eBay

saskad93 · ‎12-02-2023

Purchased item from longtime seller with impeccable feedback. Item arrived but it was not as described, slight damage. Sent a message and pictures to seller. Seller suggested I submit for refund. Refund went through without a hitch. My "case" is described by eBay as "closed". A few days have passed and no Return Label has been issued. Based on what I have read regarding returns for items that are "not as described" or "damaged" the seller should be sending a Return Label.
Reason I ask is because in my history of buying through various sites this scenario has played out like this one other time. I asked the seller for a Return Label and they continually ignored my question. That seller even gave me great feedback despite not asking for the item back.
I will contact the seller but is there something going on 🤔 that I am missing?

ypdc_dennis · ‎12-02-2023

The Seller might not want the item back. Although they should tell you if that's the case.

msau4301 · ‎12-02-2023

As ypdc dennis has said they may not want it back. I know for myself I've issued a refund to buyers in past without wanting the item back because the cost of two shipping charges (one to send it to them and one to get it back) was worth as much as the item so not worth adding more expense to get it back.

Not sure why they haven't responded back to you though, that's the first thing I did was to apologize and tell them they could just keep it. I sometimes have had buyers feel bad afterwards and only want a partial refund.

Just hold onto it unless they reach out to you at this point, I think they would have answered you if they wanted it back.

marnotom! · ‎12-03-2023

@saskad93 wrote:

Sent a message and pictures to seller. Seller suggested I submit for refund. Refund went through without a hitch.

Seller mentioned nothing about returning the item, and one usually returns the item in order to receive the refund. I agree with the other posters that the seller likely didn't want the item returned.

@saskad93 wrote:

I asked the seller for a Return Label and they continually ignored my question. That seller even gave me great feedback despite not asking for the item back.
I will contact the seller but is there something going on 🤔that I am missing?

Sounds as though you're message-bombing the seller. You can stop now. 😁

And for what it's worth, sellers can't leave anything but positive feedback for buyers.

saskad93 · ‎12-03-2023

None of this really matters because for the second time I got the item, I got my money back, and no negative review.

From where I am looking it seems unfair for the buyer but I can't return the items if they don't send a Return Label. How much value does an item need to be for some sellers to care? Are they getting insurance money? Do they make so much money they can afford to occassionally let some items go for free? Is it all about avoiding negative reviews? Combination of all the above?

Oh, and I tried to leave feedback but immediately had a pop-up message stating that I already left feedback to the seller. That's fine except that I didn't and after searching no message from me to them is found.

eBay is a strange place to do business.

flipistics · ‎12-03-2023

@saskad93 wrote:
None of this really matters because for the second time I got the item, I got my money back, and no negative review.

From where I am looking it seems unfair for the buyer but I can't return the items if they don't send a Return Label. How much value does an item need to be for some sellers to care? Are they getting insurance money? Do they make so much money they can afford to occassionally let some items go for free? Is it all about avoiding negative reviews? Combination of all the above?

Oh, and I tried to leave feedback but immediately had a pop-up message stating that I already left feedback to the seller. That's fine except that I didn't and after searching no message from me to them is found.

eBay is a strange place to do business.

It's unlikely they're getting anything from insurance. Shipping in Canada is expensive and return shipping is not free for the seller, so if the cost of the return shipping was close to or greater than the value of the item the seller may have decided that it would cost them more to ask for it back than what they could sell it for again. Some sellers will simply write it off and some will pay for the return shipping anyway, even though they're losing even more money by doing so, to discourage scammers who sometimes try those tactics. It all depends on the seller (and on whether or not the seller feels the buyer is being honest).

As for the feedback, I've had that issue as a seller recently too. I have no idea what causes it, but I suspect there's something else preventing feedback from being left and the wrong error message is being shown.

saskad93 · ‎12-03-2023

Correction - I meant to write "unfair for the seller".

saskad93 · ‎12-10-2023

Originally I had accepted the solution to my question as being the seller didn't want the item returned for a variety of reasons including "too expensive to bother". I finally reached out to the buyer and asked if a return label would be sent. They replied that the eBay International Shipping program takes care of "everything".

OK, now things are starting to make sense. After questioning the seller further they stated that if eBay refunded me, closed the case, and did not send a Return Label then I don't need to return the item. Finally, I asked the seller if they take a financial loss. The reply was "no, eBay covers that cost". Again, this is coming from a very prolific seller with nearly impeccable feedback.

Now, I get it - EVERYBODY wins! The seller gets the value of the item refunded (sweet deal if they know it was worth less), the buyer gets a full refund, and the buyer gets to keep the item, too.

So now my question is, "How can eBay afford to do that?" Are their profits so high they can afford to pay everyone for the occassional eBay deal gone wrong? Even COSTCO wants the item back before they give a refund 🙂 Wild and whacky stuff...

pjcdn2005 · ‎12-11-2023

EBay often does ask for an item to be shipped back if the item was sold through the EIS. I don't know why they didn't send a label this time but since they have already refunded you they obviously want it back.

marnotom! · ‎12-12-2023

@saskad93 wrote:

So now my question is, "How can eBay afford to do that?" Are their profits so high they can afford to pay everyone for the occassional eBay deal gone wrong? Even COSTCO wants the item back before they give a refund 🙂

I'm going to hazard a guess that there's a pretty healthy mark-up on the eIS shipping charge to pay for all the bells and whistles that sellers get when they use this program as well as to provide a contingency fund of sorts for the rare refund of an unreturned item.

reallynicestamps · ‎12-12-2023

My thought is almost the opposite.

That there are so few problems that eBay can well afford to make both buyers and sellers happy without any particular disturbance to their bottom line.

The industry standard is supposed to be one percent failed transactions.

Most experienced* sellers here, admittedly a small group, report less than that.

And of course in most Claims and disputes the seller does want the item back and pays for that "privilege".

*New sellers are going to be different, both because they make rookie mistakes and because they are targeted by scammers.