EBay selling nightmare

[xxxPandora]

Hello,

I have been buying and selling items from eBay for over 11 years. Not as a business, just as a person selling a few bits no longer required or to make extra space in my wardrobe etc.

I recently sold a brand new with tags Ted Baker coat for £130. The buyer received it and contacted me to ask why the postage was £3 more than what I actually paid and asked for a refund. I explained that the added charge was added on to cover my packaging and fuel costs and that it was clearly stated on the listing. There was no message from the buyer advising that there was something wrong with the coat or the coat was not as described. The buyer then submitted an 'item is not as described' refund request which I accepted. I was advised to do this by eBay after ringing them directly. I explained that they have used the 'item not as described' return policy falsely and eBay advised that they could see from our message correspondence that the buyer had never mentioned there was a problem with the coat itself.
I paid for a return label through eBay and received the coat back from the seller damaged/marked, smelling of cigarettes and had clearly been worn.
I've again been in touch with eBay who advise that I can offer the buyer a partial refund but the buyer can refuse this and then the buyer will be refunded fully and I'm out of pocket left with a coat that I can no longer sell as brand new and sell it at a significant loss.
I'm so annoyed about this. I've got 100% feedback and I'm a very genuine seller.
Has anyone else experienced this or have any advice?

@Theydoyaknow your post is hilarious. Read my post and replies properly. They weren't refused a refund. Its £3 at the end of the day! £3 that I'd have happily refunded if given the opportunity to save a petty quarrel and having to have my coat returned. Again postage costs were clearly listed. They didn't have to buy my item. I have the right to charge what I see is appropriate for postage. The whole point is they were a scumbag sending a dirty used coat back when it was sent in A1 brand new condition. This fixation on the measly £3 is so funny. You didn't happen to buy my Ted Baker coat did you? Are you the culprit? Hilarious.

Hey Pandora, if you do sell again I think when you print your own postage label, it doesn't show the cost of the posting. I used to add PayPal postage fees to my postage costs, if I sold an item for a pound and then had to pay fees on the postage it just wasn't worth it at all. So I would print my own postage so that they couldn't see how much I paid for postage and give me a low star for charging them an extra ten p or whatever.

Can't believe how many people are agreeing about the postage point! It is a postage and packing fee and yes that can include your time going to the shop, waiting in line for 10 min, a jiffy bag for the item, sellotape etc... yes if you only sell one item it's not much extra but if you sell a few it adds up! Also, surely most people just roughly estimate? I definitely guestimate as I'm not going to go to the post office to get a quote for every item and not going to pack up the item ready before it's sold to go in case a buyer asks for pictures etc. Often my postage to send costs more than I've quoted - so in this case would you say I should tell the buyer than and ask for it back!? As others have said, if you disagree with the postage then don't bid! I imagine a coat would be fairly heavy to post also...

I've literally just had two bad experiences this weekend selling after a long break selling on ebay (all just personal bits and bobs)

Firstly sold a divan bed frame and bed. Clearly stated sizing etc and it would need to be disassembled and collection only. The guy who won messaged asking if he could pick up same day. I confirmed yes and ran around clearing the house/pathway to the bed etc so he could pick up within an hour. He then messaged asking for the postcode (which was on the listing, but nevermind..) then he replied saying "the address you gave was close to us not in the middle of [City name]. I won't be able to pick it up until I can hire a van. This is very much more difficult than I thought". No idea what he was talking about with "address I gave" I went back to him and said this and said the postcode was on the listing, I'd also stated it was in the centre of City X on the listing (and ebay shows my postcode anyway when it's set to collection only), along with a screenshot of the listing but that if he wanted me to cancel his winning bid and refund him I would (as I already felt a bit worried about him turning up at my house now and thought he's likely to find fault with something)

He then messaged a bit more telling me about him needing to get a van, can't do it today etc and grumbling messages. (Not sure why he would only need to get a van because he realised I lived further from him than he thought - it's not like even if I was walking distance away he could move it without a van!?) Then asked if there was parking and a lift. Again - this info was on the listing! I replied that there was not parking, but there was a loading bay and two lifts - all information clearly stated on the listing. And he then huffed and puffed and said how it was all too complicated and could I refund him. So I did so and now have to relist. Total waste of time. No repercussions for him. No option to leave feedback that I can see, even?!

Another furniture item listed and winning bidder has not paid or responded to messages for payment. I cannot cancel their bid and sell to the next highest bidder for 4 calendar days! In which time the next highest bidder may well have found something else suitable. Zero follow up for the winning bidder when it is supposed to be a contract to buy! And I'm pretty sure I can't leave negative feedback for the buyer either now - will have to check.

Re Vinted, don't you have to send the item before you get payment?

postage and packing is always emotive on eBay which is why I started using free postage and added it to the price, however it was probably a red herring and they were going to return the coat anyway.

eBay always stand by the buyer and sellers are scammed all of the time. It really is a disgrace when its £130+ you've lost

It's happened to me with smaller items but I stopped using eBay when I had similar with a coat. Brand new with tags and posted in a coat box with a garment cover, almost a week later I got an INAD case. When the postman handed me a tightly rolled bin bag I was convinced it would just have any old coat in it. I was genuinely surprised to find the original coat with tags (no garment cover) albeit a scrunched-up mess which then had to be sold as used.

That sounds absolutely horrendous! How stressful. Sounds like you dodged a bullet there though as annoying as it is.
It gets to the point where I'd prefer to just give things away for free to avoid the hassle of it all but even then you get asked to deliver it too for free or something equally as cheeky.
Yes, on Vinted the buyer pays for the item you're via Vinted platform and the money gets held by Vinted until the buyer confirms that it has been delivered and that they're happy with it/item is as described etc. I'm not quite sure what happens if they're not happy or the returns process etc.
I'm going to stick with fb market place or gumtree from now on. I've been royally screwed over by eBay so it's time to move on. It sadly seems that I'm not the only one this or something similar has happened to.
So sorry this has happened to you.

Seriously? The postage is clearly shown on the listing; if the added postage takes it above what you have been prepared, you just don’t bid. And sellers don’t 109% know what the postage will be until items are weighed and packaged - the postage charge is usually a best guess, not an attempt to cheat buyers!

@Theydoyaknow- classy.

I'm sorry this happened. I've given up after 3 scams and have 2 bin liners of nice clothes to go to the charity shop tomorrow. Such a shame as I used to ebay loads and all really cheap but there were so many issues it wasn't worth the hassle and losses for such little money. I've not sold anything as expensive as items on this post so I know I'm lucky but it annoys me as I used to buy a lot from there as well which I think was good for clothing waste but now it's hardly used due to these issues so I hardly ever use it now.

I love the way that people are victim blaming you over the £3. If the person was genuinely outraged over the £3 and that was the only issue, they would have accepted the refund. They also would not have returned the coat in such a bad state. If you clearly stated the postage, then they accepted those terms.

I only sell on Vinted now and haven't had any problems on there. I sell everything cheap and cheerful to get rid of it.

@xxxPandora It really is worth pursuing Ebay. You need to ring them and speak to someone in person, and keep badgering them. I was the victim of a twatty buyer who provided Ebay with the wrong address, then filed a claim for 'parcel not received'. Ebay initially sided with the twatty buyer, even though she was clearly in the wrong, but they reversed the decision when I contested it. It took a lot of badgering, though. I'm not a big seller - I just sell bits every now and then.

We had this but I managed to 'trick' the scammer into admitting removing the tags so EBAY had to refund me. I haven't used them again.

I sell and buy a lot in there. It's almost back to how it was at the start - there's a lot of trust required. I can't help but think that by not automatically refunding them the £3 when you realised postage was cheaper than you'd listed it, you didn't help build that trust. I don't think it's reasonable to charge for your journey to the post office (in mileage or in time spent) in the same way that it wouldn't be appropriate to bill them for your Wi-Fi bill, your car servicing or the time spent photographing and writing the listing. When people feel scammed, even for a small amount, they are less likely to behave in a trustworthy way, in my experience.

Utter rubbish! A buyer knows full well what the postage AND packing costs are before they bid. If you don't like it, don't bid.

I agree totally, better off even adding it to the price, telling me I am then paying for your petrol to go to the post office would have really pissed me off.

@Jaxhog - completely agree.

That's not true. If the postage is less than expected, the seller should either spend that much on postage (upgrade the delivery speed or add tracking etc) or refund the difference. eBay is very clear that sellers are not supposed to make a profit on postage fees. I automatically credit back any unused postage fees to the buyer.

In future I'd just include the postage cost in the price and do "free postage" that cuts out that hassle.

Still a nightmare when people pull stunts like this though so is never sell anything over £20 so it's not toooo gutting when I have to refund it in full.

No it isn't. Thats absurd. The posting cost is the postage cost maybe at a push plus the cost of packaging materials if bought new. Price items accordingly.

I also tend to put freepost on more expensive items BUT I also do charge 50p more than the standard post rate when I do charge postage - I do need to package it it and drive to the post office, after all.
In this case the postage is irrelevant though, the scammer would have found some other excuse to do this.

You wouldn't expect to pay more for postage from a small business if they had to drive to a delivery office vs one where they have a collection. Your petrol cost is irrelevant.

Also re postage, eBay charge a cut of this too so it has to be factored in somewhere whether on the postage or the item price - it's on the listing so it's not like it's deceitful - any buyer has a choice to buy or not.

That's not how business works though is it - all costs need to be absorbed which usually means on the item prices.

Whilst it’s terrible that the buyer used and damaged the coat, unfortunately you broke EBay’s terms and conditions by price gouging on the postage. On that basis, EBay are unlikely to take your side in the dispute regardless of the buyer’s (admittedly terrible) behaviour.

Any fees eBay take from a sale are also taken off the postage charges don't forget , it's something like 12.8% all in