eBay

riceqa02 · ‎04-24-2016

I have encountered my first ever return on an item the buyer claims is not authentic. I sent him proof of purchase from Oakley and politely explained to him that not all Oakley components are made exclusively in the USA anymore. I informed him that I do not sell fake items unless Oakley sends me fake items. This is not the issue I want to discuss though. I accepted the return and I was unable to send a return shipping label. I spoke with Ebay and was informed that I should just ask him to ship the item back and get him to send me a copy of the shipping receipt and refund the return shipping cost.

I messaged the buyer to send the item back via Expedited or Expresspost w/ signature confirmation and to send me a copy of the receipt with the tracking number so I could reimburse him immediately. I still haven't seen the receipt or heard back from him.

My situation is that I am currently working out of town and the return address I gave him is my residence. I informed him in the message that I needed to receive the item back by Friday as I will be returning home on Thursday night and will only be home until the Saturday and leave to go back to work out of town on Sunday and don't return home again until May 13th. I told him that as long as he shipped it via Expedited or Expresspost by the end of today, I should receive it by Friday (Ottawa to Edmonton).

My question is do I have to refund him his money right away if the package arrives after I leave to go back to work if there is a delivery confirmation on the tracking or can I wait until I get back on May 13 to confirm? I only ask this because I would like to confirm that the item he sent back is the same item before refunding the money.

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-24-2016

I believe that you have up to 6 days to refund once the tracking number shows that the item was delivered. I think that after that, ebay will automatically refund the buyer. Actually, I've read too that they will do the refund even sooner than 6 days but I don't know if that really does happen.

If the package requires a signature and ends up waiting at the post office for you to pick up, I'm not sure how eBay would handle that since the item hasn't actually been received by you at that time. I don't think that it is really fair though to make the buyer wait for approx 2 weeks after delivery for you to refund.

Is there someone that can pick up your mail and check the package for you?

riceqa02 · ‎04-24-2016

Being a buyer as well, I understand that it is unfair to make the buyer wait. I actually don't have anyone who can pick up the package and inspect it.

I will just have to wait to see if I receive the package on Friday. Just concerned as he stated he was going to send the package back on Thursday April 21. Still no receipt or communication since I confirmed my address with him.

If Ebay were to step in and refund before I got to confirm the package contents and realized the item sent back was not the item sent or the item was damaged, do I have any recourse? I usually don't think in the negative but since this is my first return, I want cover all angles. I know all buyers and sellers aren't cheats but I just wanted to know if the situation were to arise.

dutchman48 · ‎04-24-2016

Inspecting it is probably a waste of time as every one knows.

Once it shows delivered, you are expected to refund in full and send the return shipping costs as well if you did not send a label or send the money up from for return shipping.

Where is he located that you can't send a return label?

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-24-2016

I've never had to do it but I've read on other boards that you can appeal but you have to do a few things so that eBay believes that there really was fraud committed. I know one of the suggestions is to file a police report, not so that they will investigate but just so that you have a police case number. I'm sure that things will work out fine but if not, you might want to post on the selling board on the .com Discussion boards as there are probably more people there that have had similar things happen. Not all of the information given will be useful but if I were in that situation, I would ask some of the people there for suggestions on what to do.

jersey..authentix · ‎04-25-2016

"If Ebay were to step in and refund before I got to confirm the package contents and realized the item sent back was not the item sent or the item was damaged, do I have any recourse? I usually don't think in the negative but since this is my first return, I want cover all angles. I know all buyers and sellers aren't cheats but I just wanted to know if the situation were to arise."

Absolutely none. I went through this months back. All you will get is a " sorry this happened to you". Regardless to your evidence. There are other actions you can take , but dealing with Ebay is not one of them.

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-25-2016

@jersey..authentix wrote:
"If Ebay were to step in and refund before I got to confirm the package contents and realized the item sent back was not the item sent or the item was damaged, do I have any recourse? I usually don't think in the negative but since this is my first return, I want cover all angles. I know all buyers and sellers aren't cheats but I just wanted to know if the situation were to arise."

Absolutely none. I went through this months back. All you will get is a " sorry this happened to you". Regardless to your evidence. There are other actions you can take , but dealing with Ebay is not one of them.

As I posted earlier, that is not always the case. I have heard of more than one seller that was compensated by eBay in a situation like that but I know that is not the norm.

jersey..authentix · ‎04-25-2016

Hearing about and experiencing it are two different things. I don't know the situations involved in those that Ebay compensated but even with overwhelming evidence , my home police report , the buyers city police report, report to USPS, I only recieved " sorry this happened to you" from Ebay.

I have been compensated by Ebay every time, but not by going through Ebay themselves. You wont get far thinking you just call Ebay and explain your situation and expect them to do the right thing.

They dont call it Buyer protection for nothing.