Buyer wants a refund

Princess_Coupon

Quick bit of advice please if anyone can help.
I recently sold something new and sealed for £50 plus £8 postage.
The buyer is now saying they want to return it as it is not as described, I have admitted this is my error as although I put a photo of the boxed item, the description I copied and pasted off the manufacturers website and inadvertently pasted the description of a slightly different model so one feature is a little different.
The problem is that the buyer has opened it and assembled it all so if I accept a return and take a hit on 2 x£8 postage I will no longer have a new item to sell, I have offered £15 goodwill gesture to keep it but she says it's not enough and will take it to ebay if I don't give more. What will ebay say? surely she should have contacted me for a return before opening and assembling or is that irrelevant?

bris

It's irrelevant, you have miss described the item so you need to refund or give the buyer more. I wouldn't give in to a partial refund but that's just me.
if you decide to refund make sure the item is sent back first.

Princess_Coupon

Really? I'm disappointed if that's the case it's only a small difference with a feature on a babies toy quite irrelevant really. If she hadn't opened it I'd have just said return it straight away, seems unfair I might have to take back an item she has now devalued.

forgotmyname

The buyer maybe thinking i have spent ages assembling this and it turns out not to be the item mentioned in the listing. And it seems unfair i have to pay to return an item because the seller was lazy and listed it with the wrong specifications.

They maybe thinking if the seller doesnt pay for the return postage i will leave them a negative and 1 star across the board.

See it from both sides of the fence.

Like buying a brand new iphone for £600 and finding out its a £100 chinese copy. It looks the same, You can phone people and play games on it.
Has more features than an iphone also.
Not quite the same though and you would be miffed.

jetplane

I suppose the buyer holds the cards. How much it will cost you in time and money for return postage and to resell it? offset that against any partial refund you are prepared to offer (if any). If the buyer isn't happy then tell them to return it. You don't have to pay return costs but if you do make sure they don't use the most expensive service.

As a seller I suppose it's an unpleasant lesson but you may have a buyer who saw the stock photo and description and then looked for a discrepancy . I don't bid on a stock photo without emailing the seller to ask for details of the actual item.

prowla

It may be that the buyer opened and assembled the item in good faith, and then looked at it and went "hang on a mo, this isn't right ...".

I've recently bought some computers on ebay that have had issues:

1. When one arrived I opened it up and it turned out to be the wrong model, so I contacted the seller and told them that it wasn't what was pictured. They acknowledged that the error was theirs (ie. wrong picture) and refunded me in full, including the return postage. I accepted that they had made a genuine error and they put it right.
2. I bought one from another seller and collected it. When I powered it up I found that the CPU and hard disk were lower spec that given in the description. I contacted the seller and they apologised and gave me a partial refund. I was OK with that as I intended to upgrade the components anyway.
3. I bought two computers from a seller and collected them. However when I got home and powered them on the CPU turned out to be a lower spec than as described. I contacted the seller and they told me that I must be wrong but that I could take them back for a refund anyway. The seller then followed up and said that they checked and I was right about the CPUs but I wouldn't notice the difference anyway (which I found a bit condescending and I work in IT and probably know a bit more about computers than the seller). I didn't fancy a 40 mile round trip on my petrol so I decided to keep them anyway but left neutral feedback (to which they got a bit upset, so I responded that's what neutral is for - if I had a real grievance then I would have posted negative!).

In the case of this, as the seller, I would be inclined to offer the buyer the option of (a) returning the item for a full refund plus paying for the return postage (ie. so they don't lose out), or (b) a partial refund (bearing in mind the cost of the return postage and the possible yield when re-selling). I know it's not great money making, but it is honest.

theonlywayisup

Princess_Coupon wrote: »

Really? I'm disappointed if that's the case it's only a small difference with a feature on a babies toy quite irrelevant really. If she hadn't opened it I'd have just said return it straight away, seems unfair I might have to take back an item she has now devalued.

A difference is a difference, not matter how small.

She hasn't devalued your item, you mis-sold it.

It isn't fair on the buyer. What it is to you is irrelevant as this is entirely of your making.

Crowqueen

Agreed - there are always two people to the transaction, the buyer holds the cards in consumer law as well as eBay policy, so there is no way you can avoid asking them to return.

Princess_Coupon

I should have been a bit more precise with my description. The photo on the auction I took, it was of the actual box showing very clearly the picture, the title was also correct, it's just 1 feature in the description that was different (1 out of 7) It's a sit in activity centre.
I wrote it has a light up musical keyboard when it actually had a light up musical monkey. as you can imagine a 4-10 month old is unlikely to has expressed a preference for a keyboard over a monkey as 1 of the 7 features on a toy. I suspect I may be the victim of a bit of a scam as she knows she has me over a barrel, last night she said I was a liar and it wasn't a mistake and she wanted £20. I have agreed as I've got better things to do, she has very graciously accepted and said she won't leave me a negative lucky me eh?

zenseeker

Princess_Coupon wrote: »

I wrote it has a light up musical keyboard when it actually had a light up musical monkey. as you can imagine a 4-10 month old is unlikely to has expressed a preference for a keyboard over a monkey as 1 of the 7 features on a toy. I suspect I may be the victim of a bit of a scam

The 4-10 month old may not have a preference, but the parent buying it does and it's your own damn fault for stealing the description from the manufacturers website rather than describe it in your own words.

This isn't a buyer trying to scam you, it's you being a victim of your own laziness quite frankly. Lesson learned, if you're going to engage in copyright violation, make sure you're at least stealing accurate information.

Princess_Coupon

zenseeker wrote: »

The 4-10 month old may not have a preference, but the parent buying it does and it's your own damn fault for stealing the description from the manufacturers website rather than describe it in your own words.

This isn't a buyer trying to scam you, it's you being a victim of your own laziness quite frankly. Lesson learned, if you're going to engage in copyright violation, make sure you're at least stealing accurate information.

I agree with lesson learnt but I think the rest is a bit harsh. There was very little written on the box, ironically I thought a c&p job was the best way to get an accurate description. All the other online retailers have the exact same description word for word including layout.
I also can't see how someone can steal a description, it's a list of features not an extract from a novel.
Anyway it's resolved I've refunded almost half because I didn't fancy the name calling and arguments, I turned to mse for a bit of advice not more arguments and to be called a thief :eek: