free to ship to the new address with everything else staying as is and the buyer paying the additional shipping fees but I would never do that. It's just asking to get taken IMHO.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

thD

treasure.hunter.d · ‎12-30-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
I do received packages that were refused and returned to me and I have never been charged for the return postage at all.

That has been my experience as well. But that may just be because I have always gone out of my way to establish and maintain a close and friendly relationship with the mgmt staff at my local Post Office/Outlet.

Cheers,

thD

pjcdn2005 · ‎12-30-2015

Gifts of elegance makes a good point. Even if the buyer is no longer protected by eBay's MBG, they may still be able to place a claim with paypal or with their credit card company if they did pay with a credit card. I'm not sure that Paypal would look at the situation in the same way that eBay does.

pjcdn2005 · ‎12-30-2015

In my mind, the only reason someone would not correct the address issues on their acounts is if they have intent to burn you and other sellers. Why else not have current and correct address info.

I've sent a few items to a different address and haven't been 'burned'. Sometimes a buyer has moved and forgets to update their address or they might always get packages sent to their home but want this particular one sent to their office.

Or perhaps they live at one address for only part of the year..at school for example...and they forgot to make their current location their primary address. The item could also be a gift and they want it sent directly to the gift recipient. Yes, they could have put in the correct address at checkout but often people just forget. I don't think that means that they are being dishonest in any way.

I wish that there an easier way on eBay for buyers to 'fix' their address after a purchase. I can understand why a seller wants the correct address in some situations but the whole process of having to cancel the transaction is inconvenient for both buyer and seller.

femmefan1946 · ‎12-30-2015

they'd like it re-shipped to another address which appears to some kind of unmarked warehouse in a different part of their state.

Is it possible that the warehouse is a freight forwarding company that will ship the parcel overseas?

Contact the buyer and ask her to add the new address to her Paypal account.

I'm not actually sure this will cover you if there is a further problem, but it should tell her you are acting in good faith and if she refuses, you know she doesn't have clean hands.

You can ask about the forwarding at the same time. Tell her that you get those addresses from time to time and that they work out fine. (Preferably only tell her this if it is true, of course.)

momcqueen · ‎12-31-2015

I'm hoping the package itself will shed some light on why it was deemed Undeliverable but tracking now shows it stalled in Winnipeg for the past three business days. I'd feel a little better about reshipping if the buyer had answered my first message and didn't leave ONLY negative feedback for every single seller that she's used. I wish I were kidding about that. Every. Single. One.

femmefan1946 · ‎01-01-2016

It's not necessarily 'stalled' in Winnipeg.

That's just the last place it was recorded.

You won't see it now until Monday, because of PO holidays.

The PO is still working, but with a much smaller staff and mostly on the Priority Mail items.

rose-dee · ‎01-02-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:
I'm hoping the package itself will shed some light on why it was deemed Undeliverable but tracking now shows it stalled in Winnipeg for the past three business days. I'd feel a little better about reshipping if the buyer had answered my first message and didn't leave ONLY negative feedback for every single seller that she's used. I wish I were kidding about that. Every. Single. One.

Ooohhh. That's not good. I think this would be my red flag not to re-send. It might also get you out of any potential defect you'd incur for a refund.

Why not bring this up at this week's Board Hour in the meantime, since you're still waiting for the parcel to come back to you? I think it's something all of us could face at one time or another, and it would be good to get advice from the horse's mouth (so to speak, my apologies to Raphael).