Once Bitten Twice Shy. How would eBay handle several items/combined shipping if refund wanted ?

[triplecgirl]

Next step in dealing with me... an honest seller worried about scammers. Hypothetical situation below.
I sell 7 items , give combined shipping, ship  in one package, and put  the same tracking number  on the paid and shipped area for each of the 7 items listed there.
The buyer uses whatever reason they want for a refund on all 7 items. What happens?  Am I obligated to send out 7 return shipping labels?  I assume a rock comes back in each box. Do I lose 7 cases and pay the return shipping on 7 items too? 

[pjcdn2005]

You would need to send one label.

[ricarmic · Accepted solution]

IMO I think you are really over-worrying about scammers, especially for what your primary selling base is.

I also think a good portion of scammers are actually confused, forgetful, sometimes only rude people as opposed to actual scammers. At least in my world that is the case.

It is very hard not to overreact to a loss situation, not take it personal, and not make larger business decisions than necessary sometimes. 

As a way of perhaps reducing the stress/worry, maybe add an extra $1 price to your items that doesn't make it a stupid price, ie I saw one for $39.99, leave that one alone, but also one for $43.99, change that one to $44.99. The extra $$ goes into the cookie jar to handle whatever comes up however crazy down the road. If you keep track of the extra $ accumulated you'll know there's enough in the pool to cover the "scammerish"/stupid type stuff that comes up, and you won't be worrying what might happen someday, sometime, and if/when it does happen, you're mentally prepared and less likely to act stronger than necessary.

Only an idea, maybe something of use, maybe not!

PS My DS would be so amused about me giving any advice around over worrying given what she sees here at home!

[rocketscollectibles]

you are really over-worrying about scammers

This.

I think everytime i did read you recently, it was about being scared of getting scammed. It's not bad to think about situations and be interested to learn, but it seems like you're stressing out more than anything else. The situation you imagine is probably a once in a lifetime. And obviously you would need to provide only one label.

I'm surprised to see you've been on eBay for 20 years with close to 1000 sales. I mean, you're giving me vibes of when i started selling and how i was anxious every sale about losing $10.

[triplecgirl]

I actually had 2 in a row within a few weeks.  One closed in my favor immediatly, and the other was a pain, and was very surprised I almost lost as was an obvious scammer. 
Only once in 20 years?? I have grown with eBay over that time.  Lots of crazy stuff. I remember having to tell a buyer to please pick up their china from the post office as it was waiting for them there. Buyer's remorse case. That was when a seller could give negative feedback. The buyer picked their stuff up.  I have had a bidder message me that a competing bidder was messaging her to stop bidding as she was bidding to high.   Seriously you could do that at one time. I remember sellers not having to pay fees on shipping, so sellers would put extra items in shipping cost to avoid fees.  That was pretty sad too.
The real reason I am getting uptight is that I see a real problem here. Sellers really do have very little protection.  No big deal to get scammed if you are selling 5.00 items or have inexpensive shipping, but for me, I can easlily lose  a fair chunk of change. Once could be more than plenty if it happened again.
Anyhow, had a good talk with Ebay again, and have modified my selling practices accordingly to make sure my risk is as close to zero as possible. 
Thanks everyone for your feedback. Helped me immensly.

[ricarmic]

I do think that sometimes folks don't understand the total true costs of selling here (or anywhere actually). This translates into sometimes folks selling matierial with too low a margins (ie the margin isn't enough to cover the actual costs of selling when everything is figured in).

I think many new sellers understand the costs of shipping and supplies for example, but I think a lot of the "subtle" costs like INRs, INADs (aka customer protection orientation here) aren't well understood, especially within various categories, because it is very hard to define them. Shipping costs one can pre-identify. Customer protection related costs can't easily be pre-identified, normally it is acquired via experience. For certain IMO customer protection costs are higher for a seller selling cell phones than is the case for someone selling in postage stamps categories.

I totally understand the worries attached, likely here, where the margins are probably finer than other situations, and the $$$ item value vs ongoing volume ratio is high, ie a loss is a lot more noticeable when the margin is "low" and the volume is low. Someone selling 1000s of these will be fine, someone selling 100s will notice losses a lot more.

[rocketscollectibles]

One closed in my favor immediatly, and the other was a pain, and was very surprised I almost lost

Well, that's 2 cases where you actually did not get scammed. 

You're writting like there's a lot of scams talking about your 2 cases in a row and that sellers really do have very little protection but you're pointing you won the 2 cases. That's paradoxical.  As accurately said, you are over worrying. Losing some money is part of business. If you can't take a loss once in a while without being anxious, there's something wrong in the business. Especially here you seems anxious while you did not lost anything. I ship untracked packages of amounts higher than you ship tracked and i do not anticipate scams. You can't run a restaurant and stressing out about the possibility of dropping an egg on the floor. You'll drop some eggs it's obvious, it's cost of business.