Please explain this to me

[pspguitar]

A buyer opens a dispute to return an item they purchased. He said "He changed his mind." For whatever reason, it did not show initially as a dispute in the dispute centre. After a few days I received an email from eBay saying please respond to this dispute. This surprised me. I sent a note to the buyer saying I don't normally accept returns on items, but I would for him. I would return the cost of the item once he shipped it back to me with tracking. A week passed. The buyer escalated the dispute. Within 30 minutes ebay refunded the buyer the full amount, including shipping costs, from my PayPal account. There is no tracking number from the buyer, no indication that the buyer returned the item. I just got off the phone from an eBay rep. She said the money would be returned to my PayPal in 72 hours. I questioned her about how this buyer possibley never returned the item, didn't upload tracking, so how could they issue him a full refund from my account. She said she was not able to share certain information with me. What? So, as it stands right now. I don't have the returned item, there is no tracking number, I have the money taken out of my PayPal account and I have a rep's words saying money will be returned within 72 hours. Can someone explain this to me? This procedure would open itself up to a tremendous amount of fraud. Strange. Thanks

[reallynicestamps]

Well you can cross your fingers and hope the CS rep was being truthful.

I sent a note to the buyer saying I don't normally accept returns on items, but I would for him. I would return the cost of the item once he shipped it back to me with tracking.

Did you do this directly or in the Dispute?

If you only contacted him, eBay didn't see your acceptance of 'refund on return'.

Which may also mean that you will be seeing a Defect on your account.

[pspguitar]

I stated everything clearly in the dispute communication. I accepted the refund through the dispute process as well. The rep said, there would be no penalty against me. I asked the rep where the refund money would come from if I am being given back the full amount. She was unable to answer. She kept just saying it wouldn't impact me. I was more interested in how this situation actually could have been processed so quickly. Who pays if I get a full refund and the buyer gets a refund? Weird. And where's the item?

[ypdc_dennis]

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@pspguitarwrote:

... The rep said, there would be no penalty against me. I asked the rep where the refund money would come from if I am being given back the full amount. She was unable to answer. She kept just saying it wouldn't impact me. I was more interested in how this situation actually could have been processed so quickly. Who pays if I get a full refund and the buyer gets a refund? Weird. And where's the item?

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If it's eBay's fault, then eBay.

But eBay will mostly go after getting the money back from the buyer.

[momcqueen]

The situation that you describe is very curious. Perhaps bring it to the Weekly Chat and ask for elaboration. Tyler (eBay staff) opens the thread on Tuesday evening to collect questions for response on Wednesday.

[pspguitar]

Thanks for the info. I will try to remember to do that...I've never experienced anything like this before. Seems very odd, even the customer service rep's comments were odd. The conspiracist in me made me think that this was eBay testing something with a fake account. Something is flawed in the process if eBay can issue a full refund (including shipping) so quickly with out actually requiring a tracking number from the buyer to show the return. Also, the dispute and case escalation was done exactly on the day at the exact moment it could be escalated - almost computer generated precision. There was been zero response from the buyer since I have asked for a tracking number. They have over 150 transaction with a 100% rating. One of the strangest things I have dealt with over 10 years selling on ebay. Side note, this was all done on my business account not this one.

[goldnideas]

Next time respond to claim, don't dismissed it, they have an option for - "seller do not accept returns".  End of story. 

Every buyer can open claim anytime, but seller have right to refuse it, if this rule stated in your selling preferences for return process.

Otherwise without response they automatically counted it against seller account.

In your case most likely you will have your money back. I had similar story, but accepted return (thinking it will save me a trouble), buyer escalated claim without sending back my item, ebay refunded. 2 weeks after  that I called customer service, explained that I never got anything, they refunded full amount next day. 

Now I have faith in justice for sellers 🙂

[pjcdn2005]

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@pspguitarwrote:

I stated everything clearly in the dispute communication. I accepted the refund through the dispute process as well. The rep said, there would be no penalty against me. I asked the rep where the refund money would come from if I am being given back the full amount. She was unable to answer. She kept just saying it wouldn't impact me. I was more interested in how this situation actually could have been processed so quickly. Who pays if I get a full refund and the buyer gets a refund? Weird. And where's the item?

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Do you mean that you accepted the return through the dispute process?  Did you click on the option return for refund or do you mean that you  responded within the dispute using the message the buyer option?  If you clicked on the return for refund button I wouldn't think that the buyer would have been allowed to ask ebay to step in unless the tracking number showed that you had received the item back.     If you simply messaged the buyer and told him to return then the ebay bots would consider that as not having replied to the return and the buyer would have been able to ask ebay to step in.

Did your listing state no returns?

The buyer had to check off why he wanted the return...did he definitely check off changed mind?

[custom_shop_designed]

Yes everything was done through eBay dispute. I accepted the return. I also left a message. Yes my listing said no returns. Yes the buyer selected that he didn’t want the item as the reason. No tracking. Very confusing.

[momcqueen]

The scenario that you describe is the opposite of how it is supposed to work. I wonder if there was some manner of massive glitch between sites for a brief period of time. Returns is a big feature of the future for sellers so maybe ebay was 'working' on or testing something when this happened. Pure speculation on my part.

[pjcdn2005]

Since you don't accept returns and that was a buyer's remorse return, you must have been given the option of not accepting the return at all?  I'm not saying that's what you should have chosen, just  want to confirm that it was an option.

[custom_shop_designed]

OKay, so an update. The money is back into my PayPal account. No word from the buyer. eBay reps said sometimes they cover the cost of the item with the buyer and seller are both in good standing if the items is too costly to ship back. That's odd hey? It would have cost 5-10 to ship back I assume.  Buyer did actually state they didn't want the item as the reason for the return. Also, they did say they would upload a tracking number to return in. This never happened. Anyways...weird stuff. Just happy I got the full amount of the money back for the item I sold.  Take care!!!