Item Must be Jinxed

[katlover1952]

I have sold this particular item 3 times & had non-paying buyers. So I sold it for the 4th time (even had a bit of a bidding war) but was a little concerned about getting paid as it was a new ebayer with no FB. Well I did get paid, shipped it last week, it arrived today & now I have a return request (supposedly because it was purchased for a friend & they had one just like it).  I have not had a return request for a number of years but eBay advised they had till Nov 8th to return & that I did not have to refund until I received it (although they have put a hold on my funds - curious can they actually put a hold on my bank account?) & eBay had advised them to provide me with tracking # or I could just refund now & not bother to get the item back. As it is over $100 USD I certainly will not do a refund till received.

Just wondering from others' experiences with refunds what some of the pitfalls are & what I need to watch for. I am sure this item must be jinxed!  Of course what is really annoying about this is I did have someone else bid on it too so might have sold to someone who did want it!!

[femmefan1946]

There are a LOT more Failed Transactions with auctions than with Fixed Price/Immediate Payment Required.
The Hold would be on money not yet transferred to your bank account, I imagine. Please confirm since Managed Payments is new to all of us. EBay can take money from your bank account-- that's why they were so insistent on chequing accounts only.

Since this is a Buyer Remorse return, the buyer is paying for return shipping right? Does the Money Back Guarantee allow any seller to refund only the purchase price and not the shipping cost?

[ricarmic]

I too have had cursed items, they are very frustrating indeed!!

Note that when you do get the item back, if it is unchanged in condition etc, depending on how long the return takes, you can try a second offer option on the underbidder. I don't know how long this option remains open, I have used it when the top bidder cancels before it is shipped but haven't had this particular situation before.

[lucitabby]

I had this situation last month.  The money (for item only not shipping) was taken from my bank account and placed on hold.  The person had till a certain date to return the item with tracking.  They never returned the item.  I think after that date, the case is supposed to close and you get your money back but mine did not close automatically.

I waited another week then I used the chat feature - refer'd to my case number and asked to close the case and return my money.  The person I chatted with agreed and said it would close in about 48 hours.  It did. 

Annoying that I had to go after ebay to get the case closed and my money back.

[byto253]

It is weird how an item can go like that.  I had a few identical turntable parts that sat with no sales for a few months, then 3 sold within a day to different people.  This is niche stuff, so it was just odd.

For the return, be sure you are clearly communicating over the Ebay messaging system with the buyer doing to the return.  I did have a case where a person would only return if I sent a label, which I could not do through Ebay.  I followed Ebay procedure and told them I would send funds up front for the shipping cost, please send Paypal info.  They did not, the deadline for shipping to me was counting down, and they made another claim that I lost and the buyer got auto refunded by a system bot.  Because everything was clear in the message system, the CSR reversed the case and I was reimbursed.

From this forum I have learned that there options to buy a USPS label such as through Shippo and I think Pirate Ship, but it is still good to have a clear set of communication to cover yourself and not count on the system doing to right thing.

[katlover1952]

In this case as it is not an INR or an item not as described but simply a buyer changing their mind at lease they have to pay the shipping costs. Buyer did contact me today to get my address, said he could not ship to the address on the label but not sure why, it should be correct but I sent it to him & politely asked him to let me know when he shipped it & the tracking #. Just hoping I do not end up with any issues & it comes back okay.

[katlover1952]

Femme the money had already been transferred to my account. I had a funny feeling about the sale (buyer had zero FB) so waited for the $ before I shipped. Still does not look like he has shipped the item back to me but did ask for my address because he said he could not mail it to the one on the package? I am a RR person so not sure if that confused him or what.

really hoping this does not drag on.