Trouble from ebay buyer

katiewoos_2

I have just sold an item on ebay . Is states quite clearly in my discription that I do not accept refunds. The eventual buyer had emailed me while the auction was still live to know if I accepted refunds if it did not fit. I replied that I did not. I like to think my discriptions are very thorough. The sale was complete. I went out of my way to package the item nicely and posted within hours of the auction ending. I have 100% feedback. I have now had an email from the buyer stating the item is damaged and demanding a refund or they will leave bad feedback. I know this to be untrue, and feel because of the earlier email where I said no refunds this is manufactured in order to get the refund. Where do I stand and what do I do. I do not wish to risk my feedback as I sell a lot on ebay. All advice greatly appreciated.

RFW

katiewoos wrote: »

I have just sold an item on ebay . Is states quite clearly in my discription that I do not accept refunds. The eventual buyer had emailed me while the auction was still live to know if I accepted refunds if it did not fit. I replied that I did not. I like to think my discriptions are very thorough. The sale was complete. I went out of my way to package the item nicely and posted within hours of the auction ending. I have 100% feedback. I have now had an email from the buyer stating the item is damaged and demanding a refund or they will leave bad feedback. I know this to be untrue, and feel because of the earlier email where I said no refunds this is manufactured in order to get the refund. Where do I stand and what do I do. I do not wish to risk my feedback as I sell a lot on ebay. All advice greatly appreciated.

You've got a few choices.
You could try reporting to Ebay for feedback extortion.
Stand your ground and say no, no, no (a la Amy Winehouse).
or probably what I would do is ask for them to return it for a full refund, this saves on any more hassle and the chances are they won't bother sending it back.

sobrokeithurts

As a seller I think its always best to be nice to your buyers, even if they are pain. Maybe they are just saying the item is damaged so they can get a refund when in reality it doesnt fit and they didnt think being honest would get them the result they are after because you stated you dont accept returns. From my point of view, if the buyer isnt happy, give them their money back and relist it.

emby

Stating you don't accept refunds is pointless, if the buyer decides to go down the route of a Paypal dispute you have to accept the returned item and refund the buyer. If the buyer does leave you a negative you possibly have grounds to have it removed because they have threatened you with poor feedback.

cyberbob

katiewoos wrote: »

I have just sold an item on ebay . Is states quite clearly in my discription that I do not accept refunds. The eventual buyer had emailed me while the auction was still live to know if I accepted refunds if it did not fit. I replied that I did not.

I know it's a bit late but if this ever happens again immediately add the bidder to your blocked bidders list as it sounds like its going to be trouble and as you have learnt can end up more trouble than its worth. Messages like this always ring alarm bells and there are always other buyers

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/manage_bidders_ov.html#blocking

George666

I would now just accept the return with very little fuss as bob said this smelled like a problem from the first message while the auction was live.
I would now just want the item back with no damage as the buyer may now damage the item out of spite if you put up too much of a fuss.
There is nothing however to stop you phoning ebay and reporting the buyer by saying what has happened and the message you recieved before the auction ended do this after you have your item back and everything is sorted out.
Your buyer may do this a lot but ebay will not look into it unless it is reported by a seller.
I would advise you to phone ebay not to email them or use live help as both email and live help support is as much use as a chocolate fireguard and ebays number is freephone number anyway.

BLT_2

Report it as Ebay extortion. Buyers like this are the bane of Ebay and unless we make a concerted effort to stamp them out it will increase.

I sold an expensive item on ebay buy it now, the individual who bid on it closed his account the next day before paying, I was left with an item that I could not relist as my ebay fees had hit their limit due to this transaction. When I contacted Ebay they told me contact the buyer in the first instance (What part of 'he closed his account" didn't they understand) and then go through the complaints process.

Since then I had one more try at selling on ebay. Item sold for 15 quid, I got hit with 2.50 charges, 80p paypal fees, so in essence they took almost 25% of what I sold the item for. No more ebay selling for me :-)

macfly

Those fees must have just been especially for you or you are making it up.

soolin

macfly wrote: »

Those fees must have just been especially for you or you are making it up.

I think it should have been £1.50 for FVFs?

That makes the percentage fees to item very reasonable, and i would prefer to get something rather than nothing for an item.

cyberbob

BLT wrote: »

Since then I had one more try at selling on ebay. Item sold for 15 quid, I got hit with 2.50 charges, 80p paypal fees, so in essence they took almost 25% of what I sold the item for. No more ebay selling for me :-)

so you either got £15 more than you had or nothing. I know which one I would go for.

FVF as soolin said would have been £1.50. and your Paypal fees would have been 72p. So that would actually be around 15%. which is pretty good in comparison to other ways of selling considering the exposure you get and more than likely higher prices you will receive.

terra_ferma

cyberbob wrote: »

so you either got £15 more than you had or nothing. I know which one I would go for.

FVF as soolin said would have been £1.50. and your Paypal fees would have been 72p. So that would actually be around 15%. which is pretty good in comparison to other ways of selling considering the exposure you get and more than likely higher prices you will receive.

I agree with CB
Why is everybody complaining about eBay's fees?
eBay is your shop, and if you had a b&m shop your overheads would have been much much more (rent, rates, utilities etc etc etc).