Help with returned item "not as descibed"

GabbaGabbaHey

Begize wrote: »

He gave me £10 postage which I paid the RM to deliver the item. I now have to give him £10 back, hence me being £10 down on the deal.

Don't forget that the Buyer is also down on this deal. He had to pay out of his own pocket to return the speakers (so I assume it was also around £10?) yet he has nothing to show for it either.

I had to return a watch to a German seller after one of the buttons detached. It cost me £43 for a signed international service covering the value of the watch, and I was out of pocket for that amount.

Crowqueen

Mmmmmmm. And if there is nothing wrong with the speakers, then they can be resold anyway, which is one way to recoup the £10 original postage.

It's unfortunately a risk you take when selling.

gavjbrown

GabbaGabbaHey wrote: »

Don't forget that the Buyer is also down on this deal. He had to pay out of his own pocket to return the speakers (so I assume it was also around £10?) yet he has nothing to show for it either.

I had to return a watch to a German seller after one of the buttons detached. It cost me £43 for a signed international service covering the value of the watch, and I was out of pocket for that amount.

Yes, but the there's nothing wrong with the speakers and nobody made the buyer buy them or return them.

Crowqueen

gavjbrown wrote: »

Yes, but the there's nothing wrong with the speakers and nobody made the buyer buy them or return them.

Perhaps the buyer bought them not knowing they wouldn't work properly? Like everyone assumes when they buy something? And perhaps indeed the buyer decided to return them, because they didn't work for him and it's pointless keeping hold of them?

Sorry, I'm not sure why buyers should be expected to fork out for something that doesn't work because the seller needs the dosh and needs a kindly person to come along and buy something that doesn't work just to donate to the charity that keeps the seller in business.

Sorry, I'm in an argumentative mood tonight. But blaming a buyer when something allegedly doesn't work for simply buying them in the first place is just nuts.

macfly

You been on the beer? The OP says they DO WORK! That's the whole point of the post. And no, you don't recoup the postage when you sell it again, as you have to Pay the postage again.
There is something wrong with the buyer's setup, but they are clearly not bright enough to work it out.

Begize

Crowqueen wrote: »

Perhaps the buyer bought them not knowing they wouldn't work properly? Like everyone assumes when they buy something? And perhaps indeed the buyer decided to return them, because they didn't work for him and it's pointless keeping hold of them?

Sorry, I'm not sure why buyers should be expected to fork out for something that doesn't work because the seller needs the dosh and needs a kindly person to come along and buy something that doesn't work just to donate to the charity that keeps the seller in business.

Sorry, I'm in an argumentative mood tonight. But blaming a buyer when something allegedly doesn't work for simply buying them in the first place is just nuts.

I understand what you're saying, but at the end of the day, I've sold a working item to a buyer who has either set them up wrong, or has got another fault somewhere else, not with the items I've sold. I've tried to be helpful to the guy but when they raise a NAD dispute 24 hours after sending a one line email which I had replied to in the same essay like style I've replied to these posts (!), you have to wonder why you bother.

As people have said before, I'm not a branch of John Lewis, I'm selling second hand items which, trust me on this, worked and I fully intend to relist them for sale because of this. I always test stuff throughly and take loads of close up pics and describe any scratches / marks etc to make sure buyers can't say items weren't as deascribed. My listings are as long as my posts, I expect people often fall asleep reading them.....!

Anyway, that said, an update.

I've refunded the buyer the original price plus postage (just under £18 in total) and sent an email through eBay explaining I tested them all day yesteday and could find no faults. I also told him I would be relisting and just to make sure there was no fault, would leave them on all day again on Monday to test again. If I did find one, I'd let him know and refund his return postage then (which was £12, so he's more down on the deal than me).

He replied (quite politely considering his one line answers before), saying he can't believe they are working now and he doesn't think I should relist them again as I'll get the same problem. He also says he tested them on multiple sources and got the same static after about 10 minutes. He also says he liked them and wanted to keep them.

As has been suggested above, I can only assume he's picking up interference from somewhere because the only static noises I could get out of them was deliberately unplugging and re-plugging (is that a word?) the cables. When I put my mobile right above the subwoofer unit, I got the loud "der der der der der" interference type noise you normally expect if you do something like that.

So, I'll try them again on Monday and, assuming no fault occurs, contact him again to confirm there will be no refund of his postage costs. I guess it's just then a case of waiting to see if he negs me....

Enterprise_1701C

Things like this can catch the best of people out. We use an FM radio to do some testing on something we build, last weekend we could not figure out where some interference was coming from while we were testing. My OH then had to answer his phone that was on charge, and the interference stopped, neither of us even considered the idea that it might be his phone while it was charging! We are both technically minded.

Just goes to show, there are more and more things these days that can cause interference on things like this,be it radio or static, and some of then appear to be inoccuous. Just think about this poor chap at the other end going through dozens of speaker sets until he finally finds out what is causing the problem!