Am I required to give the buyer a refund?

[teriosullivan]

Just a quick one.

As a seller am I required to give the buyer a refund when their items arrive outside of the estimated delivery date? I post my items in plenty of time for them to be delivered in teh estimated time. I have proof of postage and Australia Post is taking in excess of 10 days to deliver sometimes. I know its Christmas time but postage has been extremly slow. Looking at the tracking sometimes Australia Post is sending this back and forth between states and other times I can't tell why there has been a delay.

When we have proof of postage and tracking details are we required to give a refund?

Thanks

Teri

[*tippy*toes*]

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@joethenuts wrote:

springy one week from now is plenty he is in melbourne prob 15 minutes away from us.

in the sun today there was a person who got a card last year that took 10 days to go 2 ks , they said they could of walked and stopped for a cuppa tea in every house on the way and got there faster on page 14 .  and yes i would and a lot of others would order these products well before the date. buyers look one way straigt dellivery by bla bla date, product price. 

i put my store on holiday mode at 1 in the morning but for a change did not block my items , it says cleary closed to the 11/1 /16 i have had 3 orders already , so looks like i will have to go to full holiday mode. 

what a lot of you are missing is the op had got a message from the buyer wanting there money back parcel not opened as its too late.for them to use.

what do you all think his answere is going to be on thye feed back if the op tells him n o.

how many stars for late delivery and after the item missed the party , what do you think the buyer will give a green or a red. 

the buyer does not give a damm if its ebay or the seller that puts the dates on , 

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There are no stars for delivery time. There are only stars for postage time, which is how long it takes the seller to post, not how long it takes to arrive. If the buyer gives 1 star for postage time the OP can contact eBay and have it removed as they have posted within their handling time. Depending on what a negative comment might be, they could possibly have that removed too.

The onus is still on the buyer to allow enough time for delivery, regardless of unrealistic estimates in the listing.

[davewil1964]

Unfortunately, come February, the buyer will get a question (if not counter lodged parcel) as to whether the item arrived within eBay's unrealistic estimated time. If they tick 'No' - instant defect. 5% = no more PS/TRS; 10% = eBay will talk to you.

Noting that eBay's algorithm struggles with weekends and has no understanding of Public Holidays.

[digupatin]

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@joethenuts wrote:

 [what do you want the buyer to do with a product that prob have happy 35th birthday tippy.  i mean next year she will be 36. mmmmm

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Easy peasy Joe, they could save the numbers and with a small modification they could use them at age 53  

[*tippy*toes*]

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@joethenuts wrote:

oh tippy tippy tippy   no use blaming aus post here , this is ebay not aus post ,they prob dont read these message, also the op lives in the suburbs.

anyway to  the op let us know what happens , my advice is this , if this does not happen that often just refund as its a useless product after the event.    [what do you want the buyer to do with a product that prob have happy 35th birthday tippy.  i mean next year she will be 36. mmmmm

ps these numbers are only used for these purposes only, as these numbers may not be correct at the time 

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Please explain? Why would the buyer buy something with happy 35th birthday Tippy on it? I don't even know the buyer, so no idea why they'd be celebrating my birthday that was 4 months ago. Are you trying to have a go at me? You do know that's against forum rules don't you?

[joethenuts]

i would think that you would be happy with an exsample unless you are younger than 35 , you see if you read the post ,its all about the refund , and it would be no good if it had a number next to a persons name that wont be correct next year , thats why the buyer should get a refund.  

and also did you not state i started the thread on sheep , you know thats not true  even the poster has agreed with me that they started the sheep, mmmmmmm

have a lovely day?????????

[phorum_junkie*]

Me thinks sheep are a rare sight in Joe's that top paddock. Why would the buyer be entitled to a refund, the seller can do no more than post within their handling time and if the OP cannot use the item themselves perhaps they could sell it to get some of their money back. A bit more difficult if there is an age and a name but not impossible.

[trudy66]

I have just received an item from US that has taken 39 days for delivery. Seller sent day after order and provided tracking. Ebay estimated delivery was within 15 days, I certainly wont give the seller a neg for this as they did everything right - its not their fault that circumstances beyond their control caused such delay. I will give pos feedback on this all the way.

With the Buyer depending on delivery for cake decorations perhaps it would be better to send express delivery and charge extra for that to ensure its there on time.

[joethenuts]

well being a prob cake iced topper which have printed letters on it , instead of upsetting someone  and it had happy joehenuts 42 on it

 it might be a bit hard to sell lol.    the seller should also be realistic also   it has a 3 day window if i brought of her and in that time i have to send a message with what i want on it  and then it has to be made with words and then sent out with a 3 day window . i cant see how the buyer would be at fault , at the end of the day the buyers always right.

[*tippy*toes*]

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@joethenuts wrote:

well being a prob cake iced topper which have printed letters on it , instead of upsetting someone  and it had happy joehenuts 42 on it

 it might be a bit hard to sell lol.    the seller should also be realistic also   it has a 3 day window if i brought of her and in that time i have to send a message with what i want on it  and then it has to be made with words and then sent out with a 3 day window . i cant see how the buyer would be at fault , at the end of the day the buyers always right.

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What a load of malarky. That's where you are so wrong Joe. So very very wrong. That is a falicy. The buyer likes to think they are right because they can make threats to get their own way. They usually get their own way to keep the peace, not because they are right.

The buyer may not be at fault, but neither is the OP. She has a 3 day handling time. The buyer is instructed to let her know what they want, she makes it and posts it within her stated handling time. That's exactly what she did. If the item then takes 3 months to arrive because it's gone via Thailand and the moon, that's not the sellers fault. She has fulfilled her part of the obligation. She took the order, she created the order, she posted within her handling time. What happens after that is out of her control.

If the buyer opened a dispute, they would lose. Plain and simple as that. She should have allowed enough time for it to arrive, not order at the last minute and hope for the best. If it's an edible cake topper, I'd just eat it!

[springyzone]

 I find myself agreeing with a lot of different, opposing views here.

That's because there are the logical facts, & then there are buyers and their opinions & expectations

Joe is quite right in a lot of what he has said. I find he often has a lot of horse sense when it comes to the gist of the problems, because logical facts don't matter on ebay, let's be honest.

Joe said:

the buyer does not give a damm if its ebay or the seller that puts the dates on

Correct. The fact might be that the seller posted well within their stated handling time, the fact might be that when assessing postage time, the buyer is meant to rate how quickly the seller sent the item, not how long it took to arrive.That's not how it necessarily.works though, we all know that.

It's not how a lot of buyers see it.  Ebay knows that and is moving to encourage that model of interpretation by giving estimated dates of arrival.

The buyer in this case wants money back. From everything I've read so far, the seller should not be under any obligation to refund a thing, not if they carried out their part of the deal in a timely way, and it sounds as if they did.

But the reality is the buyer is likely to leave at best neutral and most likely neg feedback if they don't get a refund. Frankly, I think even if they do get a refund, they are still going to mark it down to one star for postage.

So I think it comes down to seller choice here & how much difference it will make to their business. Personally, if I had the tracking info to back me up, I would send off a polite message to explain why I was not refunding.  If a seller is going to cop a defect for one star postage anyway, they may as well at least still have the money.

(Can you cop more than one defect on a single transaction?)

But I would take this as a wake up call. If they are finding austpost slow, &  selling items that are arrival time sensitive, then maybe build  express post into the cost of the items, as someone else suggested. Plus set it up to extend the estimated arrival time.

Because.. it doesn't matter how much in the right you are as a seller, if things go wrong & buyers aren't getting their party things in time, they are going to be angry, or at the very least, upset.