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Misleading lighting in photo?? Returns?

Hi all, 

I am a new seller. I sold an article of clothing at a pretty low price but the buyer has written to say "This is not the colour I received", with a photo. 

Comparing their photo to the ones on the original listing, it seems that my lighting unintentionally made it look quite a bit darker than it really is. I described it as "navy blue", in my photo it's approaching black, but in the buyer's photo it's not quite that dark. 

In this case, should I be paying for the buyer's return postage in addition to a refund? 

If so, I'm almost tempted to just give the refund and let them keep it/give it away since postage is over half the cost of the item anyway. 

What do more experienced sellers think?

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Misleading lighting in photo?? Returns?

I had a look at your ads and I must say, the clothing does appear to be a very dark navy, almost black.

I know monitors vary and in your defence, you did mention navy several times. 

I think in any replies, I would point that out-that the word navy was in the title and mentioned in the ad several times so there was no reason for any buyer to assume they were black.

 

You say the photo they have sent shows a fair degree of difference in colour. I am assuming it was quite a bit lighter navy. You saw the item, which photo is more accurate? Yours shows too dark, is theirs too light or is it pretty  spot on? That's something we can't gauge, only you can.

 

If their photo is pretty accurate, I don't think you owe them a full refund & postage at all because they had no reason to suppose the clothing was black, that's their error. And I'd be pointing that out, as I said.

But you could add that under the circumstances you are prepared to make a partial refund to compensate for their disappointment or else they can make a change of mind return for a full refund, but they will need to pay return postage.

 

However, in future, get the photos right. I don't mean to sound harsh but the rest of your ad looks so professional that people would expect the photography to be pretty well spot on too. Okay, monitors vary but the colour showing in an ad should be reasonably indicative. I've in the past bought clothing on ebay and been very put out to find on a couple of things that the colour differed a lot from what was shown. (These were private low volume sellers).

If a colour isn't showing up properly in your photos, try a few different places-perhaps outside etc so you have a range of photos to show under different lighting.

 

 

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Misleading lighting in photo?? Returns?

Ps I'm not sure if this is relevant, but this has happened almost 3 weeks after tracking indicated it was delivered. 

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Misleading lighting in photo?? Returns?

Try explaining to the buyer, that unless  their devices  are calibrated to the devices they are receiving information from,  then there will always be colour variations in all images they view.

 

Send them something like this.

 

Have you ever gone into an electronics store and looked at the wall filled with different televisions? Different models, sizes, manufacturers, different technologies โ€“ all tuned to the same station for demonstration purposes. You may even notice two televisions, made by the SAME manufacturer with the SAME exact specifications, right next to each other. I will bet you that NONE of those sets will display their colors 100% exact the same as one another. The same is true for images viewed on a computer screen.

Different screens on different computers, using different operating systems (such as Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, etc) and even different web browsers (even if they are used on the same computer) all have different color characteristics. Even if you were looking at the same image on two identically configured computers, whoโ€™s to say their respective brightness and contrast settings would be the same? What about the lighting in the room itself? All of these factors affect how you perceive the colors within the image. Itโ€™s just about impossible to get a color to look exactly the same on every single screen. This is just a sad but real fact of life that web designers (and clients) need to deal with.

You can get much more consistent results by calibrating your display by eye or installing special software on your computer, but this will only serve to improve YOUR situation โ€” the colors seen by OTHER viewers will still be different (however slightly) to what you see.

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Misleading lighting in photo?? Returns?

The buyer has written to say it's not the colour they expected, but have they indicated what they actually want? Are they just fishing for a refund without opening a case?

 

Since it has been 3 weeks since they received it, it most likely has been worn and is either no longer required or they're trying to keep it and get a refund OR, it's a case of buyers remorse.

 

Did the item have tags, or was it used?

 

First figure out what they actually want from you and then come back to us.

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Misleading lighting in photo?? Returns?

Gutterpunk is right, and this is the reason why many sellers add a disclaimer to their listing stating the same in a few words. If you add a disclaimer, buyers cannot complain if you stated the right colour in your listing, even if on their screen it might appear a bit different.

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Misleading lighting in photo?? Returns?

Thank you all so much for the helpful replies. I explained the colour variation issue as you suggested. 

I think I have discovered the cause of the discrepancy: my lighting was too warm, which clashed with the blue and made it look almost black. The buyer said they thought it was black and green from the photo - the difference in colour between their photo and mine is visually significant (though I did say "navy blue" in the description). 

They want to return it, and I suspect I may be at fault because I did not have that disclaimer about colour variation, and possibly liable for their return postage as well as the refund? In which case I'd sooner just deliver the $25 refund and not bother about the return, and just drop the drama and move on and fix my lighting, unless I am unambiguously not at fault. 

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Misleading lighting in photo?? Returns?

I don't know. It is common that many devices do not show exacting colour compared to others.

 

Also in my mind NAVY BLUE as you had described in your listing is NOT BLACK so I wouldn't be in any hurry to refund unless a case is opened against you in which case eBay will side with the buyer even if the tiem had

been an exact match

 

Just my 2c worth coz with carpy buyers like this I just hate that they get to keep an item for free!

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Misleading lighting in photo?? Returns?

Maybe you can offer the buyer a partial refund so no return is necessary?

You are not completely at fault as the description said "navy blue", and the buyer should have read it and after seeing the photos he should have asked for clarification.

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Misleading lighting in photo?? Returns?

Navy in the title....Navy in the item specifics....Navy in the description body of the listing.

 

How did they miss the colour and assume it was black?

 

You're not at fault as far as I'm concerned.

 

I wouldn't refund....but that's just me.

 

 

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Misleading lighting in photo?? Returns?

Yep, sounds very much like they saw a hint of an 'opportunity' and decided to try one on with a less experienced seller

 

It says navy several times over, end of

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