Ebay gives refund because item was late

[pmk_comp]

I'm at a loss here.

Ebay has just refunded in full (without asking for the item to be returned) because the item was "LATE" acording to ebay's schedule "Get it Free & Fast by ???"

Despite the attached note saying delivery might take longer in peak periods, a buyer complained that it was "late" according to ebay's schedule and demanded a full refund.

Ebay obliged without asking for the buyer to send it back. I appealed but ebay dismissed my appeal.

What gives? So I can order an item on ebay, say it's late, get a full refund and get away with fraud?

I can't afford to give away my products.

What can I do?

[curraone]

First of all, did the parcel having tracking?

[mbselections00]

What the ?  That is absolutely disgraceful and I'm sure none of us can afford to give our products & postage costs away !!

If this is their latest antic to get rid of us small Sellers, I'm pretty sure they will succeed with this one - could very well be the final nail in the coffin.

So far as I'm concerned, it makes no difference it was late, the buyer obviously received it - how late was it ?

It's tooo pathetic for words . . . . . .  I would keep appealing

Oh, oops, I did just take a quick look at what you sell, perhaps it does actually make a difference if it was late, but how late was it & did the customer order allowing sufficient time for delivery ?

[chameleon54]

If this is exactly what happened, ITS DOWN RIGHT SCAREY. How late was the item. 3 days or 3 weeks ? If it was only a few days I would be phoning and asking to have the case looked at by a supiviser.

[bigbrickshop]

I'm not surprised.

The blurb in the Money Back Guarantee states that sellers have to "provide evidence of successful on-time delivery to the buyer's address." if a buyer opens a case for Not Received.

How many days handling do you have in your listings?  I just looked at one of your listings and in the description area it says that items are posted within 3-5 days. Do you actually have 5 days as your handling time? If not, you're likely to lose more claims.

[digital*ghost]

eBay considers an item that is posted late (i.e. after the seller's listed handling time) to mean an item is not as described. 

They do is the US, anyway - it's part of their Money Back Guarantee, if you and the buyer are in Oz I don't think that should apply as I haven't seen it as part of our MBG.

Plus, if your item was posted within your handling time and you can show that, you should be able to get the money credited back.

[clarry100]

That is downright scandalous.

They cannot be allowed to get away with this.

[curraone]

several thoughts about what you can do for the future:

the automatic ebay guarantee thing is going to bite everyone who posts by letters.    Best thing you can do is sacrifice a bit of profit and add $3.70 to your postage margin to allow for Registered Post.    Or buy rolls of 50 at at time and add $3.10.

IMO it is not viable to have free postage -  it stops people being able to combine and obtain postage discounts.

Edit your handling time to 3 days or more.   This will give you more leeway and people will be pleasantly surprised when the item arrives sooner.

Did you appeal that neutral?   The buyer admits they did not read the description.

[pmk_comp]

I've just spent 30mins on the phone to ebay.

They're going to open a re-apeal on the case because it shouldn't have been an item not received case.

[pmk_comp]

No. It was sent via normal post. She admitted to receiving it in her claim for a refund.

Buyer ordered it on the 15th Nov (Saturday), Item was sent on the 17th (Monday), ebay estimated it should have been there by the 19th-21st (Thursday - Friday). It actually arrived on 1st December. Two weeks (10 business days) because of the Christmas load.