Buyer refusing to return item for a refund

mhoc

I sold a buyer a childs shirt in November. As usual I checked that it was in perfect condition before selling and before posting and posted it off as usual, double wrapped, bubble wrap and the outer polybag. All good. This morning I thought Id catch up on my feedback list and noticed the buyer had not added feedback so I sent her a reminder

JUst tidying up my feedback this morning and noticed that you had missed yours off for your purchase of November 16th

Back came the reply
the shirt arrived quickly. however there was an inch long black sharpie mark one of the sleeves. i have not had the time to contact you before because of the chaos of the holidays. this was to be a gift for my sister in law, but i can hardly give it to her now. it does stand out once you notice it. i have the dress and was really hoping to give her the whole outfit. i am really at a loss at this point.

So I emailed her asking for her to return the item for a refund
Please can you return the shirt to me. All my items are inspected before posting so I am having difficulty picturing this

her reply
first, i have never lied about a single item i have bought or sold + check my 500+ feedback. second, i am not about to get into a tug of war on an international sale. i am more than happy to send you a photo if you require. YOU CONTACTED ME, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. i did not leave feedback because the grief and negative words are just not worth my trouble. after all, what is your solution to this? i pay to return the item to you? there is a mark. it arrived that way. people are human. they do make mistakes. find a better solution or leave it alone

So basically she wants me to do her a refund without her returning the shirt.

I have replied
Apologies, if I have caused offence, I was mearly catching up on my feedback list, hence why I contacted you. Obviously I could not know if there is a problem unless I am told. I check items before listing and before posting to ensure qualiity and if any item is not up to standard I cancel the sale..I can offer you a refund if your item is not as described but I can only do this if I actually have the item returned. This is the policy I have always maintained and it is the same with any store online or high street. I hope this clears up any misunderstanding.

Has anyone else had experience of this? Yes i have read her feedback and she has had several negatives and she has done this before, asked for a refund without returning the goods.

I have emailed ebay for advice on this but I have never found them any good before if I've had a problem.

I am worried that she is trying to bully me into giving her a refund but still keeping the item and that she will give me a negative. I have 100% and feel physically sick at the thought of loosing my 100%

Mary

Incidentally she might have been too busy to email me with her problem but she has still mananged to trade 79 items over the last month.
What is a sharpie anyway?

pennylane99

sharpie is a marker pen....

soolin

Sorry, but your first mistake was contacting a buyer to ask for feedback...that's an absolutely no no, it rarely turns out well.

There is nothing you can do here except to either refund her and trust her to return the item, or let her go to a paypal chargeback which will mean she still has to return the item anyway, but it ties up your paypal account for a while. There will be nothign you can do to avoid a neg, however the fact that you can leave one for her in return might be enough to hold her from doing that.

In future though, never ask for feedback, if someone has a problem they will contact you soon enough. If they don't leave feedback, and it isn't compulsory, then maybe they have a good reason for not doing so.

Soo

CitizenBidet

A sharpie is a brand of pen markers, popular with americans and canadians, but you can get them over here. They come in various different shapes and sizes, and most of them are permanent I think.

pinkgem

i would tell her she can only have a refund if she returns the item and it is found to be in the condition she described, and also offer to return her return p&p costs?

do not refund if she is not willing to return the item as it probably means she is trying it on

since leaving feedback is voluntary, sometimes it is best not to ask for it as, in this case, sometimes buyers are not entirely happy for whatever reason and may just not leave any feedback, in my experience emailing to ask for feedback just gives them a reason to reply and complain

pinkgem

if she does leave you neutral or negative just respond with something like "refund was offered but buyer refused to return item, not much else i can do"

niccy

chill,
enjoy xmas,
forget aboot it,and proberbly so will she.

let sleeping dogs etc etc

and dosn't she have just 90 days to leave feedback

and hey ..its only a shirt

angchris

i`d never ask for feedback if it was outstanding and it infuriates me when sellers email and ask for it as it is a voluntary thing and i purposely "accidentely forget" to leave it if they ask , by asking for feedback you have stirred up the whole situation yourself as the buyer was obviousely happy to leave it at that or she would of contacted you immediately. i personally would leave things as they are, dont contact them unless they ask for a refund, just let it go and put it down to experience! if they do ask for a refund then by all means refund on receipt of the returned goods. dont worry about getting negative feedback even the best sellers get them off idiots once in a while i have twice :rolleyes: neither of which was my fault! have a great chrimbo and forget about it, its not worth worrying about

mike230652

Where in her e-mail to you does she actually ask you to refund her???????

Nothing you've posted suggests she has actually asked for money back...........unless I missed something

Mike

zorber

from how i read it she said find a better solution or leave it alone.

So leave it alone and forget about it

Hermia

I think this is one of those situations where you can't win. She either won't return the item or she will return it and draw on it before she does.