appealing against an ebay decision in favour of buyer

jlmebayseller

I sold a trouser suit listed as used on Ebay for £58, this was miles over what I would have expected - the previous highest bid was £42 and I started the listing at £9.99.
8 days after receiving the suit the buyer contacted me and said it had a hole, it was smelly, grubby and had been bleached.
It did have a small almost invisible hole, which I had included in the description, all the rest of the complaints definitely weren't true as I had washed and pressed the suit before listing. I refused to give the buyer a refund suspecting that they knew they had overbid and were trying to recover their money. The buyer raised a dispute and asked for their money back, I responded offering a partial refund of nearly £14 to take the back to the previous highest bid plus £1. The buyer did not reply to this but instead, more than 48 hours after the 8 day period allowed to resolve the dispute, escalated to the resolution centre. within 4 hours of the escalation Ebay had found in favour of the buyer and told them to post the suit back to me. The buyer has posted back but I have yet to collect from the PO as I have been away but Ebay have taken the money from my paypal account and refunded the buyer.
when I complained they replied that as there was nothing wrong with the suit I could relist it! I have no idea what state the suit is in, I will know tomorrow when I collect it but how can Ebay say that we are all back to square one as I have paid postage and I have lost a perfectly good bid of £42. If the suit is damaged , I should be able to prove with photos the difference between before I dispatched and after but it seems to me that I can do nothing about it. Will I be able to take Ebay to the small claims court? Has anyone appealed successfully to Ebay?

soolin

You have no claim against anyone, sorry. Your partial refund was refused, buyer was under no obligation to accept it.

One tip though, get that suit collected pronto, if you fail to collect it then it will be sent back to the buyer.

pinkshoes

Why don't you just wait until you have it back.

I'm guessing it didn't fit them, and they have had to repay return postage.

ess0two

Its probably been worn for a one off event.

QuackQuackOops

You sent it out to the buyer and then the buyer has sent it back to you, so you are both out one lot of postage, and yes, you can relist it.

Ebay have not done anything wrong, they have acted according to the rules you signed up to and that includes the refunding system.

You may not agree with your buyer but it doesnt matter. If they are unhappy with any purchase then the best course of action is always to accept the item back for a full refund.

Go get the suit and then if it is different to when you sent it then you can go to the next step.

jlmebayseller

I have now collected the suit with an independent witness present. There were none of the marks, bleach etc that the buyer claimed although it had been washed, which makes me think that the person who suggested the garment had been worn is correct. This doesn't leave me in the same position though, the buyer has had free wearing of my suit for 3 weeks for the cost of the return postage. She has also deprived me of the bid from the next highest bidder, who may not have been so dishonest and I have paid postage to send it to her.
Finally I have a black mark against me as a case has had to be resolved by the resolution centre.
I know There are many people out there trying to sell things fraudulently but I think with clothes that buyers should not have 45 days to raise a case, as it seems to be not uncommon for a buyer to wear a garment, then file a false dispute, when Ebay automatically takes the buyers side.
Nevertheless I have reported her to EBay as abusing Ebays buyer protection policy, so at least if she does the same to someone else it might not be so easy for her next time

theonlywayisup

jlmebayseller wrote: »

I have now collected the suit with an independent witness present. There were none of the marks, bleach etc that the buyer claimed although it had been washed, which makes me think that the person who suggested the garment had been worn is correct. This doesn't leave me in the same position though, the buyer has had free wearing of my suit for 3 weeks for the cost of the return postage. She has also deprived me of the bid from the next highest bidder, who may not have been so dishonest and I have paid postage to send it to her.
Finally I have a black mark against me as a case has had to be resolved by the resolution centre.
I know There are many people out there trying to sell things fraudulently but I think with clothes that buyers should not have 45 days to raise a case, as it seems to be not uncommon for a buyer to wear a garment, then file a false dispute, when Ebay automatically takes the buyers side.
Nevertheless I have reported her to EBay as abusing Ebays buyer protection policy, so at least if she does the same to someone else it might not be so easy for her next time

A friend of mine has a clothing business on ebay. You should thank your lucky stars you aren't her. She has endless items worn and then returned, labels pulled off and tissues in pockets etc.

Sell the suit again.

soolin

theonlywayisup wrote: »

A friend of mine has a clothing business on ebay. You should thank your lucky stars you aren't her. She has endless items worn and then returned, labels pulled off and tissues in pockets etc.

Sell the suit again.

That's the reason I will not sell clothes on ebay anymore.

jlmebayseller

Thanks for all your replies, I am absolutely certain now that the buyer always intended to return the garment after wearing it.
That was the reason for her one and only ridiculously high bid, which shut out any other bids. She obviously knew that 99% of the time Ebay take the buyers side. Anyway I have ordered a tagging gun and labels (at a total cost of £6). I intend to write on the label do not remove if you want to return this garment, I will put the tag somewhere where it can be seen if the garment is worn, taking care not to damage the garment of course.
I will make it clear in the listing that the garment will be tagged.
Hopefully this will deter any further opportunistic bidders.
The only problem I have now is getting EBAY to read my messages correctly, as I appealed on the grounds that the suit was in the same condition as when I posted it and they turned down my appeal on the grounds that it had the marks on it that the buyer had said were there!!!
By the way the second bidder is happy to pay £42.25, which would have been the price, so I am happy with that.

Avoriaz

You haven’t really lost out by anything more than the cost of postage to the fraudulent buyer and the subsequent hassle.

Yes, the fraudulent buyer has taken you for a ride but look at the situation from another point of view.

If she hadn’t made that high “close out” bid of £58, the suit would have sold to the next highest bidder, presumably at £42 or maybe much less.

You have now sold it for a realistic and very good price of £42.25

Forget about it and move on.


Regarding the tagging gun and labels, I would strongly advise against that. If I were buying clothes I would feel uncomfortable with a seller who stated that the clothes were tagged in that manner. It suggests mistrust etc.

Most buyers, in my experience, are usually honest.

The dishonest ones will find a way around your tag. They will remove it, possibly causing damage, wear the clothes and then return them claiming that the tag was intact.

Ebay will find in their favour so you will have spent money to no avail and will have probably had damaged clothing returned.

If you want to sell clothes on Ebay, you have to accept the risks, or stop doing it as Soolin has done.

My opinion, others may disagree.