eBay

tryubik-useonlyasdirected · ‎06-17-2025

A modest priced item was sold April 28th, posted with tracking the same day, arrived on May 3rd.
On May 27th Buyer Opened a dispute with their financial institution "did not recognize the transaction."
June 7th Dispute closed in our favour as it is covered under eBay Seller Protection.

Today, June 17th a second case is opened under INAD "with their financial institution directly." Buyer requests to keep items but have funds refunded?!

Our policy in case of INAD's has always been, send it back, we'll pay for postage, when it arrives the seller gets their refund. Fortunately, its extremely rare. We go out of our way to make sure items are accurately described and buyers are pleased with their purchases.

Should we contact the buyer directly and request they return the item for refund?
Do we talk with eBay and say the buyer can return the item for refund?

How do we proceed with an INAD case that is simply requesting a refund without returning an item? It's patently absurd. Its clearly a scam artist as the item is one of the nicest of this type of item we've seen. Nobody would have an issue with this at this price unless they were dishonest or demented.

marnotom! · ‎06-17-2025

EDIT: Sorry, misread post.

tryubik-useonlyasdirected · ‎06-17-2025

The buyer first had an item not recognized case opened through their financial institution.
eBay closed it automatically without any input from our end.

Now the buyer has opened a second item not as described case through their financial institution. eBay is now asking us how we wish to proceed: b/ Refund their money. (God no, not without the item.) Or a/ Challenge and provide supporting documentation.

So would this be a case of Challenge and provide supporting documentation: what documentation can we provide?

The item was shipped to them exactly as described. If its not the buyer then its the financial institution that has to make good on that not us. If it is them then they can send it back, we'll pay for postage and refund no further questions asked.

marnotom! · ‎06-17-2025

This is a pretty tough call given that your buyer has already made an unsuccessful dispute, albeit of a different type, through their financial institution.

Should you decide to challenge this INAD dispute, I think any "documentation" you provide should point out this unsuccessful dispute. Unfortunately, financial institutions don't really act as judge and jury and whoever handles the dispute on its end may not be in a position to see that there's something a little odd about the buyer's approach.

I was originally going to say that there's probably no point in contacting the buyer, as the fact that they never went through eBay on this suggests to me that they're really determined to kill the goose that laid the golden egg, but now I'm thinking that you do have a few days at your disposal to offer a refund with return. Even if they don't respond to your offer (which I think is likely), that could be something else to add to your "documentation" should you decide to challenge this.

My worry here is that as INAD cases and disputes are extremely tough to beat, you'll likely end up losing this and besides the black marks and all that stuff, you're going to have to reimburse eBay for the chargeback resolution fee. All told, I don't see this ending well for you. This buyer is likely going to keep the item no matter what you do, but you do have a few days to try getting the item back before agreeing to issue a refund without challenging the chargeback.

You might want to get in touch with eBay customer service via Facebook or X / Twitter to see if there are any additional insights.

tryubik-useonlyasdirected · ‎06-19-2025

Yeah, that is all we could think of as well.

We've reached out to the buyer with a civil 'if your not pleased with your purchase by all means send it back for a full refund, we'll even pay for return shipping' message.

We'll give that 24 hours and then decide to "challenge" or call in.

IMHO, if its throught he financial institution we should be dealing with them directly. eBay has invested interest and cannot be an arms length third party. This should be between ourselves and the institution. The 1st claim was denied because of tracking proof of the items purchase and arrival. The 2nd claim falls under policy - send it back, recieve a refund.

msau4301 · ‎06-19-2025

As marnotom says this is a tough one. I did not know anyone could open an item not as described case with their bank (I thought that was only an eBay thing?!) I would like to hope you could challenge the dispute.

If both the bank and eBay can see this person first tried to say they didn't recognize the transaction, even though they received it May 3rd, then when proof was given that they did order it, did receive it, they are just oops my bad I did order it, then turn around and say it's not as described?

I don't think the bank on it's own can open a case because the buyer changed their mind (which is basically what they are doing), they did it through the bank because it was too long after delivery to do it through eBay alone I would assume (unless they didn't know how to open a case here?)

I don't think eBay will refund without an item being returned but myself I would try to "challenge the dispute", even if it's for the principal, and to point out this buyer is merely trying a second way to get his money back since the first way didn't work.

Keep us posted, I'm curious what happens here. Good luck.

marnotom! · ‎06-19-2025

@tryubik-useonlyasdirected wrote:

IMHO, if its throught he financial institution we should be dealing with them directly. eBay has invested interest and cannot be an arms length third party. This should be between ourselves and the institution. The 1st claim was denied because of tracking proof of the items purchase and arrival. The 2nd claim falls under policy - send it back, recieve a refund.

eBay isn't really an arms-length third party, unfortunately. It accepted the payment and is on record with the credit card issuer as the merchant for the transaction, not the seller of the item. That means that if a dispute or chargeback is filed for a transaction, it has to go through the merchant that is on record for the transaction, which in this case is eBay.

Where is your buyer based? I get the impression that Canadian card issuers are a lot more sticky about disputes/chargebacks than American ones, insisting (at least on paper) that buyers try to work things out with the merchant first before resorting to filing disputes/chargebacks, and this buyer doesn't appear to have done this either through you or through eBay's Money Back Guarantee process.

tryubik-useonlyasdirected · ‎06-19-2025

The buyer is american (Kentucky).

Will post an update on steps taken for anyone in the future. It is uncombent upon all of us to do what we can.

flipistics · ‎06-19-2025

@msau4301 wrote:
As marnotom says this is a tough one. I did not know anyone could open an item not as described case with their bank (I thought that was only an eBay thing?!) I would like to hope you could challenge the dispute.
If both the bank and eBay can see this person first tried to say they didn't recognize the transaction, even though they received it May 3rd, then when proof was given that they did order it, did receive it, they are just oops my bad I did order it, then turn around and say it's not as described?
I don't think the bank on it's own can open a case because the buyer changed their mind (which is basically what they are doing), they did it through the bank because it was too long after delivery to do it through eBay alone I would assume (unless they didn't know how to open a case here?)
I don't think eBay will refund without an item being returned but myself I would try to "challenge the dispute", even if it's for the principal, and to point out this buyer is merely trying a second way to get his money back since the first way didn't work.
Keep us posted, I'm curious what happens here. Good luck.

I wonder if the buyer used a partner's credit card or something and they didn't recognize the transaction? If the first dispute was by one person and the second by another, that might explain how both could be opened.