Never again…

[rio1953]

After what happened with this return I will never again send a return label to a buyer through the eBay claim section.

I was requested to send a return label by the 23rd of September. I complied and sent it the 20th at that point the message said that the buyer had to return the item by the 25th of September.

After a half an hour the message was changed to your item is on your way.
On the same day the 20th late evening, the buyer message me saying that she couldn't open the label through the claim so I send it again this time using eBay messages. She said she would ship it shortly 

On the 27th I contacted eBay through chat and was said that the item had been shipped but was stuck somewhere( I had already contacted the shipping carrier and confirmed that the label hadn't been used yet). I explained that what the system had recorded was me sending the label to her and not her shipping the item. The representative said that at this point even though there was a messaging record stating otherwise ( she hadn't shipped it yet) they were going with waiting for a whole 10 days to see if there was any movement. Even though she had confirmed through messages that she would ship the item back on the weekend. Which she did finally last evening.

I am upset because this wasn't supposed to happen. She hassled me to send this label asap but she took her time to ship it back.

plus I was given a time slot in which to do the return and so was she....now if this is eBay and the claim procedure fault, I don't know. If it is eBay faulty system, they should fix it right away, because in my view both sellers and buyers should be held up to the same rules.

Hopefully she did and marked the box everywhere with "return merchandise".

Sorry if there are mistakes with my spelling or with constructing a paragraph or some words.

Next time I will choose to either send the label through eBay messages, or send the money for them to buy the label through PayPal.

[pjcdn2005]

I don't know why they would say your item is on its way when it hadn't been shipped yet. That is odd.  But sending it through the claim section does allow eBay to know that you provided the label. I don't know if they would look in messages to see if you had sent one and that in itself could cause a problem.

For my information, did you buy a label and attach it? Which format did you use?(pdf, jpg etc). 

During the pandemic eBay started giving buyers a longer time to send back returns and have continued doing that.  I'm not certain but thought it was at least a couple of weeks but even then they do give buyers more time  before they close the return.  As far as buyers being held to the same standard as sellers, afaik that has never been the case. 

I hope that you get your item back quickly. 🙂

P.s. Your post was super easy to read.

[flipistics]

I actually sent a buyer a return label a few days ago and they said they couldn't open it through the claim  either. It was uploaded as a jpg. I figured the buyer simply didn't know how to open something attached, but maybe there really is a bug in eBay's return process.  I sent it through the messages afterwards like you did and they were able to get it just fine.  I've since set up a return process through Canada Post to allow easy returns. I don't know how compatible it is with eBay's systems, but I guess I'll find out eventually.

devon@ebaymaybe buyers being unable to open the label through the claim could be forwarded to the correct team to look into? 

[pjcdn2005]

I wonder if it has to be saved as a pdf?

[byto253]

I wish PDFs could be sent with messenger.

[femmefan1946]

The buyer requested return for refund.

You sent the return label on Tuesday the 20th. The buyer had trouble opening it, so you sent it again (on the 20th).

EBay required that the shipment be mailed by the 25th.

By Tuesday the 27th, there was no tracking showing the item had been sent. You contacted the shipper (Who?) and they confirmed the return had not yet been shipped.

You contacted eBay, by Chat, which told you that eBay would not close the Dispute until 10 days had elapsed. (October 7th or 10th?)

I assume the eBay clerk on Chat was having problems accepting that a Return Label not sent through eBay Messages was actually sent?

Tracking shows she mailed Friday, September 30th. Whew!

Next time I will choose to either send the label through eBay messages,

This would probably be a good idea, but the fault here seems to be with the slowpoke buyer, not with the arrival of the return shipping label.

or send the money for them to buy the label through PayPal.

This always makes me feel nervous, because, while most people are honest, our buyers don't do as much mailing as we do.  The next customer may be baffled by how to use the PP money to buy a label or how to ship a parcel (which may also be your slowpoke's problem).

I'd be less worried that the customer would just keep the PP money, forcing you into a PP dispute to retrieve it.  YMMV.

[rio1953]

The carrier is DHL and bought the label through Shippo.

The time line is: The claim was open on the 17th of September. I sent the return label the 20th of September ( I had until the 23rd to send it). I resend it again on eBay messages. Original message said the buyer had until the 25th of September to ship it back. After, an hour or so, that the tracking number had been detected, the message changed to " Item has been shipped". 
I had multiple conversations with the buyer through messages, confirming she hadn't shipped. The 27th of September I contacted eBay through Chat, the representative went through all the messages and saw the label and all the conversations I had with the buyer but either because he didn't want or couldn't do anything, he said this was a late delivery and to wait until the 30th of September to close the claim in my favour if no tracking movement was detected. The buyer shipped it on the 30th evening. 

What I am complaining about is how the process went probably wrong because of a glitch and if eBay doesn't attend to it will affect returns for a lot of sellers 

[devon@ebay]

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@flipistics wrote:

I actually sent a buyer a return label a few days ago and they said they couldn't open it through the claim  either. It was uploaded as a jpg. I figured the buyer simply didn't know how to open something attached, but maybe there really is a bug in eBay's return process.  I sent it through the messages afterwards like you did and they were able to get it just fine.  I've since set up a return process through Canada Post to allow easy returns. I don't know how compatible it is with eBay's systems, but I guess I'll find out eventually.

devon@ebaymaybe buyers being unable to open the label through the claim could be forwarded to the correct team to look into? 

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Hi @flipistics! Thank you for tagging me on this and I will be sure to get this information shared with the correct team.