Ebay Problems

[Kisscurl]

Hello,
         Where do I start! I've been selling some ponies on ebay over the last couple of months and all has been going well up until the last time I listed some G4 ponies. So I listed G4 Diamond Rose and Starswirl and the item ended up selling in the $70's and I was stoked, I sent the items in regards to the shipping purchase which was economy no tracking, and provided a copy of the receipt to the buyer the next day. I'm more than happy to do tracking as long as this is paid for by the buyer. About a month later the buyer contacts me saying the items haven't arrived and enquired about how long shipping should take. According to our postal system, they said roughly two weeks to which I advised the buyer of this but was happy to work something out. About a week after this the buyer contacted me asking for a refund of half of the amount.

This is where I decided to look into the buyer a little more closely, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt as we all start with no feedback however when they bid on my item they only had 3 feedback, they now only have 4. This made me wary given the amount that was paid for the items I sold. I then notice that they only joined ebay 6 days prior to buying my item. Bear in mind I've been with ebay since 1998 and have a 100% rating with about 300 transactions.

About 3-4 days after asking for half in a refund a request was opened in ebay and they wanted a refund, I replied with my version of events and received a reply today 3 days after my response advising they would accept half again, bear in mind the request has to be dealt with today as its the last day according to ebay it has to be dealt with before they refund the buyer the full amount. So I went in this morning to issue a refund of half as I had received a reply from the buyer only to find out that the only option I can do through ebay is for the full amount. I then went to paypal to see if I could refund half and I can't because ebay is holding the payment. I have rung ebay 3 times and spoken with someone in regards to this and each time I get transferred the call drops out.

At this point in time I feel very dissapointed with ebay, I'm trying to get this resolved and its proving very difficult, the fact that I've done the right thing, have excellent feedback and now looking at having to refund the whole amount for this issue to be resolved. How can I prove the buyer hasn't received the items and is claiming the refund because it was a large amount, this whole transaction has left me with a bad taste in my mouth and dissapointment in ebay.

[northstar3184]

What strikes me as odd is that the buyer says they didn't get the item but is only requesting half the money back. If they're concerned the item was lost in the mail or whatever why aren't they seeking the full amount? That seems weird to me.

On another note, was this an international sale or to someone else in Australia? There are many times I've gotten packages from overseas that have taken over a month.

I've never been a seller on ebay, only a buyer, so I'm not sure what to say in regard to how to proceed with the issues you're having with ebay itself.

[Kisscurl]

This was an International sale from Australia to Hong Kong. You make a good point northstar3184, I never even thought of that sad thing is I've felt this transaction hasn't been right from the time I saw the low feedback.

[northstar3184]

And if they paid you through PayPal, they have something like 180 days to file a claim right? So why are they rushing to that step, especially on an international sale which takes longer to arrive anyway? To me this screams buyer's remorse or scam. My thinking is perhaps a mix of both (e.g. the buyer thinking "I feel like I paid too much for this item, so I'll tell the seller I didn't get it and use that to justify a request for a 50% refund.")

[Kisscurl]

I have no idea, all I know is at this point to close the claim I have to offer a full refund, I would assume if she closes the request it would free the money so I can offer the partial refund but I also feel that this is somehow a scam of sorts, either way at this point I lose out both monetary and item wise

[nhal039]

Ughh ebay. I had a bad experience posting to japan, i sent to the sellers address they sent through paypal. I posted untracked but had photos of posting and the recipets. Anyhow i just refunded the buyer in full, about 2 weeks after the refund i got the parcel back with a return to sender stamp and a note from the post office saying no such address. This was far from true as the address was correct i confirmed this with the seller.
I told my post office and they said china/ japan/ hong kong have become very very strict at recieving items in. Many items are being returned or even worse just sitting undelivered as customs are not happy with the custom forms. I believe i only got my parcel back as i made a claim through our post office. I was very througher in my customs form filling out the description of the ponies and the number of items. Something went a miss with japans post. Something like this could be going on with your parcel.

Also the buyer is properly trying to be fair to ask for a half refund like take on half the responsiblity as they believe you posted. Its much nicer this way than asking for a full amount

Anyhow i do feel for you the situation suxs. I would make a claim through au post and just keep trying to contact ebay or paypal. Paypal has a facebook page which i have contacted them through as there ph lines are useless. Just with fb never give out your password to paypal as many scammers will make up names like paypal offical and ask for your details... the real paypal site wont do this, they will just ask for the transaction number