eBay return request, heavy parcel from France

misterthrifty

Hi
Some advice please.
I listed some printed papers in 2 lots, they were bought by a buyer in France and I posted them together at the end of October. I had an email last week saying that the pages were not complete, I politely pointed out that the description clearly stated they were very mixed up & had no page numbers so I hadn't checked if they were complete or not, I stated how many pages there were. The buyer has now opened a return request.
Am I best to contact ebay and ask them to close the cases as he appears to have not read the description or should I contact the buyer & try and negotiate first?
TIA

Brynsam

Are you a private or a business seller?

theonlywayisup

Ebay won't close a case. The case must be closed by the buyer or escalated (after day 8) by one or other or you.

Was your listing in English, was it clear the pages were as you say?

misterthrifty

Thanks for the replies.
I'm a private seller. I think it was clear in the description & the buyer has only written in French so I suspect they don't speak English.

theonlywayisup

You have two options. Either accept the return and pay the returns postage (as the buyer has opened a request that will generate this) or you fight the case.

You have to be very clear if you are going to fight the case and you need to be supplying all your evidence before day 8. Then on day 8 you can escalate and keep your fingers crossed.

If you don't accept the return but fight and you lose, the item may not have to be returned and eBay will refund your buyer from your funds.

TKPeters

We had this last month & eBay advised me that I would lose the INAD case & if I did not provide a shipping label to the customer for the return, they would refund the buyer in full from my funds & allow them to keep the item.

knightstyle

Where about in France? just give post code as I have contacts over there who could go and explain the listing details in French.
If not ask on ex-pat sites for help. someone may go round and bring them back to UK for you.
At the end of the day it might be down to damage limitation and you will just have to pay for them to be returned, not fair but no-one ever said Ebay was fair.

F&L

Does the returns request state the item is not as described as only this will make the seller have to provide a label? If so then I would phone ebay and make clear to them the item was as described. I recently had a similar situation and when I phoned ebay they passed the details onto ebay in the buyer's home country, who then partially refunded the buyer from their own funds.

martindow

There is no mention of value here - it may be best to not bother to get them back and just refund. It does seem from your OP that pages could be missing which could well mean that it is worth much less than has been paid by your French buyer.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Check the last delivery ETA on the order, if it's been more than 30 days eBay buyer protection doesn't apply and if the buyer asks eBay to step in the return will just close without eBay doing anything.

eBay's ETAs to Europe can be fairly short, depending on when the buyer paid you may be lucky enough to be outside the 30 days.

misterthrifty

Well I have been trying to communicate with the buyer to reach a solution but no reply whatsoever, which also suggests that they may not speak English. I have contacted ebay who refered it to their French office but nothing back from them.
I can't arrange a return as the buyer needs to let me have the weight and size of the package and they won't reply to my messages! (the buyer is in Pays de la Loire 72220).
How do I submit my evidence if I decide to do so? The return says that the items are missing pages but of course I made that clear in the description, I also priced it cheap to allow for that.
TIA