Buyer error - fairest solution?

rdwarr

It's a while since I've been on here - nice to see a few familiar names!

Anyway, I sold a car wheel with tyre yesterday and the courier collected it today. Since then the buyer has been on to me saying that he made a mistake - the auction was for a 17" wheel (this was abundantly clear) but his car has 18" ones!

I'm waiting to hear back from the courier to see if they can deliver it back to me rather than hime but what is the fairest thing to do ref a refund?

I'm going to lose the courier charge and will have to relist. What would you do in my position?

brightonman123

buyer loss, if they didn't read ad right. perhaps they can sell on?

soolin

Are you a business or private seller?

DD265

I'd probably refund for the wheel less the delivery charge and also request a mutual cancellation so you get your fees back from eBay.

harveybobbles

Tell them to sell it on. Or return at their expense for a refund less 20% "stocking fee"..

rdwarr

Unfortunately I'm still registered as a business seller. Even though this was a private sale I thought having 1300 feedback might inspire confidence.
I'd almost forgotten about the ebay fees - will do the cancellation thing.
Thanks for all the replies!

FidgitsID

rdwarr wrote: »

Unfortunately I'm still registered as a business seller. Even though this was a private sale I thought having 1300 feedback might inspire confidence.
I'd almost forgotten about the ebay fees - will do the cancellation thing.
Thanks for all the replies!

As far as the buyer knows he bought from a business so this was not a "private" sale. He might have bought from a business seller account because that "inspires confidence" because of the extra legal rights buying from a business gives the buyer.

If you are going to continue to sell it would be best to turn the account back to a pivate account but I doubt ebay will let you do that, so another account might be in needed.

techspec

The buyer can simply reject the parcel.

Some couriers then charge the seller for return.

soolin

rdwarr wrote: »

Unfortunately I'm still registered as a business seller. Even though this was a private sale I thought having 1300 feedback might inspire confidence.
I'd almost forgotten about the ebay fees - will do the cancellation thing.
Thanks for all the replies!

Then buyer is allowed a change of mind return.

Once you have the tyre back make sure you do the refund in the correct order to avoid a defect. Send cancellation request, then go via ebay to paypal and refund the whole of the payment.

rdwarr

I now have the wheel back having had to pay the courier an extra £10 not to deliver it. I'll sort out things with the buyer over the weekend, taking the above advice on board.
I can see the advantage of a new Private Seller account - it's just the thought of losing 15 years of 100% positive feedback that's putting me off

FidgitsID

rdwarr wrote: »

I now have the wheel back having had to pay the courier an extra £10 not to deliver it. I'll sort out things with the buyer over the weekend, taking the above advice on board.
I can see the advantage of a new Private Seller account - it's just the thought of losing 15 years of 100% positive feedback that's putting me off

Most buyers dont even bother to check a sellers feedback, so I doubt lack of feedback would put many buyers off.

If you ever have an issue with ebay, they dont care how long you been selling or how good your previous feedback is, so you would not be losing anything there either.