partial refund

eBay Buyer want’s Partial Refund & to keep the Item.

January 12th, 2007 |

Author: admin

Dear eBay Queen;

I have a customer that bought a car radio from me a couple of weeks ago. He emailed me yesterday and told me that he installed it into his car, but then it stopped working. I told him that he could return it and I would refund him.

He emailed me back telling me he had altered the radio, by adding a mounting bracket. He tells me that he wants to split the costs and wants me to refund him $17. I’m not sure what to do. I refund him $17, with no proof that it actually doesn’t work and he gets to keep the radio? Something doesn’t seem right to me. What should I do?

Phil

Dear Phil;

What a pain! There is no good answer for this. On one hand you don’t want an unhappy buyer, and on the other, you don’t want to be taken advantage of. The way I see it, you can do a couple of things.

Do a partial refund of $17.00. You will most likely receive positive feedback and the problem is gone. You won’t have to spend time worrying about it again.
Offer him a refund IF it is sent back in the condition you sold it in. His recourse with this situation is limited. He could post a negative feedback, or file a “Not As Described” case through eBay or Paypal. Once the case is filed, you and the buyer will be able to hash the problem out on the website. If the buyer chooses to escalate the case, Paypal will require him to send it back in it’s unaltered state. If he can’t do that the case will be closed in your favor. This process can take from 2 weeks to 3 months and will defiantly be a drain on your time.

This is one of those situations where you need to decide what is best for your business and how much time you want to spend dealing with this. If you were leaning towards the 17.00 refund, I would go in and look at his feedback to see if he has a history of doing this.

Dear eBay Queen

I bought a DVD on eBay. When the package arrived the manila envelope it came in, was damaged, and the bubble wrap had been partially popped. I emailed the seller and told them that I wasn’t happy with the way they shipped the DVD to me. It didn’t seem to sustain any damage to the DVD but the envelope didn’t look very good. I simply asked for at least a partial refund of the shipping cost. He emailed me back; "DVD is fine, no refund END OF DISCUSSION!!" I found that to be rude. I thought about it for about a week before deciding to leave negative feedback as they were rude and the packaging was horrible. Once I left negative feedback for him, he left it for me! I paid on time, and did everything I was suppose to do! Is there anything I can do? How can I prevent this from happening again?

Dear Jo;

I know first hand how frustrating it is to receive an item that was poorly packed. I would guess that 95% of all DVD and CD sellers ship the items in a padded envelope or in an envelope with bubble wrap around the item. This is a common way to ship these media type items. If I were your seller, I would have apologized that the post office was less than gentle with your item and I would have also declined refunding your shipping. Since your item was not damaged, I don’t feel a refund is in order. The seller was incredibly rude to you, and he should have been more considerate.

If you buy lots of DVD’s on eBay make sure you email your seller before hand, and ask if they will ship your item in a box instead of an envelope. The shipping might be a bit more, but your item and the packaging should arrive in the condition it was sent in. As far as the negative feedback, it can be retracted if both of you agree to the retraction. http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MFWRequest

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item 300064894957 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page). Think playing with clay is for kids? How about fairies? Here’s a fabulous example of a seller with talent and a good following. SE Fire Fairy Sculpture SOLD $3809.00

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300064894957

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul. Do you have a question for the eBay Queen? E-mail: questions@asktheebayqueen.com .