How long does a return stay open on Ebay?

tightauldgit

So sold an item recently and it arrived damaged - no worries stuff happens and I can hopefully make a claim for it but we will see. Made an offer to the buyer to basically keep the item for half price. Never heard back. Think that was about 10 days ago or so. How long will the return stay open and what's the next steps? Does it just stay like this in perpetuity until buyer does something or will it time out eventually?

soolin

tightauldgit said:

So sold an item recently and it arrived damaged - no worries stuff happens and I can hopefully make a claim for it but we will see. Made an offer to the buyer to basically keep the item for half price. Never heard back. Think that was about 10 days ago or so. How long will the return stay open and what's the next steps? Does it just stay like this in perpetuity until buyer does something or will it time out eventually?

Is there an SNAD case open? If so then buyer can escalate usually after a week and force a refund if you haven’t sent a label , the escalation date should be on the case notes. If buyer escalates then you will refund them in full and item won’t be returned.

A buyer is under no obligation to even acknowledge your suggestion of a part refund , and if they don’t you need to deal with the case urgently. There’s no harm in agreeing to pay for an eBay label, as that puts the ball back in the buyers court, they either return it or let the case time out against them. 

tightauldgit

They messaged me with the details and opened a return and it gave me three options - refund and send a return label, refund and let them keep it, offer a partial refund. I chose the option to offer a partial refund and that was sent to the buyer. 

When I go there now it just says there's a return open on the item, and when I click through to the details it says I've made the buyer an offer and waiting for their response. 

It doesn't seem to be a SNAD it just says return reason 'arrived faulty'.

As far as I can see there's no option for me to do anything else right now so I guess I just sit and wait?   

soolin

tightauldgit said:

They messaged me with the details and opened a return and it gave me three options - refund and send a return label, refund and let them keep it, offer a partial refund. I chose the option to offer a partial refund and that was sent to the buyer. 

When I go there now it just says there's a return open on the item, and when I click through to the details it says I've made the buyer an offer and waiting for their response. 

It doesn't seem to be a SNAD it just says return reason 'arrived faulty'.

As far as I can see there's no option for me to do anything else right now so I guess I just sit and wait?   

That is a SNAD case. If you can't now offer to send a return label it sounds like the system has changed, and it might be worth phoning ebay to see what happens next.
I haven't seen an SNAD like that, so please update us in case this is the new way they are doing things. 

soolin

The Help system on ebay isn't at all helpful
How to handle a return request as a seller | eBay

Return an item for a refund | eBay

Have any  regulars seen this new SNAD system in place that can advise? 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

soolin said:

The Help system on ebay isn't at all helpful
How to handle a return request as a seller | eBay

Return an item for a refund | eBay

Have any  regulars seen this new SNAD system in place that can advise? 

I don't think it's a new thing, remember seeing this years ago but then eBay started to enrol sellers in to auto accepted returns where the label was just given to the buyer automatically so there was no option to offer a part refund.

That said I still don't know what happens if the buyer doesn't accept or decline the part refund offer, you would assume they can't ask eBay to step in until doing so but of course if they decline a 2am and then ask eBay to step in at 2:01am that doesn't give you time to do anything. 

You'd need 0.30% on Cases closed without seller resolution to fall below standard which I think means more than 1 in 300 sales resulting in you falling below standard which is obviously worth avoiding. 

If the option is there and the amount is small I'd be inclined just to refund in full without a return rather than gamble on the buyer asking eBay to step in. 

tightauldgit

I double checked and it's only been 7 days but I think the buyer has forgotten all about it. 

Although you guys have recommended that I just refund it there doesn't actually seem to be an option to do that. It's literally just stuck on 'waiting for buyer to respond' 

The amount is £100 so it's not nothing, but equally it genuinely has arrived damaged although I don't know if still functional. So literally I messaged him saying 'sorry it arrived in that condition, if it still works would you want to keep it for half price or else I'll arrange a return' then just so Ebay didn't ding me for being late I officially offered the same on the return option. 

I'll give it another few days before I do anything - it could be that they are maybe investigating repair cost or something and I'd rather they keep it than return it if possible.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

£100 is a fair bit of money, it might be worth a chat with eBay.

The question for me would be what are you going to do with the item when it comes back to you, if you can salvage something from it by reselling as damaged then it might be worth getting it back but if you are just going to throw it away personally I'd still write it off, that's assuming you are confident the claim is genuine, although even then I think I'd just refund rather than risk an unresolved case and would hope eBay can force the refund over the phone.

If you get an answer from eBay's CS it would be interesting to know what happens  

Just to add to the above post, it's 0.3% and no more than 2 unresolved cases which for sellers like us not making volume sales it's a very slim margin of error. 

As well as probably not getting the FVF offers the below also applies if you fall below standard:

Directly after the evaluation:

• Your items may be placed lower in Best Match search results
• Your selling limits may decrease
• You'll be blocked from using Promoted Listings, and won't be able to create new campaigns or edit existing campaigns
• Funds from your orders may be placed on hold until tracking information shows that the item is on its way to the buyer
• You'll be unable to deduct an amount from the buyer's refund if an item is returned used or damaged

From the 1st day of the month following the evaluation:

• You may be charged higher final value fees. For full details, please see our fees pages:
  • Final value fees for business sellers

If your account has been evaluated as Below Standard for more than 2 consecutive months:

• We may downgrade your Store to the Basic level
• We may place selling restrictions on your account and related accounts, or restrict you from registering a new account

tightauldgit

So looks like the buyer accepted the partial refund last night. What happens if they don't remains a mystery. Still good to get it resolved.

Rantband

The seller has to give full refund.

tightauldgit

Rantband said:

The seller has to give full refund.

I don't think you read any of this thread before you posted that.