Advice needed on return requests

[triber]

I have a buyer who purchased 6 craft books from me. She asked me to make sure that they didn't smell of perfume. I checked each one carefully, I do have a strong sense of smell, and I couldn't smell anything.

I just got 6 requests to return them because she said that they have a strong perfume smell. I don't think they have been near any perfume, but it seems she is very susceptible to perfume. I am not doubting her, she says she tried to air them outside and she is willing to pay the return postage. I am willing to refund when the books are returned

 A couple of times in the past I have accidentally checked the wrong box and the buyer has been refunded before I have the items returned, so I want to do this right.

I only have a couple of days to reply before eBay will automatically send the refund.

I presume I should send her a message for each of the returns.

Do I click on the "accept  the return"? As she is paying the return postage I don't have a return label to upload.

Do I refund the shipping cost that I paid? It was combined shipping for all 6, but each request is separate.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

[femmefan1946]

If you decide that you will not refund the shipping cost, you should spell that out in the Dispute.

Because I am old and cranky, I want to mention that most homes with a computer also have a printer/scanner and that pattern pages are easily scanned.

However, I would accept the return specifically as Buyer Remorse and I would not refund the shipping charge.

[pjcdn2005 · Accepted solution]

There is probably a button that says 'refund' and one that says 'accept the return'.  As you suggested, it is the second one that will allow you to get the items back before returning.

When you do go to refund a buyer's remorse return you have the option of refunding the full transaction or of just refunding the amount they paid for the item. It's totally up to you what you do.  If they paid a lot more for shipping than what you charged and the transactions all come up separately as you refund, you might want to refund shipping on some of them??

If shipping was 'free' then you can't withhold anything for shipping.

[needsmorerobots]

It appears your problem has already been answered by our more established sellers (experts).

The only thing I can add in case this happens again is to suggest to your customer to try sealing the items into paper bags for about 2 days. This seems to work for me. I once received a DVD that smelled of heavy cigarette smoke, I separated the insert from the case, put them both into a paper bag and the smell disappeared. Paper bags seem to absorb strong smells.