Buyer refused delivery

[HerGrapeness]

Hi,

I'm waiting for an answer from eBay but thought I would ask here as likely to get a more understandable answer.

I sold an item last week and sent via signed for. I have just received the item back as it was refused by the buyer. The item was £31.99 with free delivery.

Obviously I will refund the buyer but am I able to deduct £4.00 for the postage? I have a feeling eBay will say no but wondered if anyone had any first hand experience?

Really annoyed as the buyer paid for the item straight away and has not contacted me at all. It was bought at the weekend too so they had time to ask me to cancel if that is what they wanted.

Unfortunately you will have to refund in full, including postage costs. I understand this is unfair, but it comes down to legalities, not just ebays own rules.

Be sure to block the buyer from bidding on your items again.

If it comes down to legalities then you'd be able to deduct the cost of the return postage.
Did you get charged for the return postage?

Consumer rights allow customers to return anything bought online. If its faulty then the seller needs to pay return postage. If the buyer just changed their mind then they need to pay return postage (some shops offer routine postage for goodwill).

Thanks both. It was just refused when delivery attempted so no return delivery charges just returned to sender by Royal Mail.

How odd. Have you tried to contact the buyer?

I haven't as yet because I wanted to see if eBay would be behind me if I offered them a refund less the postage. I've not had great luck when things have gone wrong on eBay as a seller (buyer returned different item to that sent - eBay side with them, buyer threatened to leave negative feedback if I didn't provide item not in listing - eBay side with them) so wanted to be sure before doing anything else.

Helpfully their first reply was what I should do about a totally unrelated item that I bought and got a refund on as it never turned up!

Having gone back to them have now got advice on the right item (!) and they've said if the seller opened a case against me they would close in my favour so now to contact the buyer and see what they have to say.

they've said if the seller opened a case
against me they would close in my favour

If you got this advise from any eBay CS rep apart from a UK based member of staff, verbally. I wouldn’t count on it, the overseas reps are notorious for giving out bad advice.

You have the parcel back now. eBay won’t not refund the buyer, and they don’t have the power to force partial refunds.

Consumer rights allow customers to return anything bought online. If its faulty then the seller needs to pay return postage. If the buyer just changed their mind then they need to pay return postage (some shops offer routine postage for goodwill).

This does not apply to private sellers.

Unfortunately, as far as the buyer is concerned, postage is free and therefore does not cost anything or have any value and is of no consequence to anybody - it just isn't a 'thing'.

Of course, everybody knows that you have to pay for it and will allow for it in the price you offer/accept, but offering free postage and rolling the whole transaction value into the stated price of the item, whilst it can be a positive benefit to encourage the buyer to go ahead, also means you run the risk of having to forfeit your postage costs if the buyer changes their mind and wants a refund.

Terrible behaviour on the part of the (non) buyer - and definitely block them from bidding again and report them to eBay - but if you remove the separate value of postage and include it in the intrinsic value of the item, you stand to lose it all if the buyer pulls out.

It's dreadfully unfair on you, but in a different scenario, it could potentially swing the other way if the seller were to claim that the item itself is low value, but very bulky and/or heavy to post and therefore 90% of the stated 'inclusive' cost represents postage.

Thanks for all the replies. Just to update, I messaged the buyer advising I was going to refund less postage and after a few days they came back and said it was fine. Never got to the bottom of why they refused delivery but I think perhaps a daughter bought on their mum's account without asking.