First time seller, items damaged in transit

[gesal_4755]

Hi,

This is my first time selling on eBay. I sent a watch overseas to a buyer who is claiming one of the dials has been damaged in transit. I am a bit lost with what happens going forward & no matter where I search on eBay I can’t just seem to just online chat or call with an agent. Due to my first time selling, eBay has my

money on hold currently. From what I’ve searched, I think the buyer needs to lodge a return & once they do that I have to pay the postage fees back to me which will take another month due to being overseas.. do the eBay fees get scrapped since there was no successful sale? And will eBay directly refund them as they are the ones holding the money?

And to make matters worst, when sending it over to the UK the return address was an old one that wasn’t even on my eBay account anymore, however each time I tried to amend it, eBay would charge me for a new shipping label (despite only using 1 - I have since been able to cancel the others). It has been a very stressful process trying to send something that was once very sentimental to me. I understand I need to cut my loses and realise I’ve lost money instead of making a sale & I will not use eBay again in the future. But can someone please tell me the correct way going forward? 

[springyzone]

I can't answer all your questions but re the ebay fees. I don't think you will be refunded those as there was a sale and it will be considered your fault that the watch was damaged, not ebay's.

Had the buyer not paid, for example, that would be different. You could claim for fees back then.

I am not actually sure the watch was or is damaged. It's an expensive item, sent overseas by a seller with zero feedback. To some buyers, that might signal 'opportunity to scam'.

But the buyer will win that one, so your best bet, as far as I can see, would be to let them open a claim and then you will be responsible for the postage fees back. The whole process is a bit more complicated & expensive with sales outside Australia, unfortunately. Had you asked earlier, I think a lot of people might have advised selling to Australia only.

The normal procedure would be that the buyer gets the refund once the item tracking shows it has been returned to the seller, but you have an added complication in that your return address is wrong.

You really need to get onto ebay help asap. Try to get someone to give you a call back.

Good luck. I am really hoping you won't lose both the money and the watch.

PS I realise that says solution for buyer but get onto the contact us section any way you can and request a call back so you can explain your problem.

[sandypebbles]

I absolutely agree you'd be best to stop selling expensive items (and especially to overseas) until you have experience as a seller

Sadly, there are many scammer buyers who target brand new sellers with expensive items, and being overseas is just the item on their cakes

I doubt the watch was really damaged, but eBay will take the buyer's word over a seller any day of the week with something like this

[sugar249]

Yes you will still be responsible for the fee's,  Ebay have done their job, and facilitated a sale, why shouldnt they get paid.   It's not their fault the item may be damaged,  thats your part of the deal to make sure it's not.  Having said that it may be a scam, but still not Ebay's fault so they should be paid.

Follow what springy says,  but maybe also ask for a picture of the damaged watch,  if it really isnt broken, it may scare them off, but I dont like your chances.

[brickworksmarket]

Since when don't you receive a fee credit when a buyer returns an item, it was still working on friday. Unless you are waiting for ebay to step in then you won't be refunded.

[sugar249]

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@brickworksmarket wrote:

Since when don't you receive a fee credit when a buyer returns an item, it was still working on friday. Unless you are waiting for ebay to step in then you won't be refunded.

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Oh well if that is the case it's a sad situation that the seller gets rewarded with a refund for sending defective items.  Bad policy on Ebay's part.

[brickworksmarket]

Who sends defective items, is that part of your business model and you did not know you could get your fees back after all these years. Sorry someone did not tell you earlier could have saved you some money. Or if you where more business savvy you could have just looked on the ebay help page relating to that topic.

[etb321]

Dial damage on a watch?  My first thought was aren't the dials under a glass or quartz cover? Assuming it was sent in a box with some bubblewrap it's hard to imagine how dial damage could occur during transit.

 I agree with asking for a photo of the face of the damaged watch. It may be helpful in that you recognize the watch as the one you sent.

Also be aware, unless the buyer's claim of damage is true, what you receive back is unlikey to be what you sent.

[gesal_4755]

Did you read my post at all? Why on earth would I purposely send a defective watch half way across the world? If you read the title, you would see it was damaged in transit. And I have been searching the eBay help page & couldn’t find an answer, hence why I came on here. 

[designers*n*more]

Scroll to the bottom of the page, you’ll need to go through a couple of pages but should be able to get to Customer Service chat through here

https://www.ebay.com.au/help/home

If the buyer has opened a dispute, do not refund the buyer until you receive the item back. If it’s not in the condition you sent it you can claim a portion of the sale fee back from eBay.