Buyer wants a refund......What shall I do?

richto

Hi, were you selling this personally or as a busines?

If you were selling it personally and it was as described when it arrived (as it appears) any subsequent fault is now his problem. You have no legal liability to refund him whatsoever.

If you were selling as a business then the sale of goods act applies and the item must be of 'merchantable quality' ie it must work OK for a reasonable period.

richto

neil_woods wrote:

First off state what your return policy is, if you have one, if you dont, then toy shuld not accepted the item returned but to inform him that if he belived that the item was sent to him damaged then he should have opened a dispute with either ebay or paypal first.

But as you have accepted the return then you should refund payment minus the p&p.

As for him winning hands down in small claims court, it is not that easy. Private sales are a minefield. If you sold the phone exaclty as described and can prove it then then you would be fine, as damage was either incurred during postage or he accindently dropped it. What you should have asked for back is the original packaging also to see what condition it was in. If damaged during postage then you could claim back from royal mail as special delivery is covered against damage.

Ideally you need to state clearly what you return policy is, because you should never accept a return for whatever reason unless your prepaid to refund

NEVER suggest that he opens a dispute with Paypal unles you want to risk loosing your money...

If he goes via the small cliams court, he has to turn up at your local small claims court (hopefully you are the other end of the country)...and then prove his case beyond the balance of probability.

If he took you to the small claims court he would loose - no doubt. He could not prove that the item was faulty when received.

lazymoezy

callansdad wrote:

Would you be able to get a hold of a battery to fit the phone from somewhere to test that it is the phone that is faulty or the battery? I am not an expert on phones so what i am saying maybe completely useless. I dropped my fone in a cup of coffee a couple of months back, i didn't turn it on for a few days. I dried it out first then assembled it. The battery worked fine for a few weeks but now the fone won't even charge. My point of this is that there was a little bit underneath where the battery sits that turned red when it was soaked. I was told this is there so that they know when someone is trying it on when customers say that it doesn't work when in fact it was there own fault as they somehow drowned it.

I sent him a message and still havnt received an email back from him. Will wait and see what he says, I am taking it to a mobile phone shop to see if I can repair it, hopefully its a small problem.

I sold it privately not as a business.

Anyways, I want to see what he says and am waiting for his reply.

callansdad

I agree with some of the posts on here about refunding him but after having another read through what you have said it does seem rather fishy. Firstly he left it a week before telling you the mobile was faulty, if it was me i would be testing it straight away but then again it is possible for something to go wrong with it in a week. The most annoying thing is that he was wanting a refund minus postage charges. Now if it were me i would be demanding that my original P&P charges were refunded and i would probably be quite cheeky and ask to be refunded for posting the mobile back to you as it would be no fault of mine in the first place. Then again, if he knows that he will be charged £15 administration fee for using a Paypal chargeback he may have come to the conclusion that he would be better pocket-wise to have the refund minus postage charges to make it seem like the best deal for you IFKWIM.

How much was the original P&P charge and did he send it back to you Special Delivery?

lazymoezy

callansdad wrote:

I agree with some of the posts on here about refunding him but after having another read through what you have said it does seem rather fishy. Firstly he left it a week before telling you the mobile was faulty, if it was me i would be testing it straight away but then again it is possible for something to go wrong with it in a week. The most annoying thing is that he was wanting a refund minus postage charges. Now if it were me i would be demanding that my original P&P charges were refunded and i would probably be quite cheeky and ask to be refunded for posting the mobile back to you as it would be no fault of mine in the first place. Then again, if he knows that he will be charged £15 administration fee for using a Paypal chargeback he may have come to the conclusion that he would be better pocket-wise to have the refund minus postage charges to make it seem like the best deal for you IFKWIM.

How much was the original P&P charge and did he send it back to you Special Delivery?

I charged £10 for P&P and yes it was sent and received via Special Delivery. He relied a week later but he said the fault was there from day 1, as soon as he received it. Obviously if I ask him why did he take so long to reply he would say something like I was busy with studying or was away.

Hard to beleive he is genuine, hence, the reason why I'm waiting for a reply before refunding.

callansdad

Have you taken it to a phone shop yet? Let us know what they say. Going by what you said on your previous post he paid a fair bit for postage, if it were me i would definately be shouting for it back/or starting a paypal claim if i had received a faulty phone, i think you are right to be suspiscious.

stevekell6

hi, new member here,
i have been reading the thread and had the same problem with a nokia phone that it would not switch on so maybe a common fault if it is a nokia.
anyway that aside, is it possible it was damaged in transit? if so will you not be insured for this under the terms and conditions of the post office for special delivery?
just a thought!!

lazymoezy

I dont think it was damaged in transit. The thing is it is so obvious he is trying it on....firstly he said the phone does turn on but the on/off button is dodgy, therefore, he would like a refund. Remember he said it does switch on. Once the phone came through the post I immedietly tried turning it on, no luck....I then tried charging it and it charged fine!

IF he does escalate to a claim wont my 100% positive feedback count? especially when about half of my feedback (20) is mobile phone related. When I sell a faulty phone I state it is faulty and when it is working I state it as working.

Im going to get it checked out @ a local shop tomorow and a few others in other areas to just check the price. I went today and the man said he probably can fix it but I have to show him the phone, so, I will keep you up to date.

Thanks for the help though,

-MoE-

soolin

Your feedback won't count at all. The fact that you have accepted the phone back probably will and might make paypal more likely to find for the buyer.

As it stands at the moment you have his money, and his phone so whatever happens you will be required to return one or the other to your buyer.

seabiscuit_2

Fair enough, the damage couldnt have happened in transist but also the on/off button is heavily used by some people, and the fault may not have been apparent on the first few uses, and got worse through use, i.e. it starts sticking and now when you receive the phone back, it stops working completely

you HAVE to refund them - you have your goods returned and it is not working, if they start a claim via paypal or ebay, they will take one look at the fact they have already returned the item and you have accepted the return and will refund the guy

you can then return it to a shop, or to your mate or to the manufacturers to get it fixed or replaced

lesson learnt - feedback does not count on ebay disputes - trust me, and a feedback score of 40 is nothing, personally i wouldnt buy a phone from someone with as small feedback as that

we have all had to refund buyers who are not happy for one reason or another, luckily mine have all been small amounts BUT if you sell expensive breakable items, then expect a higher refund rate (plus scams)