Buyer saying item I sold 'not as described' - wwyd?

[PiedWagtail]

Sold a Mini Boden girl's coat the other day and the buyer has said the coat wasn't in 'great' condition, looked 'well used', more worn than she had expected, and she'd like a refund but would accept some money back as she felt she'd paid too much for it.

I emailed back saying fine, you can have a refund but you can pay postage (politely!) (as the coat was perfect!! Not a mark on it!!). Ebay can't make me pay her return postage, can they?

I have asked her to clarify just what she means by 'well used' as apart from a tiny bit of bobbling on the elastic at the wrists, which I mentioned, the coat is fab. And surely you should only bid up to what you want to pay?? With Mini B, you know what years the various coat patterns came out so you should know if the coat is this year's/last year's/from a few years ago??

Some people!!

lol, i shop at boden a fair bit, but i'd have no idea what year a particular pattern came from

anyway, this happened to me recently and i have said i'll take the item back, but byer is paying shipping

Maybe it's just me then, yesterday :) A tiny bit obsessed with spotty coats - pink and brown one year, blue and purple another, then hearts last year, now pink flowers on red this . Ah well! Looks like I was reasonable :)

Obviously it all depends on how convinced you are that you are in the right!

You could refuse to refund and let her open a case against you. She will probably win but it does sound suspicious that she's willing to accept a partial refund. Sounds like she's trying it on! Upto you whether you take the risk or not. If she does return the item, you have to refund her buying price plus cost of original postage but not the cost of her returning it to you.

It might be worth calling her bluff - she may be trying to bully you into a partial refund and give up if forced into returning.

Obviously, if you don't give into her demands, you are probably looking at a negative feedback. C'est La Vie....
You have to give her a full refund

Saying that, I bought some boys Boden clothes that were in dreadful condition and got a partial refund. Didn't want to return as cost of return postage was too high.

Don't think there are any winners in these situations really...

I had one like that, I just gave her a full refund & asked her to donate the coat to a charity shop as I was sure someone would like it (I expect she threw it in bin at best!).

I put her on blocked bidder's list as my only teeny satisfaction. I only had a £2 profit on the coat after postage+fees it wasn't worth the stress & possible Neg.

Plonkers.

I think you have to pay for the return postage as well. I sold a dress for £3.50, which was new and cost £15. The buyer sent me a snotty message saying it looked old and worn (with the tags still on!) and that there were loose threads all over it. I refunded her and she had the nerve to send it back recorded delivery so it cost me loads more. The loose threads were a couple of bits of thread that weren't even attached to the dress, and there were one or two that were just excess thread on the hem that were easy to snip. I don't know if she expected haute couture from Peacocks!
Managed to sell it again for bloody 99p, so it ended up costing me way more than anything I made on it.

you don't have to pay both lots of postage.

Damn, I wish I'd known that! I took advice from the eBay forum.

you can either pay the return postage and then just refund the cost of the item minus original postage.

or you can get seller to post it back and then refund the full amount.

Haven't heard from her again so who knows what she's decided. Bat.

I have similar thing, someone complaing it is more faded (I mentioned item was faded in listing) than another one she has there told her she can return it but I will not be covering return postage costs as I feel I described it honestly and I am very fussy! She'll prob leave a neg but i will leave an accurate polite response to it, shame as we have 100% feedback and she has some negs and neutrals for items not as described lol. If I knew I had misdescribed it or it was ripped etc then I would cover return postage - but to me this comes down to matter of opinion - I think it is accurately described