Buyer unhappy with colours

[egglesdtp]

A buyer recently purchased a $10 shirt, listed as 'candy pink striped'. The listing was accompanied by three photos – front, back and close-up. A slice of the actual close-up photo used in the listing is shown. As can be seen there are many different colour stripes, with three shades of pink plus white, yellow, orange/red and a sort of pale olive green. From a distance the predominant colour is pink.

After receiving the shirt, the buyer emailed me to say:

I am most disappointed as it does not look like the photo at all. I was expecting pastel colours. The red, orange and green do not show in the photo at all and they are quite bright. I certainly would not describe it as 'pink'! It is horrible!

I replied:

I am sorry to learn that you are disappointed with the shirt, but I included three photos, including a close up (attached) in my listing, which clearly show the colours. However, different monitors can display differently and this may be the case here. I described the shirt as pink, as this is the predominant colour.

Her response was:

I have viewed the photos on 2 phones and 2 computers and it does not show any of the other colours. Had you described it including the stripe colours I would not have purchased it. I would like to return it.

I state in my listings that refunds will only be considered if item differs significantly from the description.

What are my obligations in this situation?

[kopenhagen5]

Normally if seller error, buyer should be refunded in full. Both postage costs.

If buyer error or COM, buyer should be refunded item cost only. No postage refunds.

However seeing as a description can be subjective, if you keep the customer happy you may avoid a neg.

Otherwise you can stand your ground and state not fair, but you will most likely get a neg and stars trashed.

PayPal returns used to mean each member lost one postage cost each. Seller on sending and buyer on returning.

So in this case if I was mediating, I would suggest buyer pays for return to be refunded initial postage and item only.

Like it used to be. Still may not avoid bad feedback though. But there is a chance of it's removal if wording is untrue.

Same if you return in a store, you need to drive to the store for a refund.

[egglesdtp]

Still trying to decide what to do, but one more question - if I decide to refund purchase price and initial postage, how do I get my fees back?

[clarry100 · Accepted solution]

Clarry - why would I have to pay for return postage? On what basis could the buyer claim INAD?

If the buyer chooses to open an INAD return request, whether you agree with it or not, they will be supported by ebay.

You will then have no choice but to abide by the ebay returns rules as I outlined above.

If you refund thru PayPal you risk wearing a defect anyway.

Also doing it this way you will only recover the PayPal fees (less the 30-cents flagfall PayPal charge).

In order to recover all your fees (both ebay & paypal) you need to cancel/refund the whole transaction thru ebay.

But before you do that you need to have the written consent of the buyer to issue the cancellation otherwise ebay could slap you with a defect.

But doing it this way the buyer gets to keep the item unless they have already returned it to you.

If you want to get your item back then the buyer needs to open a returns case which you need to accept.

You have to then pay for return postage by trackable means.

Then the buyer then has 5-days to initiate the return by uploading a return post tracking number onto the case.

If they never return the item you do not have to refund anything. After 30-days of no action by the buyer the case will time out with no penalty to you.

Of course if your buyer is being amenable then you may be able to do all this outside a formal return case.

[springyzone]

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@egglesdtp wrote:

A buyer recently purchased a $10 shirt, listed as 'candy pink striped'. The listing was accompanied by three photos – front, back and close-up. A slice of the actual close-up photo used in the listing is shown. As can be seen there are many different colour stripes, with three shades of pink plus white, yellow, orange/red and a sort of pale olive green. From a distance the predominant colour is pink.

After receiving the shirt, the buyer emailed me to say:

I am most disappointed as it does not look like the photo at all. I was expecting pastel colours. The red, orange and green do not show in the photo at all and they are quite bright. I certainly would not describe it as 'pink'! It is horrible!

I replied:

I am sorry to learn that you are disappointed with the shirt, but I included three photos, including a close up (attached) in my listing, which clearly show the colours. However, different monitors can display differently and this may be the case here. I described the shirt as pink, as this is the predominant colour.

Her response was:

I have viewed the photos on 2 phones and 2 computers and it does not show any of the other colours. Had you described it including the stripe colours I would not have purchased it. I would like to return it.

I state in my listings that refunds will only be considered if item differs significantly from the description.

What are my obligations in this situation?

---

The red & orange do show in the photo but I am wondering if it is a matter of lighting and the shirt colours are more intense, perhaps more like the section of your photo that is shadowed, where the red is a bit stronger.

I think a key question in my mind is did you mention the colour of the stripes in your description?

If you said it was a shirt with predominantly pink tones, with contrasting stripes in white/red/orange-yellow and pale olive, then I would say the buyer could not argue it was not as described, not with that description plus photos.

If you just described it as pink, then ebay may consider the buyer had a case.

The trouble with all this is none of us can see the actual shirt so we don't know how closely it matches the photo. Neither can the ebay reps, so if a buyer says it is nothing like the photos, they have to give a customer the benefit of the doubt-unless your description was crystal clear & beyond dispute.

Even if you know some of the buyers may not read a description properly, it is always worth writing it carefully to cover yourself.

So your obligations?

If you mentioned the other colour stripes in your description you could stand your ground and say it was exactly as described and matched the photos.

If you didn't, I think there is a chance you may lose out in an INAD dispute. In which case it might be as well to sort it out privately by allowing a return. I suspect the buyer will expect her postage costs refunded.

[egglesdtp]

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@clarry100 wrote:

In order to recover all your fees (both ebay & paypal) you need to cancel/refund the whole transaction thru ebay.

But before you do that you need to have the written consent of the buyer to issue the cancellation otherwise ebay could slap you with a defect.

But doing it this way the buyer gets to keep the item unless they have already returned it to you.

If you want to get your item back then the buyer needs to open a returns case which you need to accept.

You have to then pay for return postage by trackable means.

Then the buyer then has 5-days to initiate the return by uploading a return post tracking number onto the case.

If they never return the item you do not have to refund anything. After 30-days of no action by the buyer the case will time out with no penalty to you.

Of course if your buyer is being amenable then you may be able to do all this outside a formal return case.

---

My goodness - it's complicated isn't it? Lets see if I have got this straight, assuming I do not want the shirt back**...

1. I let the buyer know I will refund the purchase price, including postage,

2. ask the buyer if they will consent to a cancellation,

3. if they agree in writing to a cancellation, then cancel the sale and issue a refund via Paypal

** I have already offerred the buyer my original photos if they wish to sell the shirt themselves, but she didn't respond to this offer.

[clarry100]

At this point if the buyer has not opened a formal return case yet then I think best to wait and see what the buyer does next.

Assuming they do open a case and assuming you do not want the shirt back as you stated then...

When the case opens just issue the refund thru the case itself straight away.

The refund will happen automatically and your ebay/paypal fees will be credited. You dont need to do the refund via paypal.

The buyer will get to keep the item.

Case closed... end of story. No defect issued by ebay if you go this way.

[janeababe]

I've just had a look at the original listing.

I'm afraid I can understand where the buyer is coming from.

You included 3 photos, however, only the 2nd photo  really shows the actual stripes and even then, the colours are not as clearly defined as in the picture you have supplied here.

Your description is VERY vague!!!

Description

This polyester cotton shirt, which features cuffed short sleeves, is in very good condition.

Give the lady back her $10 purchase price and her $9 P&H and call it a lesson learned. 

Sorry....

[digital*ghost]

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@egglesdtp wrote:

Her response was:

I have viewed the photos on 2 phones and 2 computers and it does not show any of the other colours. Had you described it including the stripe colours I would not have purchased it. I would like to return it.

---

For whatever it may be worth, I viewed this thread (and therefore the image) on both my mobile and my PC. I saw it first on the mobile, as I had a quick peek at the forum while I was waiting for a bus, and- perhaps surprisingly - the yellow and green were considerably bolder and more noticeable on the mobile than they were on the full-screen PC, where the non-pink colours actually looked paler, or more translucent (I thought it might have something to do with the image resolution at the larger size, but I took a screen shot on my mobile, transferred it to my PC and when I viewed that, the colours went back to looking slightly washed out, so can only presume that's my own screen settings causing it, however that also makes me think it would be very unusual for 4 different screens to show only pink, when even the most washed out version I viewed clearly had multiple colours). 

If this did actually go to an INAD dispute, I wouldn't resign myself to accepting the return and paying postage both ways straight away. You don't hear about it a lot on the forums, but an INAD dispute does not automatically mean the buyer gets whatever they want - in the Facebook group I'm in, there's been several posts mentioning eBay closing INAD disputes because the seller could prove it was clearly a change of mind in one way or another; but you absolutely have to call eBay about it, not allow the dispute to be resolved by any automated means. 

[egglesdtp]

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@janeababe wrote:

I've just had a look at the original listing.

I'm afraid I can understand where the buyer is coming from.

You included 3 photos, however, only the 2nd photo  really shows the actual stripes and even then, the colours are not as clearly defined as in the picture you have supplied here.

Your description is VERY vague!!!

Description

This polyester cotton shirt, which features cuffed short sleeves, is in very good condition.

Give the lady back her $10 purchase price and her $9 P&H and call it a lesson learned. 

Sorry....

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So - if you were selling an item of clothing that had any sort of pattern with multiple colours, you would list all the colours? I have never listed the colours in a multi-coloured item of clothing, as I think my close-up photos show these quite adequately.

And for the record - the photo I included in the first post is EXACTLY the image I inluded in the listing - to make it smaller and faster to load, I took a slice. The original image was 1500 x 1125 pixels - well and truly big enough to see the detail.

[brerrabbit585]

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@janeababe wrote:

I've just had a look at the original listing.

I'm afraid I can understand where the buyer is coming from.

You included 3 photos, however, only the 2nd photo  really shows the actual stripes and even then, the colours are not as clearly defined as in the picture you have supplied here.

Your description is VERY vague!!!

Description

This polyester cotton shirt, which features cuffed short sleeves, is in very good condition.

Give the lady back her $10 purchase price and her $9 P&H and call it a lesson learned. 

Sorry....

---

Totally agree.  There's no mention of yellow or orange in the description.  The only mention of colour is candy pink so that's what the buyer would expect.  It's impossible to tell what the colours are by the photos - what's orange would be assumed to be pink, because that's how it's described.  You'd only be able to see it was definitely orange if it'd been mentioned that there was orange in it.  If I bought a candy pink blouse and it turned out to have orange stripes in it, I too would be extremely disappointed.  

There's no point describing it to everyone in the forum - you should have spent that time describing it in the listing.  Prevention is always better than cure.