eBay: I sold brand new item, buyer says it is stained

garfield33

Hi all, I've bought and sold a few things on eBay over the years, this is the first time I've had a problem.
I sold an item as brand new without tags, with photos on the listing showing it is clearly in excellent condition and unused.
I posted it last week, the buyer has now been in touch saying that there is a stain that can't be removed - they have sent a photo but it is blurry.
I've read today that sellers are unable to leave negative feedback for buyers, so I don't know if this person has done this before.

What is my best course of action?
I'm thinking of just offering a straight return and refund, rather than get into a dispute?
However I suspect they are trying to blag some money off, which I don't want to do as I know the item was in excellent condition. I would rather get the item back and try to sell it again, or offer it to the second highest bidder (if I'm still able to do that).

Brywalker

Your instinct is right. Best to just offer the return for a refund.  Be nice...Reply to them along the lines of  '' I am sorry that you aren't happy with it. Please go to your purchase history and open an 'Item Not as Described' request. You will then be able to download a label and return the item to me at no cost to yourself. Upon receipt I will of course issue a refund straight away''.   You may well find that you don't hear from them again.  

diystarter7

Hi OP

I'm with the above poster
Get it over and done with

I rarely sell but buy a lot more.
Almost anything and everthing I've sold is from our home, tables, sofas, chairs, tv, hifi and people pick up
and I dont post and they are very happy with items and some say, 'better than described.'

The risk of posting is getting what you got, it happens and you know there was nothing wrong, but to cut stress, just refund etc.

Not everyone is the same and it hurts when you know in the back of your mind that what the other is saying is not right but you cant prove it

However, its your choice

Good luck

GadgetGuru

You kinda have no choice here. If the buyer opens a not as described case eBay will force you to accept the return and refund anyway, so rather then going through the dispute you may as well just agree it yourself and keep the buyer happy. 

Be prepared though - you may well find the item has been used and hence the mark on it when its returned. Again, eBay will just side with the buyer so nothing you can really do. That's just part of the parcel when it comes to selling on eBay since they almost always side with the buyer....

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Brywalker said:

Your instinct is right. Best to just offer the return for a refund.  Be nice...Reply to them along the lines of  '' I am sorry that you aren't happy with it. Please go to your purchase history and open an 'Item Not as Described' request. You will then be able to download a label and return the item to me at no cost to yourself. Upon receipt I will of course issue a refund straight away''.   You may well find that you don't hear from them again.  

Excellent answer, I would go with this OP.

There may have been a stain you missed, the buyer might have stained it or they might just be trying to return without paying the postage but either way if they open a return you're in the same position.

Hopefully they are trying it on for a refund without return and you won't hear further. 

soolin

IftiBashir said:

You kinda have no choice here. If the buyer opens a not as described case eBay will force you to accept the return and refund anyway, so rather then going through the dispute you may as well just agree it yourself and keep the buyer happy. 

Be prepared though - you may well find the item has been used and hence the mark on it when its returned. Again, eBay will just side with the buyer so nothing you can really do. That's just part of the parcel when it comes to selling on eBay since they almost always side with the buyer....

The only thing I would add is that this should be done via a SNAD case, OP don’t do your own refund return, use the eBay system as everything gets tracked through that.

As has been suggested, tell OP to open a SNAD case, allow eBay to send a label, you will be charged for this but it is fully tracked. Then eBay give buyer a time period to return and you refund only when you get the item back. It makes no impact on your account but eBay will obviously note that buyer has started a return and there are a few very isolated accounts where buyers that return an excessive amount of items lose their buyer guarantee . Obviously that won’t happen with just a handful of returns, but if your buyer is a serial returner it might just get noted later down the line. 

If you get the item back unmarked then you can report the buyer to eBay for misuse of the eBay money back guarantee. 

Just out of interest do you have returns enabled? I only ask as anecdotally it seems that a private seller that doesn’t have change of mind returns enabled get a higher rate of SNAD returns purely because buyer wants to change their mind and is cross they can’t just pay to send it back. 

tightauldgit

Yeah I think you are going to have to refund them. The only thing I would do personally is since I have to pay postage anyway I would offer them a small discount on the item equivalent to what it would cost me to return it or slightly more. I'd generally rather save myself the hassle of having to sell it again.  

soolin

Unless item is mega cheap I always insist on a return via ebay- it's surprising how many don't bother when they realise they have to make a trip to post something and seller isn't just going to refund them. It also weeds out any serial returners who are hoping for a partial or full refund automatically. If something is broken or damaged then a genuine person won't worry about opening an SNAD case for return. I have refunded without return on some very cheap items in the past where there's been damage I hadn't spotted (I sell vintage so it can happen) .

I've even had several people say they can't be bothered to open an SNAD case and just won't buy from me again, which suits me down to the ground! 

garfield33

Thank you everyone - this is really useful advice, I appreciate it.

Soolin - I will have to check whether I have returns enabled although I think probably not, thanks for the tip.

TripleH

It doesn't matter, tell the buyer to open the SNAD case, you can't stop them from opening one. eBay is setup to enable this by default otherwise unscrupulous sellers would exploit this to rip off buyers.

garfield33

Hi all, the buyer has now come back to say that they really like the item and want to keep it, so could I knock a small amount of money off to cover the cost of a cleaning fluid.
I'm torn between just going along with it for a quiet life (it is only a small amount), or saying that it was fine when I posted it, and asking for a better photo of the "stain". The buyer has made no mention of any damage to the packaging.