Bset Way to Refund??

[clarry100]

We sold an item back on 25th Sept. It was BIN and FREE postage. $7.49 total sale price.

Since then the buyer has reported they were not happy with their purchase and wanted a full refund.

They have been very slow in communication, hence the time frame.

Anyway we have told them to return their item and we will give them a refund as long as it's in original condition. They say they posted it a few days ago but we have not seen it yet.

This is the first time we have had to do this in 6-months since we opened our store. So not too bad I guess.

We are happy to give them a full refund but what is the best way to do this so that we recover our eBay FVF and PayPal fees and they get their $7.50 back.

Can we raise a cancellation request this far out? I'm sure they will agree to that. In help it says it can be raised up to 45-days after the sale. But does this mean after payment?

I've looked against the sold item and there is no cancellation option in the drop-down list to the right of the item.

Any suggestions on this one?

[putney32]

firstly, dont do anything until you have the item back.

to refund, always do it thru the same source of payment.  For paypal, go to the original payment in your pp account an click Refund, that way your pp fee will be refunded too.

as for ebay fvf, you will have to send the buyer a Mutual Cancellation Request AFTER you receive item and refund it.

[clarry100]

They paid with PayPal.

If I go thru the ebay mutual cancellation request and the buyer agrees and it is successful, then does this mean my ebay FVF will be refunded.

Also does it mean the payment via PayPal will be refunded including PayPal fees.

If all this is true then this seems to be what I need to do.

At the end of the day the buyer should get back their original purchase cost. Less, of course, their cost of postage to return my item.

And I will be just out of pocket for the cost of posting them the item in the first place.

All good if this can be the outcome.

If the buyer asks I will even refund their return post cost.

[phorum_junkie*]

If the buyer asks I will even refund their return post cost.

In that case wouldn't it be better just to refund without asking them to return it, they may be more inclined to agree to a mutual cancellation so you get your fvf refund.

If they are going to return it then it will have to be by a fully tracked delivery method which will probably be nearly as much if not more than the refund.

[clarry100]

It's only a small item. Standard mail costs only 60-cents. So no problems there.

I did wonder what happens tho, if they said they have posted it back (which they said they did do) but we never receive it. It has been 3 business days now and we still dont have it back yet.

Maybe then they are trying to cheat us or maybe its real as AP do lose things sometimes, we all know that.

As a seller we cover AP loosing things no problems. We just replace them. So can we likewise expect the buyer returning an item to cover AP loss as well.

And BTW they still have reserved giving us FB at this time. Presumably to keep one last bullet up their sleeve if it all goes wrong.

So in the interests of avoiding our first neg then maybe its just best to give back their $7.50 no questions asked.

[davewil1964]

In order to be eligible to Paypal buyer protection for an item not as described, the buyer MUST return the item by verified, trackable means. Posting it in a normal envelope will nullify any protection they might have had from Paypal. Even if they open a dispute.

You have the choice of refunding them, regardless, or making the refund contingent on receiving the item back. However, there are bushfires in half of NSW, AP seem to be unable to deliver ANYTHING within a week of postage. I would wait at least another week, but I suspect the second option would give you a negative.

If the buyer was less than honest, they could always have opened a dispute, pointed out that return postage by acceptable means would be about what the item is worth, got Paypal to refund them without return.

I'd just give them their money back. The ONE SNAD I've had was a misprinted book (a duplicated page block replacing another. So unreadable with 32 pages missing. I took the buyer's word and refunded. Why force them to pay for return postage to recover an unsellable item and, morally, be required to refund return postage as well. ie I would have been up for 2 x postage, the cost of the book, listing fees for the time it was listed before sale. I was happy to reduce that loss by a return postage cost. And my buyer was happy with my service. And agreed to a mutual cancellation, which meant I wasn't out FVF as well.

[phorum_junkie*]

If the original delivery was 60c then add that to your actual cost of the item, not what you sold it for, and that is all you will be losing if you refund.