eBay

katlover1952 · ‎11-01-2014

I had a buyer purchase & pay for an item. The address on the Paypal notification was to an address in California and she was charged and paid for US shipping. She then sent me an email asking if I could ship it to China. It was just a $9.99 item but I was a bit concerned shipping to China (not sure if it is like Russia with lots of theft etc) so wanted to send insured. To send to China tracked & insured was over $47 (this was surface too not even air). I contacted her and advised and said if this was too expensive she should ask me to cancel the sale and I would do so. I did receive an email from her requesting that I cancel the sale so I have done the Paypal refund. I am on the verge of loosing my top rated seller status and want to make sure I do this cancellation properly. How do I go about doing this to make sure I don't get a defect?? Part of the reason that I am on the verge now is because of cancelling a sale to Russia (which eBay told me OK to do) & doing another one to save a customer money on multiple purchases where they paid before getting a combined invoice. The other problem is the Post Office lost an item on my (shipped with no tracking due to cost). This defect thing is going to be a Royal pain for sellers if eBay does not address some of these issues where it is not the seller fault. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

momcqueen · ‎11-01-2014

This sounds like a rat's nest of trouble. I think your best bet is to call ebay customer service. I see several potential problems here. Don't cancel anything yet. Do not, I repeat. Call first. You will wait on hold or for a call-back but you'll be covered.

rose-dee · ‎11-01-2014

The cancellation process has been streamlined since the 2014 Fall Seller Update. You should not get a defect as long as:

1) the buyer has, in an eBay message to you, indicated they want to cancel; and

2) you choose "buyer changed mind or made a mistake" as the reason for the cancellation.

I wouldn't bother calling eBay. Their CS people in Indonesia are simply reading from a policy sheet (which they often don't seem to grasp themselves), and/or will give you contradictory responses.

If you use the above procedure and you do get a defect, then it would be worth contacting eBay to get it removed. The principle is that the seller should only get a defect as a result of seller error, which, based on your description, this certainly wasn't.

mdf_jersey · ‎11-01-2014

I can second to what rose-dee has said. Basically the buyers reason for purchase will be classified as purchased in error and since the buyer initiated the cancellation, you have no reason to concern your self.

katlover1952 · ‎11-01-2014

Thanks for the advice - appreciate it very much. I know what you mean about contact eBay directly. Sometime you get someone who seems to be on the ball and you can understand well but often there is trouble explaining the problem and/or understanding what they are saying if they even understand the situation.

38e_avenue · ‎11-01-2014

Choose simply "buyer changed mind" and you will get no defect.

I did probably 15 times this year - no defect gotten.

Instead, I got 3 defects last month for a (in)famous "where is my item" disputes.

In all cases buyers got their items just a few days later, the disputes were closed, but the defects stay (of course).

katlover1952 · ‎11-02-2014

Yeah - I had one of those and according to the buyer it never did show up - at least she never contacted me after I refunded. It never came back to me either - I do wonder where all those lost parcels end up.

eBay really needs to take a look at how that is handled. I feel if we ship promptly we should not be getting defects for the Post Office's mismanagement. There has to be a way that can be sorted out so sellers don't receive defects when it is in no way their fault and they refund the money!

bb_cool_stuff · ‎11-02-2014

I have had the same issue over the years.

Did all these missing packages, that I fully refunded, not make it to their destinations ?

Doubtful.

How many messaged back mentioning that the package arrived & to reinvoice them ? Not One.

Now I only ship overseas to the UK, Australia, France & Japan.

Germany, which was always fabulous in the past, is now on my Banned List.

rose-dee · ‎11-02-2014

@bb_cool_stuff wrote:
I have had the same issue over the years.
Did all these missing packages, that I fully refunded, not make it to their destinations ?
Doubtful.

I think you're absolutely right that postal delivery is far more reliable, and true losses far more rare than many sellers believe.

How can I conclude that? I'm fortunate in the categories in which I sell -- my buyers are mostly "adults", who can read, and are generally really nice people. With all the other disadvantages we small sellers have these days, it's the one advantage I'm most grateful for -- a friendly, reasonable customer base. Not one parcel -- not a single one -- has ever gone permanently missing in all the years I've been shipping parcels.

The only one that got hung up for a couple of weeks was going to New Jersey in the middle of Hurricane Sandy, but eventually it did show up!

And I ship to the U.S., most of Europe, UK, Australia, Japan and other select areas of the world (although I do exclude S.America, Russia, and obviously dubious areas of the Middle East and Asia).

bb_cool_stuff · ‎11-02-2014

It happens & while I question the honesty of some buyers, my losses are down 60% from last year with two months to go.

Amazing what happens when you eliminate problem countries.

rose-dee · ‎11-02-2014

@bb_cool_stuff wrote:

Amazing what happens when you eliminate problem countries.

Yup, I agree. EBay has made it virtually impossible for smaller sellers to ship worldwide without exclusions because their policies (and defects) are based on the kinds of expectations one would have from a postal service like USPS or CP.

In the "old days" on eBay, you could take a chance shipping to problematic areas and the worst you'd get for a lost or stolen parcel might be negative FB that had no direct bearing on the ability to sell. In fact, a smart seller could insure such parcels, hopefully collect on the insurance claim if it did get lost, and refund the buyer eventually -- but that was when a seller could actually communicate easily with a buyer and sort things out personally over a longer time frame. Not anymore!

bb_cool_stuff · ‎11-02-2014

Losing the CP Insurance definitely hurt a lot of us, but what can do ?

Improvise, Adapt & Kick Butt, I guess.

Funny thing, with all the Glitches, New Defect Rate, some sellers are still making money, LOTS OF IT.

We knew since the New Year that this year was going to be tough sledding.

Next nine weeks will tell where we stand in the eBay Universe.

I have almost completed all my adjustments & if that doesn't stimulate sales, it has to be my items.

Not sure about anyone else, but my last four months have been brutal.

Business Model adjustment on January 1st anyone ?

rose-dee · ‎11-02-2014

@bb_cool_stuff wrote:

Business Model adjustment on January 1st anyone ?

I had to LOL at that, 'bb' -- they get us with a 1-2 punch at the beginning of every year, first Canada Post, then eBay's Spring Seller Update. It took me nearly 6 months to "make adjustments" last time. I don't know that I have any more adjusting I can do. I'm hanging on by my fingernails at this point, just hoping eBay doesn't bring in any more major upheavals in the spring.

Chin up everybody!