@Sellers: When is it okay to request a refund? (etiquette, not rules)

[nevanevame]

I purchased a lot of 20 pieces of an item, and one of them was damaged. I initiated a return, sent photos, and stated very clearly that only one of the 20 pieces was defective. I was expecting to be offered a partial refund, but the seller just gave me a full refund without discussing it. Now, I feel bad for complaining, and I'm wondering if my "complain about everything" policy is the right way to behave. I know about the rules that are written, but I want to know about the unwritten rules; what does a good buyer look like?

I always complain if there is something wrong with the item I received, for 2 reasons.

1. If there is something wrong with SOME of your stock, perhaps I can draw your attention to it; perhaps you don't send faulty stuff to other people, so it reduces the risk of future complaints and bad feedback.

2. Some ebay sellers are fantastic, and others are absolute crooks, and the only way buyers can tell the difference is to look at feedback ratings. I want to do everything in my power to give good sellers an advantage, by giving the right feedback for everyone, but also, I buy so much **bleep**, leaving feedback is the only way I can keep track of what has arrived and what still needs my attention. I understand that neutral feedback is negative feedback, so when in doubt, I give full positive feedback, but if there is a problem with the item, I want to see how you handle the issue before I tell other sellers that you're fantastic. If the issue is small, and the seller agrees to take responsibility, maybe I will just close the case, because I don't really care about the problem; I just want to know that they are reasonable before I give positive feedback. 

I know eBay will take my side most of the time, so I am the only person who will stop me from treating sellers badly. I want to do the right thing, but I don't have access to a neutral perspective, so sometimes it's hard to say what is fair. This situation has made me question my "always complain" policy, so I am looking for feedback from sellers. Am I a bad buyer? Help me become better. What should I do if I am unhappy with my purchase, but the issue is small?

[digital*ghost]

You missed my point, and kinda made it at the same time.

I wasn't trying to say you're attempting to fix China, you asked a question about holding sellers in China to the same standards as sellers (for example) in Australia, and I was trying to point out that you can try, but at the end of the day sellers will only be at the standard they hold themselves.

With regards to China, it's the land of mass production, where they cater to markets that are driven by price more often than anything else, mass production for the lowest price often means QC isn't perfect, things are packed by weight / volume and an eye can miss a lot because of that. (eBay also often acts as a clearance place for seconds, BTW). 

You mentioned that you don't experience similar issues with local sellers, and also mentioned that you're paying more for things that aren't that much better quality if you buy elsewhere - I'm trying to point out some of the reasons for that (eg seller imports, conducts more stringent QC, ultimately increasing the unit price on stock due to discarding a certain percentage, eliminates the need for buyers to deal with / complain to the source, and so on; this is a value add that involves time, effort and risk for the seller so that ideally the consumer just buys and receives with none of the same risks), and I'm also suggesting that it's the trade-off, and that once you know that kind of trade-off is involved, deciding whether or not it's an acceptable one. 

[lane-ends]

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@nevanevame wrote:

I did "contact the seller", but then eBay asks you what it's about. I don't remember whether I said I wanted to return it, or it was not as described, but both were true, so I might have picked either. I did not know that there are horrific concequences if you pick the wrong option, and in my defense, i was trying to be honest; I made the best judgement I could, based on the information I had, and I picked what I thought was an appropriate answer to the question. I made a conscious effort to be clear, right from the start, that only one of the items was faulty and I was happy with the rest; I am confident that I made that clear. I was polite. I made no demands. I did not think the seller had tried to cheat me, and I did not want to cheat him, so I was trying to sound friendly. If he assumed I was out for blood, it was not based on my message to him.

And no, I do not mark the stars down. When I give positive feedback I give full stars for everything. I only consider giving less than full stars if I give negative feedback, and I only give negative feedback if there is a serious problem; if that happens, I am still honest about what went well.

"Contact the seller" is all I was trying to do. 

I will not make this mistake again, and I appreciate your guidence.

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Important point here, Ebay do hijack the contact seller process and encourage buyers to start a returns process, rather that actually contact seller.

[*tippy*toes*]

It's always good when bad buyers come here and out themselves. Makes out jobs much easier.

[springyzone]

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

It's always good when bad buyers come here and out themselves. Makes out jobs much easier.

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Must admit, this made me curious so i went in and had a look at the last 6 pages of feedback left for others.

Sellers can block whoever they like of course, but for me personally, I don't know that I would classify this is a bad buyer or a scammer. What i am sensing is this is a person with quite high expectations & who tries to give detail.

In fact, looking at it from the viewpoint of a buyer, I would find her FB extremely useful except for one thing-after a few months, I can't see what the actual item she bought was.

I totally understand that FB is supposedly about the transaction etc and I know a lot of sellers say it should never be about the product but again, from my point of view, I like to hear about the actual product too-if it was very thin material or broke easily or if the sizing ran a bit large or small, it is useful info for a lot of buyers.

Given that so much of ebay now is about shops with new items, the reviews on items section would be very useful (as long as it was about identical products, not just 'similar') but it doesn't seem to be in place on ebay very well. I've never been prompted to write a review, put it that way. Some things I buy are one offs but quite a few have been commercial products.

[*tippy*toes*]

It's not just the red and grey dots. It's also the amount of comments about refunds and low quality. They are buying cheap rubbish from China and are expecting a top quality item. When they don't get it, the seller pays for it. If you pay $2 for it, it's only going to be the quality of a $2 item. You're not going to get a 2ct diamond ring for $2.