refunds - am I out of pocket on them?

[nickstmoritz]

I am having a confused moment! If a buyer returns an item that doesn't fit or they change their mind and I refund them the original payment (item plus p&p) am I down? I obviously have used their original P&P to send the item but then give them that P&P back with the full refund. Generally they have happily paid for return postage. I am wondering if I end up out of pocket for agreeing to accept returns? I think I must be or am I being dim? What do you all do? I now do ask for cancellation to get my fees back which I learnt about on here (thanks :))

I think you get it all back, you should see a PayPal payment to you for eg 0.68p for the fees that they took from your balance, as long as the buyer cancels the sale you will get those fees back too. Did you list on free weekend? if you did you won't be out of pocket at all

Surely you get back everything that they paid initially but you paid out the P&P to send it to them. So you are "down" the cost of the P&P for sending it to them in the first place

Evening the buyer pays for the outward postage from the seller. So she won't be out of pocket.

yes, you refund all of their money - you can't just refund the item price. - so you will lose out on the postage you paid to send them the item. You cannot refuse returns anyway so it is pointless to write no returns or the like on your listing. You can send a cancellation to get your final fees refunded. If an item is faulty a seller should really repay return postage too otherwise the buyer is out of pocket.

Thanks, it is as I thought and Sandy & Eveningcalls are correct that I am out of pocket one set of postage. Although the buyer pays the original postage I have used all of that to post the parcel as I only charge exact postage. I then give them that money back with my refund so I lose it. I always accept returns for any reason and don't quibble (the M&S of ebay :)) but I only refund return P&P if I have made a mistake although have had to with an awkward buyer as I didn't want to risk my feedback in an argument. 99% of buyers happily pay returns if they decide to return for fit etc

Today is the first time it has dawned on me that I must lose out. As I did the paypal refund I was thinking hang on...I am paying them £3 back p&p but that is out of my pocket because their original £3 was spent on postage cost. So with a return the seller is down one postage and buyer is down one postage. Post Office shares up!! Bloody hell that has not made me feel festive.

And Paypal retain 20p

But the post office has done what you pay them for both times. Delivered an item. They don't care if it didn't fit. They still processed and delivered it. Provided the service they are there to provide. Am I missing something?

what do you mean Gert? The seller has to refund the p&p so they are out of pocket for that having posted the item to the buyer.

Gert - my point was that only the PO and ebay/paypal have gained by the transaction as I have lost P&P and the buyer is also down P&P plus I have now realised I offered free p&p on this item (not sure why - I must have had a moment) so I actually lost more than I thought! I am not specifically criticising Royal Mail though I do think their charges are high but that's another story.

Sandy thanks for confirming my original query. I guess there is no point in saying no returns (as you have said it makes little difference) It would kind of be better if buyers just resold but I am not sure how happy people would be to be asked to do this as it might be hassle for them. Stuck with being down on returns. Luckily it doesn't happen too often.