messed up my first ever ebay sale, pls help

celebrate

hi after yrs of only knowing how to buy off ebay, my neice finally taught me how to sell.......wish i never bothered:o:o:o:o:o

we bought a bunkbed last yr off ebay, put it up and realised it was too big for the box room, stored it in the shed with the intention of selling it one day and i finally got round to it, sold it on ebay buyer to collect, cash on collection

first he pays on paypal, several communications later, refund the money he is ok about the that

he picks up the bed and now says it has a piece missing,
i didn't put it up before i sold it to him so cannot prove one way or the other whether there is or not but am taking his word for it

Now obviously i didn't knowingly sell it to him with a piece missing but not sure what to do now. I have told him i am happy to offer a full refund. What I would like advice on is do I have to go and pick the bed up off him?? Do I have to pay his petrol costs

I was going to suggest to him to pop it to his local dumpit site and I would paypal him a refund plus a £5 for petrol costs

Is this reasonable?

magic57

Someone more experienced will be along soon.

Here's my twopenneth in the meantime.
You are being VERY fair (a bit too fair) in my opinion! I don't think he can insist on a refund if he paid cash but I have been in a similar situation and to avoid hassle I also gave a refund. So I understand how you feel. (By the way my buyer returned the large cash on collection item, was very grateful for his refund and didn't ask about petrol so I didn't offer!)

Does he live nearby. I think if you want to offer a refund you should ask him to return it to you and if you feel so inclined give him the petrol money. Otherwise he could end up keeping the bed and the refund and the petrol money! You only have his word that there is a bit missing although he may well be telling the truth.
He may decide he wants to keep the bed anyway if he can sort out the missing bit. It really depend how much he paid for the bed.

I hope this work out well for you.

Crowqueen

If you didn't, or couldn't, allow him to inspect it - and if it was boxed - you do owe him a refund. eBay won't necessarily help him but honestly, that should not be the driving force behind good selling behaviour.

People say to always allow people to inspect cash on pickup items, but it's not always possible, particularly if there are any faults not immediately obvious at the time. The item was boxed and needed assembly - the buyer had to trust you that all the pieces were there as it would have been silly to try and reassemble and disassemble it just to check. I wouldn't in this instance throw a paddy and insist that he collected therefore he inspected it. There is a provision on eBay for them to insist on buyer protection for the above category of items; I'm not sure how far that would get, but honourable behaviour would be to allow him to return it.

Ask him to return it and refund him - you might have the missing piece somewhere and, all being well, you could find it and resell it. I wouldn't personally give the buyer an ex gratia refund - the item is not irretrievably destroyed.

zenseeker

If this was a normal eBay transaction the buyer would have to return the item and absorb the cost of postage out of their own pocket, so I would insist they return it to you rather than you go to the trouble of picking it up.

What part is missing out of curiosity?

Crowqueen

zenseeker wrote: »

If this was a normal eBay transaction the buyer would have to return the item and absorb the cost of postage out of their own pocket, so I would insist they return it to you rather than you go to the trouble of picking it up.

What part is missing out of curiosity?

Only because eBay have no logistical way of refunding return postage. They have overcome this problem in the US; it's probably only a matter of time before it comes over here (and they do sometimes give a return label if you raise a dispute).

When the seller has made the mistake, such as in this instance, it's now expected that people usually refund reasonable return postage or return costs.

celebrate

thanks for the advice guys
i feel so embarrassed about the whole thing:o:o

he says it the end piece for the upper bunk
i am sure he s telling the truth on that because there was only ever one piece i just know that when we bought it we put it up no problems just was too big for us so put straight into storage, i've searched for any other pieces and can't find anything:(:(

he says he is an engineer so knows how to put things together lol

i accept it is my fault just wondered how honourable i have to be to avoid negative feedback

i wondered about asking him to take it to the tip as he lives 1/2 hr away from me as if he is right i won't be able to sell it again anyway

would you refund with paypal or tell him to come back for cash??

sorry for all the questions, i really appreciate the advice x

Crowqueen

If you are happy to refund ex gratia you could post him a cheque or send a Paypal gift payment.

I think most buyers appreciate good service and acceptance of fault. Feedback is the buyer's opinion - if they really feel it was a disappointment they can leave a neg, but in which case you would leave a follow-up admitting responsibility, apologising and making it clear - in a polite way - that you did everything you could to help, so that future buyers can see you respond with dignity to a customer problem. However, most people in this situation would either leave no feedback at all or a positive.

buggritt

How hard can it be for an "engineer" to cobble something up?

Crowqueen

They probably want the original piece, which is what they were originally sold and what they are entitled to.

buggritt

A second hand bunk bed? Not exactly a collectors item, or for a show home.
A simple agreement for a discount would probably do.

magic57

Has the buyer indicated what he would like you to do in this situation?

If you act in a reasonable way most buyers won't give you a neg.

Good luck.