Buyer Complaining

livelyred

I am new to selling a few days ago i sold a Lamp which i know was in excelent condition never used just sat on my side,it wasent even turned on ,well i sent this parcel ist class even thou i said second on the listings but this buyer wanted this lamp quick so i did,now she emailed me saying there is a red pen or crayon mark on the side off the lamp,i checked the lamp all over before i sent it,what shall i do ? I new from my sister who has been selling for yrs said you sometimes get problems with buyers ?

catmiaow

Shame you didn't take pictures before you sent it. Problem is that paypal assumes the buyer is right and without proof they will refund, hopefully they paid by other means so you won't have this problem. Proof as in a date stamped picture.
I would say what you said that you checked it all over before you sent it and call their bluff and say you took a picture prior to sending and hopefully you wont hear from them again.

livelyred

catmiaow wrote: »

Shame you didn't take pictures before you sent it. Problem is that paypal assumes the buyer is right and without proof they will refund, hopefully they paid by other means so you won't have this problem. Proof as in a date stamped picture.
I would say what you said that you checked it all over before you sent it and call their bluff and say you took a picture prior to sending and hopefully you wont hear from them again.

They payed through paypal also i did take 1 photo which i added to my listing ?

catmiaow

Did you take photos from all angles with a date stamp?

livelyred

catmiaow wrote: »

Did you take photos from all angles with a date stamp?

No i only took one photo

ged1980

livelyred wrote: »

I am new to selling a few days ago i sold a Lamp which i know was in excelent condition never used just sat on my side,it wasent even turned on ,well i sent this parcel ist class even thou i said second on the listings but this buyer wanted this lamp quick so i did,now she emailed me saying there is a red pen or crayon mark on the side off the lamp,i checked the lamp all over before i sent it,what shall i do ? I new from my sister who has been selling for yrs said you sometimes get problems with buyers ?

tell her to wipe it off ebay getting so bad now

catmiaow

Well try to call their bluff, their obviously not genuine. But if they make a paypal claim they will more than likely win. If it gets to that stage they will have to post it back at their own cost, but you may not be able to re sell if you cant get the marks off.

livelyred

I told her if theres a mark then wipe it off she replied well i dont know what the mark is first what a load off C*** its a joke i know dame well that there was no mark on this lamp and looks like theres nothing i can do about it,she will win through paypal and she knows it.What about asking for photos of this so called mark

Bromley86

Hang on though. If she wins through PayPal, you still get the lamp back. Unless she already had the same lamp, it was marked and she returns that instead.

So call her bluff. She has to pay to send it back and, unlike you (I assume you sent it via normal post), she'll have to send it tracked. You might not want to emphasise that last bit though as that might start her thinking about opening a false INR dispute.

livelyred

Yes she wins and she gets her money bck and she has to pay for the item to be sent bck not me ? I did send it normal delivery yes,so what should i do now im all new to this,she is waiting for a reply ?

Bromley86

The way PP disputes work is:

INR: You (the seller) need to provide online tracking info to prove the buyer received it. In RM terms, this means Recorded (if, and it seems to be a big if, they actually took a signature) or Special Delivery (which is trackable all the way through the delivery process).

Of course, if you sent it, have a receipt and RM lose it, you can claim back up to £36 from them. So it's not always the case that you have to send tracked - you'll lose the PP case and have to refund (the initial amount including postage), but you can claim off RM.

If you didn't send tracked and the buyer starts a fraudulent INR dispute, there's little you can do. Still, it's not something that you're likely to bump into for a lamp.

SNAD. This is the dispute that she should start (assuming that, for whatever reason, it is marked). She starts dispute. You get a chance to negotiate a settlement. If that fails, she has to return it tracked. If she doesn't, then you can claim that you didn't receive it (note that I'm not advocating this, it's just the reason why PP insist on tracked methods). If she sends it tracked, you have to refund the initial amount (inc. postage) but not the return postage.

This presents a barrier to part-time scammers. If she's one of those, then she might be hoping for a partial refund without having to return it. Insisting on a return is the only sensible thing to do, although as I said in my first post there are scenarios where you might still end up getting scammed. Don't sweat it though -- you only tend to read the bad on these boards as, by definition, few people come here to rant about their good experiences .

So, that's the PP dispute process. Now, for me, I like everything handled in a dispute - it keeps it all above board. However most people are not like me. Forcing a buyer to initiate a dispute means that they're more likely to leave negative feedback, so you might as well just do what PP will tell you to do anyway. Tell them to return it, inspect it and then refund. You have the option, if they didn't return it tracked, of pretending that you didn't receive it. Not something that you should do, but if they've definitely done a switch and sent you a different lamp, it's your only realistic option to avoid refunding.