Refunds

[cattspaw11]

I had a buyer but got given the wrong email to pay when i found out told her then made 30 phone calls and email to her and paypal and ebay in the end long time between email asked did she wish a refund we thought it better gave back in 10 min now she gave me bad feed back never happen befor even said would post for free said wanted money back said sorry 20 times but it was ebays fault not mine

[*tippy*toes*]

If you speak like you write, I'd give you a neg too! Please try and use some punctuation. It makes trying to understand what you're trying to say, a little easier.

[springyzone]

I understand you feel that you did your very best to sort things out and you feel this is not your fault, so you're hurt the buyer gave you a neg.

But from her point of view, the deal went awry.None of it was her doing. I'd say with all the phone calls etc she felt she had no real options but to say she agreed to the cancellation. That doesn't mean she was happy about the process though.  I know you refunded quickly, but I'd say she blames you for the faults happening in the first place. She may feel you're not very competent. The neg is not so much for the way you refunded but for the fact all the rigmarole happened at all.

I know that sounds harsh, but it is her assessment and lots of sellers get hit with negs for things they don't feel were fully justified either. Feedback is very subjective.

I have to say, I am confused with your story so I'd say the seller might have been too.

In the neg she claims you cancelled 4 minutes after she paid, you claim you made 30 phone calls to try to fix, so you obviously cancelled then tried to fix? There's no way you could make 30 calls in 4 minutes. 

[cattspaw11]

The payment went to a old email that was closed but it pop up again on ebays compture and it was me who did all the phone calls but no one could help anyway its over now so for all the feed back

[countessalmirena]

@12runaways,

Is it possible that you allowed your stress over the situation to spill over into your communications? It does sound as though you went a little overboard with the communications in an effort to sort out the situation, and I can honestly tell you that most buyers would feel overwhelmed by receiving multiple calls and emails from a seller.

Spoiler

(Buyers already receive enough communications for each purchase. For an auction item, there's the "You won! Pay now to receive [item]" email. Next, eBay send an "ORDER CONFIRMED" email which thanks the buyer for the order and says "we'll let you know when it's on the way". The next email is "ORDER SENT" and tells the buyer thank you again, as well as saying "Your order has shipped to [address]".)

Buyers generally want nothing further from sellers - just the item which they have won or bought now. If you're phoning a buyer with a problem, that is definitely something that buyer doesn't want to hear. As far as the buyer is concerned, s/he paid, and the next step is that the seller sends the goods.

If anything similar happens in future, I would really suggest that you contact eBay or PayPal (whichever is more appropriate for whatever the situation might be) by phone, sort out the issue without involving the buyer, and communicate with the buyer within 24 hours if you're not able to resolve the situation. That communication should be requesting minimal input from the buyer - no emotional input to the problem, no problem-solving, just pretty much a question of choosing between option 1 and option 2.

Spoiler

Example: "Dear [buyer], re your purchase of item number [xxx], there has been a [nature of the problem] issue that I wasn't able to resolve. Would you prefer [option 1] or [option 2 - usually something like cancelling the order]? Please let me know within the next 2 days so that I can expedite the best solution for you. If I do not hear from you by [time and date], I will assume that you would like [default option]."

Best of luck with your future transactions!

[cattspaw11]

Your right and i did all that and more i think im going off ebay after this maybe ??? Anway thanks im going to close this talk now every has been good thanks buy

[phorum_junkie*]

It is a pity you didn't come here before making all those phone calls. If you still had access to the old email address you could have just addd that to Paypal and the money would have appeared in that account straight away. If you did not have access o the old email you should have called Paypal straight away and asked them to refund then you should have messaged tthe buyer once askng them to pay again using the correct email address. Chances ar you would have avoided a neg and a lot of wasted time.

I still have email addresses that I haven't used for up to ten years or more but would not dream of removing them from Paypal unless I reached the maximum 8.

[cattspaw11]

Im sorry i didnt but the email was not able to to be got at as i said there was a computer proublem at ebay thay didnt get rid of it amyway thanks but now its done im not going to worry myself sick again thanks for all you messagers ive learnt buy

[springyzone]

I think it is the right attitude to put it behind you & not worry any more about it.

I can tell you now, it's a rare seller who can get too far along without running into problems somewhere along the way, even when they do the very best they can.

Even when everything goes perfectly, some buyers can still give a neg, sometimes quite unfairly. Luckily, those sorts of buyers aren't in the majority.

I would not let a neg turn you off selling. Most buyers don't mind if a seller has had the occasional neg, it just depends on how they tried to fix it.

It's a downer to get one, I know, but it need not stop you selling.