Buyer messing me around

[justanotherquestion]

I sold a clock that kept good time and I said so on the advert. The buyer has come back and said it does not. Now it is possible that when I cleaned the clock it messed with the hands or they got slightly damaged in postage.

I have asked her to return the clock and I will refund both lots of postage and for the clock. She has said she lives miles from the post and seems to be reluctant to return the item. I do not want to refund, without return. It may be something that is easily fixed.

What are my options? I do not want to discount the item without return.

Do I arrange for a carrier to collect although this is not the medium we used to sell to her. Surely, I cannot be responsible for selling to someone who does not want to go to the post office? She knew I was using royal mail. I have offered to refer to the ebay disputes procedure.

Also, if she does accept, how do I go about refunding postage, do I do that before the return?

In future, can I stipulate, refunds only with return on my ads?

What are ebay disputes procedure likely to say?

[StoptheRavelry]

Hiya,

You definitely are not obliged to refund her anything unless she returns it to you in the same condition it was sent.

If she keeps it, you can either send a partial refund you both agree on, or no refund, but you definitely don't refund in full until you have it back.

By the way the buyer has to pay for return postage in an ebay dispute (unless she contacts ebay herself and they agree to pay it for her, which I think they sometimes do)

It's not your responsibility, though you sound like a fantastic seller to offer this.

Let us know how you get on. By the way - if she packs it to return to you, she may not do a great job of it so you might end up with a damaged item and still have to refund. So in this instance I might be more inclined to suggest a partial refund.

I used to sell antique items and they were very fragile so the idea of having one returned was terrifying!

[justanotherquestion]

Thanks. Interesting, I just assumed I would have to pay return postage/all the postage and money for the clock. Quite shocked that is not the case in a dispute.

She has come back to me to say she will return it, as she did not know that I was willing to pay postage. It is quite possible the hands have been knocked as it did not have a glass face. I am hoping they are easily fixed and will then give it to a relative who would love it.

I do not think there would have been much point in giving a partial refund as a clock that does not keep time is pretty useless! I do not think she was trying it on but I live in fear that I am a sitting target, as I have not been using ebay long and do not have a huge selling profile.

[summerwinterton]

do not refund anything until you receive your item back. Once you receive it back in the condition in which it was sent refund in full via the original payment in Paypal and if you want to pay return postage you have to send that as a separate payment.

[glammanana]

There seems to be different rules to returns sometimes,I returned a pair of boots which had rather more wear and tear than stated and where in pretty poor condition,I opened a request for return and the buyer accepted it and ebay sent me a prepaid label to print off and track the return,when the item was received ebay notified me that the buyer had 6 days to refund I then received an ebay message to say the refund was complete and in my paypal account which it was complete with my original postage costs, they also stated I did not need to return the item,how strange is that ?