Ebay dispute, seller hasn't received item back

thriftymanc

Posting on behalf of a friend, as I don't have a ton of experience with Ebay resolution disputes so am unsure on this.

My friend bought something off Ebay which arrived damaged as it wasn't packged sufficiently (the item she'd bought came in a box - the box is part of the item, not just packaging - and the whole thing was posted in a thin jiffy bag so when it arrived it was squashed flat). She contacted the seller to say she wasn't happy and asked if she could have a refund or replacement.

The seller was uppity from the start saying there was nothing wrong with the way it was packaged and didn't want to refund, so she opened an Ebay resolution centre dispute. After doing this, the seller said he'd refund her original payment if she posted it back, and then only if he agreed that it was damaged. She told the seller she'd send it back if he also refunded her return postage, as the p&p she paid originally was high and she didn't want to be that much out of pocket. The seller refused.

After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing in the resolution centre, eventually the seller told my friend to just post the item back the cheapest way possible. My friend went to get the original packaging and get the item ready to send back - at that point she saw the stamp and realised it had only cost the seller £2.20 to post the item when she'd paid £6.50 for postage originally - she doesn't post stuff often herself so she'd assumed what she'd been charged was was what it had actually cost and didn't realise it had cost him so little. (Now she's extra annoyed, as if the seller had spent some of the extra £4.30 on a box to post it in rather than a jiffy bag then it would have arrived in good condition in the first place!) Anyway, she told the seller she would post it back the same way he had sent it, and did so.

Now it's two weeks later and the seller claims to have not received the item back. My friend didn't send it recorded as she didn't know she needed to. In fact, in the Ebay resolution centre it doesn't say anywhere that she needs to have sent it recorded - I know Paypal ask you to, but this isn't a Paypal claim. The seller has now stopped replying. On the claim page it says Ebay won't make a decision until mid-December, 6 weeks away! The claim has already been open for a month.

Does anyone have any ideas on this? Ebay did not instruct my friend to send the item recorded - in fact they didn't instruct her one way or the other, there is next to no guidance on those claims from what I can tell compared to Paypal claims. My friend is now worried sick about losing the original amount she paid and believes the seller did receive the item back but from his attitude in the messages she showed me he's always been very curt and acting as though he was blameless and shouldn't need to refund her anyway.



(Edit: obviously I know, one answer is wait until Ebay finally make a decision - but it's so long away that my friend just wants some idea of which way it's going to go! And also how what, if anything, she should post on the dispute now as it says it's waiting for her action but there isn't anything she can do.)

Irn-Bru-Kid

If your friend can't prove she returned the item (which she can't) she has no hope of a refund from the seller.

She can always put a claim in to RM if she has proof of posting.

thriftymanc

I'll ask my friend if she has the POP. As I mentioned she rarely posts anything so she might not have even known she needed it.

If Ebay didn't actually instruct her to post it back recorded though, would that count for anything? Like I said I know Paypal specifically tell you to enter the tracking information for a return - Ebay don't seem to do this, so if like my friend you don't use Ebay or post stuff much and aren't aware of this, it doesn't seem very fair. It seems obvious to me, but then I buy stuff online all the time and sell a lot too so I just know that's what you need to do. The seller is on record as instructing her to send it back "the cheapest way" which would obviously not include recorded so would that help my friend?

How do Ebay disputes actually work? I think I've only ever opened one, and that was by accident, and I can't really remember what happened it in. I looked at my friends' and there's just no structure to it! Nothing to say who needs to do what next. Just that my friend needs to respond to it - but she doesn't know what to say because the seller just keeps saying "not my problem" and Ebay won't do anything for another 6 weeks. Should she just wait until then and hope Ebay step in?

theonlywayisup

thriftymanc wrote: »

I'll ask my friend if she has the POP. As I mentioned she rarely posts anything so she might not have even known she needed it.

If Ebay didn't actually instruct her to post it back recorded though, would that count for anything? Like I said I know Paypal specifically tell you to enter the tracking information for a return - Ebay don't seem to do this, so if like my friend you don't use Ebay or post stuff much and aren't aware of this, it doesn't seem very fair. It seems obvious to me, but then I buy stuff online all the time and sell a lot too so I just know that's what you need to do. The seller is on record as instructing her to send it back "the cheapest way" which would obviously not include recorded so would that help my friend?

How do Ebay disputes actually work? I think I've only ever opened one, and that was by accident, and I can't really remember what happened it in. I looked at my friends' and there's just no structure to it! Nothing to say who needs to do what next. Just that my friend needs to respond to it - but she doesn't know what to say because the seller just keeps saying "not my problem" and Ebay won't do anything for another 6 weeks. Should she just wait until then and hope Ebay step in?

Ebays rules are very clear I'm afraid. They do advise you use a service which shows tracking.

I suspect your friend wasn't told to return the item tracked as it doesn't sound as if the case was escalated and ruled on by Ebay, it sounds as if the seller agreed this before escalation.

If the case is escalated, Ebay will want some evidence that the item has been returned. This is their protection policy quote relating to the return of an item....

Do I need to send the item back to the seller?
Yes, if you opened an item not as described case for a purchase to which eBay Buyer Protection applies. You'll also need to provide us with the delivery tracking number (with signature confirmation for items worth more than £150) to receive your refund through PayPal.

thriftymanc

Just letting people know the outcome. We were looking at the claim again this morning and realised it hadn't been fully escalated and instead was still stuck in the "have a pointless circular conversation" stage - which is why the end date was so far away.

(It wasn't intuitive - to get to "escalate claim", you have to click "close claim". My friend didn't want to close it so she never clicked this link, but after seeing no other way of escalating we decided to go for it, reasoning that if the worst happened and clicking it closed the claim straight away then it wasn't looking good anyway so she didn't have anything to lose at this stage. But lo and behold, there popped up the option to escalate - should be made clearer as I can see people not wanting to click that link thinking it'll just shut the claim straight down!)

Anyway! An hour after escalating, my friend got a reply from Ebay saying they'd found in her favour, and the money was already back in her Paypal account. Really pleased as Ebay obviously looked at the string of messages and saw how unreasonable the seller had been. I know she should have used tracking but she genuinely didn't know and only followed the seller's message, so it's nice to see Ebay being human for once and seeing that the seller really was in the wrong this time.