topic Re: First time seller, items damaged in transit in Selling

First time seller, items damaged in transit

gesal_4755 — Sat, 18 May 2024 23:34:35 GMT

Hi,

This is my first time selling on eBay. I sent a watch overseas to a buyer who is claiming one of the dials has been damaged in transit. I am a bit lost with what happens going forward & no matter where I search on eBay I can’t just seem to just online chat or call with an agent. Due to my first time selling, eBay has my

money on hold currently. From what I’ve searched, I think the buyer needs to lodge a return & once they do that I have to pay the postage fees back to me which will take another month due to being overseas.. do the eBay fees get scrapped since there was no successful sale? And will eBay directly refund them as they are the ones holding the money?

And to make matters worst, when sending it over to the UK the return address was an old one that wasn’t even on my eBay account anymore, however each time I tried to amend it, eBay would charge me for a new shipping label (despite only using 1 - I have since been able to cancel the others). It has been a very stressful process trying to send something that was once very sentimental to me. I understand I need to cut my loses and realise I’ve lost money instead of making a sale & I will not use eBay again in the future. But can someone please tell me the correct way going forward?

Re: First time seller, items damaged in transit

springyzone — Sun, 19 May 2024 00:24:26 GMT

I can't answer all your questions but re the ebay fees. I don't think you will be refunded those as there was a sale and it will be considered your fault that the watch was damaged, not ebay's.

Had the buyer not paid, for example, that would be different. You could claim for fees back then.

I am not actually sure the watch was or is damaged. It's an expensive item, sent overseas by a seller with zero feedback. To some buyers, that might signal 'opportunity to scam'.

But the buyer will win that one, so your best bet, as far as I can see, would be to let them open a claim and then you will be responsible for the postage fees back. The whole process is a bit more complicated & expensive with sales outside Australia, unfortunately. Had you asked earlier, I think a lot of people might have advised selling to Australia only.

The normal procedure would be that the buyer gets the refund once the item tracking shows it has been returned to the seller, but you have an added complication in that your return address is wrong.

You really need to get onto ebay help asap. Try to get someone to give you a call back.

Good luck. I am really hoping you won't lose both the money and the watch.

PS I realise that says solution for buyer but get onto the contact us section any way you can and request a call back so you can explain your problem.

Re: First time seller, items damaged in transit

sandypebbles — Sun, 19 May 2024 01:13:36 GMT

I absolutely agree you'd be best to stop selling expensive items (and especially to overseas) until you have experience as a seller

Sadly, there are many scammer buyers who target brand new sellers with expensive items, and being overseas is just the item on their cakes

I doubt the watch was really damaged, but eBay will take the buyer's word over a seller any day of the week with something like this

Re: First time seller, items damaged in transit

sugar249 — Sun, 19 May 2024 04:06:40 GMT

Yes you will still be responsible for the fee's, Ebay have done their job, and facilitated a sale, why shouldnt they get paid. It's not their fault the item may be damaged, thats your part of the deal to make sure it's not. Having said that it may be a scam, but still not Ebay's fault so they should be paid.

Follow what springy says, but maybe also ask for a picture of the damaged watch, if it really isnt broken, it may scare them off, but I dont like your chances.

Re: First time seller, items damaged in transit

brickworksmarket — Sun, 19 May 2024 04:30:43 GMT

Since when don't you receive a fee credit when a buyer returns an item, it was still working on friday. Unless you are waiting for ebay to step in then you won't be refunded.

Re: First time seller, items damaged in transit

sugar249 — Sun, 19 May 2024 05:24:36 GMT

@brickworksmarket wrote:
Since when don't you receive a fee credit when a buyer returns an item, it was still working on friday. Unless you are waiting for ebay to step in then you won't be refunded.

Oh well if that is the case it's a sad situation that the seller gets rewarded with a refund for sending defective items. Bad policy on Ebay's part.

Re: First time seller, items damaged in transit

brickworksmarket — Sun, 19 May 2024 06:18:21 GMT

Who sends defective items, is that part of your business model and you did not know you could get your fees back after all these years. Sorry someone did not tell you earlier could have saved you some money. Or if you where more business savvy you could have just looked on the ebay help page relating to that topic.

Re: First time seller, items damaged in transit

etb321 — Sun, 19 May 2024 13:36:04 GMT

Dial damage on a watch? My first thought was aren't the dials under a glass or quartz cover? Assuming it was sent in a box with some bubblewrap it's hard to imagine how dial damage could occur during transit.

I agree with asking for a photo of the face of the damaged watch. It may be helpful in that you recognize the watch as the one you sent.

Also be aware, unless the buyer's claim of damage is true, what you receive back is unlikey to be what you sent.

Re: First time seller, items damaged in transit

gesal_4755 — Mon, 20 May 2024 00:58:38 GMT

Did you read my post at all? Why on earth would I purposely send a defective watch half way across the world? If you read the title, you would see it was damaged in transit. And I have been searching the eBay help page & couldn’t find an answer, hence why I came on here.

Re: First time seller, items damaged in transit

designers*n*more — Mon, 20 May 2024 02:05:22 GMT

Scroll to the bottom of the page, you’ll need to go through a couple of pages but should be able to get to Customer Service chat through here

https://www.ebay.com.au/help/home

If the buyer has opened a dispute, do not refund the buyer until you receive the item back. If it’s not in the condition you sent it you can claim a portion of the sale fee back from eBay.

Re: First time seller, items damaged in transit

padi*0409 — Mon, 20 May 2024 02:25:56 GMT

@designers*n*more wrote:

If the buyer has opened a dispute, do not refund the buyer until you receive the item back. If it’s not in the condition you sent it you can claim a portion of the sale fee back from eBay.

In addition to that, the listing clearly shows the serial number of the watch if that doesn't match the returned one then the OP should win the dispute, unless the buyer has had a jeweller swap out the faces for one they already have.

Re: First time seller, items damaged in transit

springyzone — Mon, 20 May 2024 02:55:21 GMT

@etb321 wrote:
Dial damage on a watch? My first thought was aren't the dials under a glass or quartz cover? Assuming it was sent in a box with some bubblewrap it's hard to imagine how dial damage could occur during transit.

I agree with asking for a photo of the face of the damaged watch. It may be helpful in that you recognize the watch as the one you sent.

Also be aware, unless the buyer's claim of damage is true, what you receive back is unlikey to be what you sent.

Yes, that was my first thought too, that it was odd you could get dial damage without damage to the outer case or glass. It does sound a bit suss.

Brickworksmarket, that was interesting information about how to get the ebay fees back.

So far, in summary, it is sounding as if gesal needs to let the buyer open a claim, then follow exact ebay procedure to accept a return, and to be careful not to refund the buyer till the watch has arrived back and been verified as the same watch.

Then he can apply for a fee refund.

Re: First time seller, items damaged in transit

siddieswans — Mon, 20 May 2024 05:10:56 GMT

My concern is (and please tell me if I am wrong, because I would love to know otherwise) that for INAD dispute the seller has to send the buyer a return postage coupon, and you can't do that for an overseas sale. (The one International INAD I had I just refunded in full without asking for the item back, because I couldn't see a way to do this. I had gone through all the steps of asking the buyer what I could do to make them feel happier - ie partial refund, but they demanded refund in full.)

Re: First time seller, items damaged in transit

brickworksmarket — Mon, 20 May 2024 07:13:48 GMT

Hi, sorry for the confusion, if you look below the username you can see I was responding to another poster and not directed at you. You can click that username and it will take you to the post in question.

Re: First time seller, items damaged in transit

springyzone — Mon, 20 May 2024 19:59:21 GMT

@siddieswans wrote:
My concern is (and please tell me if I am wrong, because I would love to know otherwise) that for INAD dispute the seller has to send the buyer a return postage coupon, and you can't do that for an overseas sale. (The one International INAD I had I just refunded in full without asking for the item back, because I couldn't see a way to do this. I had gone through all the steps of asking the buyer what I could do to make them feel happier - ie partial refund, but they demanded refund in full.)

I have read that too, that a seller cannot issue a postage label to an overseas buyer. It is all so much more complicated, unfortunately, when the buyer is not in Australia.

As I am not a seller these days, one of the other boardies will need to outline exactly how it is done but I am assuming that a seller can ask or work out the postage cost to Australia and send that to the buyer, who would then need to post it back?

It would require the buyer & seller working together to some extent.

I guess the other way would be for the buyer to post it back, show receipts and for the seller to refund everything at the end, but that would require a lot of faith on the part of the buyer.

If I were the seller in this case, I would definitely be getting onto ebay & getting their advice on all the exact steps to take. I think if you get onto chat, there is a record sent to you of your correspondence, or there used to be.

It looks to me as if gesal has sold a watch that was close to $500 in value, which is too much to write off without a fight.