Returns, part-refunds and label numbers

[lupercal]

I'm hoping someone can help me with this. I know this is going to be annoyingly and confusingly longwinded, so apologies.

Forgive my ignorance; I've never had to go through this process. I've discussed it with ebay several times.  Each time has ended with me simply baffled.

The situation: I bought some items advertised as 'very good condition'.  In fact most of them are poor, I think by any reasonable assessment.  However there are a few which are ok, that I'd prefer to keep.  So I'm thinking of contacting the seller and asking for a partial refund/return. 

Now, according to ebay two things have to happen.

1)  I get a label number from either eBay or the seller (they said 'either', so I'm not clear which is the default) and print it out.  Since I don't have a printer, she told me to get 'the courier' to print it. I asked exactly what this meant, and she suggested I ask Australia Post to explain it.  When I suggested that my local Post Office would be unlikely to have a clue what I was talking about, she said to take it in as a PDF file, either on a flash drive or on my phone, and ask them to print it out.

That all sounds a bit clunky but after quite a lot of  vague explanations, that's the only seemingly clear instruction I was given.  Does this seem correct?

The other half of the problem is to do with the part-refund, if the seller is willing to do that. 

First the rep told me to talk to the seller, because if I organised a part-refund and part-return, I could avoid going through the procedure mentioned above.   Fine. I was going to do that anyway.

However she then seemingly contradicted herself, and told me that whether or not the seller agreed to a part refund, I would have to open a claim and print a label. And that this would mean going through the process of a full return and refund. At which point I gave up trying to make sense of it. The only way I can parse this information is that a part return-refund is effectively impossible unless I pay for the postage myself.

Even reading this back is giving me a headache. It has to be much simpler than it seems. I'd be very grateful if anyone could clarify  either

a) how to get a return label printed, when I don't have a printer

or

b) whether this process is applicable in a negotiated part-refund/return

Cheers

[digital*ghost]

First step in any process is to talk to the seller, if for no other reason than to gauge how willing to help they are, and whether "invoking" (so to speak) eBay's request system will be necessary.

I've been told (or at least seen it said a few times) that Aus Post can print labels from a USB drive, but the staff at my PO once printed out something for me and told me not to tell anyone they did it because they're technically not allowed to, so I wouldn't rely on eBay's advice with that. If no other options, you should be able to do it at a library, copy centre or Officeworks (if available). 

The return process (if you need to rely on it) is particularly problematic for multiples of the same item, I've found - if they are all different line items, then you can simply open a request on each item separately, then not open one for the ones you want to keep. If you bought multiples from the same listing, though, you can face a few issues.

One I've had as a seller more than once is that the buyer wants to return all 3 of something, yet the request accounts for only one of them, in the end I can only refund for one through the request, which then closes, and i have to go to PayPal to manually refund for the others - I do not know if this is a failure of eBay's system, a random glitch, or if they've devised it so that you can nominate the quantity involved when you open a request and the buyers missed it, as I've never had to do this as a buyer, but with PayPal if you open a dispute, it's all or nothing unless the seller volunteers the partial refund for X number of items.

There is a facility within requests to offer a partial refund, though, so if the seller is ok with the return it might be able to be handled outside of the request system (they'd still be most likely to send you a digital copy of a postage label to print out, though).  If you have reservations about the seller, I'd use the request system, even if the preference is for partial return / refund, and of course if they are completely disagreeable, you may not have much choice but to return all for a full refund, just pay close attention to the disputed quantity and refund amount, in case it only comes up for one and not the full amount. 

[lyndal1838]

You only get a return postage label if the seller agrees to it and agrees to the partial refund of the item(s).

If the seller does not agree and you open a dispute you will get a return postage label but will have to return all the items.  Ebay does not deal in partial returns.....it is all or nothing.

What it boils down to is what the seller is willing to do for you.

[lupercal]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

First step in any process is to talk to the seller, if for no other reason than to gauge how willing to help they are, and whether "invoking" (so to speak) eBay's request system will be necessary.

I've been told (or at least seen it said a few times) that Aus Post can print labels from a USB drive, but the staff at my PO once printed out something for me and told me not to tell anyone they did it because they're technically not allowed to, so I wouldn't rely on eBay's advice with that. If no other options, you should be able to do it at a library, copy centre or Officeworks (if available). 

The return process (if you need to rely on it) is particularly problematic for multiples of the same item, I've found - if they are all different line items, then you can simply open a request on each item separately, then not open one for the ones you want to keep. If you bought multiples from the same listing, though, you can face a few issues.

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Thanks very much. This all seems clear to me.  It strikes me as a bit amazing, but in all the time I've been on ebay, I've never had to deal with a physical return as a buyer, and as a seller I've always dealt with problems through full or partial refunds - except one case when a buyer in Norway purchased region 4 DVDs and expected them to play on her game console. And in that case, since it wasn't an item defect, the buyer paid the return postage.

In this case it's unfortunately a bit complicated re. multiple items.  There are 13 CDs - each of them separate titles - but spread across two listings of six and seven items respectively. So there's no way to tease individual items apart from the 2 lots.  Both the lots have individual listing numbers, but they come under one order number, so hopefully it won't involve two separate requests, if it comes to that.

The seller has mixed feedback, so not automatically anticpating cooperation.  To be honest, to avoid the hassle involved in returning the damn things, I'd settle for a much lesser partial refund than I'd ordinarily expect. It's down to whether the seller wants a bunch of rubbish CDs back,  with which they're likely to have to go through this process again with someone else.

[lupercal]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

You only get a return postage label if the seller agrees to it and agrees to the partial refund of the item(s).

If the seller does not agree and you open a dispute you will get a return postage label but will have to return all the items.  Ebay does not deal in partial returns.....it is all or nothing.

What it boils down to is what the seller is willing to do for you.

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Yes, I suspect so. Personally I'm very accomodating of the few genuine complaints I get, which is probably why my only neg was about 19 years ago 🙂  But I'm pretty obsessive about defending that 100% positive figure. This seller has no such concerns, and I should have listened to that inner voice telling me that in the first place.  Still, we'll see what happens.  Thanks.

[springyzone]

I think the easiest thing would be to ask the seller first. It is possible they may arrange a partial refund without wanting the items in poor condition back, which would mean you had no need to print off any labels. I think it is going to depend to some extent on how many items in each bundle are unsatisfactory, but by your desription, it sounds as if most of them fall into that category.

If the seller has a few negs already, I can't see them being all that happy to refund the majority of the purchase price and probably not the postage either, since you would be keeping some.

But see how you go, they may offer something.

As far as I can make out, your only other alternative is to go through the process with ebay for a full return/refund. Probably worth it if the majority of the purchase is not as described, although I know you might regret having to let some of the  items go. You would need to print a label for this. I have heard of Officeworks doing printing, no problem. But you may have friends, neighbours or relatives with a printer and most would be willing to help you out. Down the track, it might even be worth your while to buy a little printer, it is surprising how useful they can be sometimes, not just for labels.