How much to refund?

themaccas

Not sure what to do here.

We sold a brand new item on ebay recently. The winning bidder emailed after receiving them to say that although they it was received in perfect condition after trying the item on something snapped off and he wanted a complete refund. We said he might want to send the item to the manufacturer for repair as it was under guarantee and brand new. He did this and they repaired it. However he has now said that since the manufacturer's repair it has happened again and wants to send it back to us for a refund.

The item was sold on ebay about a month ago. Do we refund? If not he is likely to leave negative feedback.

has anyone any experience of this type of thing happening? We have refunded before when I did not pack something correctly and they broke in transit but this is different -I think.

Hintza

What was the item and what snapped off?

Only you can really decide but what you have to assess; is the item not fit for purpose or is the buyer not treating it properly?

If it's the first then as the seller I think you refund if its the later then you might want to stand your ground.

jennyjelly

I think this is a bit of a grey area and wouldn't like to bet either way if it came to it.

Technically his contract is with you as the seller. However, the last person to have input into the situation is the manufacturer when it was repaired under guarantee, so I would think that the responsibility for the broken part would now transfer to them.

My gut instinct tells me that now that he has dealt with the manufacturer the responsibility is not yours, and I'm sure I have heard that once you accept a repair on an item you are then no longer entitled to a refund in the future. You need to find out for sure if this is the case before you take a stance.

If you want to be completely obliging about it - and save any risk of negative feedback - maybe you could refund, have it repaired under the guarantee yourself and resell it in the hope that the new buyer will be more careful.

themaccas

Thanks for the replies, OH wants to refund but I am not so sure that we are obliged to do it, we did offer a refund before he sent it to the manufacturer but he decided to send it to them.

pinkgem

themaccas wrote:

Thanks for the replies, OH wants to refund but I am not so sure that we are obliged to do it, we did offer a refund before he sent it to the manufacturer but he decided to send it to them.

if he declined your offer of a refund previously and chose to have it repaired by the manufacturer then i think they have got a bit of a cheek asking for a refund after it has broken again! i would tell them it is down to the manufacturer to sort it out now as thats what he chose to do previously.

themaccas

That's what I think pinkgem but I need to persuade OH!

missile

I would suggest you contact manufacturer yourself and see what he suggests. Maybe he will accept it back for a refund?

Having declined your offer of a refund, I doubt buyer has a strong case against you. He is getting close to cut off date for a claim back / leaving feedback.