Received the wrong pony, need advice

[Brightglowpony]

Hi everyone,

I am facing a situation in which I received the wrong pony on eBay, and I feel like I am not getting much support from the seller so far.  I wanted to ask everyone your opinions on what I should do.  Although I am a bit bummed, I am not angry, as this may have been an honest mistake.  I do not want to shed bad light on the seller, so I am going to keep the seller's name and pony I bought anonymous at this time.  But in summary, I bought a semi-hard to find Euro exclusive pony who was said to be in excellent condition, and instead received a common US pony with a few flaws. 

I will post the exact exchange of messages.  The pony arrived on Monday while I was away for work, and I wanted to let the seller know the box arrived safely even though I was not in town to get it right away. 

2 Apr 2014:
ME: Hello!  I wanted to let you that I am out of town until the weekend, but the person checking my mail told me that the pony arrived on Monday.  When I return and open her, I will leave you some feedback.  I am excited to see her in person!

SELLER:  sounds good

4 Apr 2014
ME: Hello,
I just wanted to let you know I returned from out of town and opened the box from you, but unfortunately I received the wrong pony.  The one I received is (US pony's name).  I think what possibly happened is they got mixed up and (Euro pony's name) was sent to the person who bought (US pony)?  Would it be possible to still have (Euro pony) sent to me?  She was going to be a gift for a special occasion and I really would love to have her.
Regards,

SELLER: She was sold internationally and I will have to wait to get her back. Sorry about that . I will contact them now .

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I know I am already a bit bummed, but I feel like the seller has not been too personable in either response.  I feel it may be more difficult to get the pony if she went internationally.  What should I do now?  Thank the seller and wait for them to message me again?  Call eBay to document what happened?  Do I start a claim, or first wait a few days and see what happens?  Depending on where she went, I am not sure if it will be possible to have her in hand within the 45 day period to file a claim.

Thanks to all who read through everything

[hathorcat]

Have you messaged the seller again?

I think its a good idea to give them the benefit of the doubt initially as it sounds like a parcel switch. And while your buyer's messages are not long, he/she is communicating with you. And it probably depends on whether you want the thing over and done with now or if you want to wait it out to see if you get the right pony eventually.

Unfortunately if the parcel has gone international I think you could have issues with your paypal window. If it takes 2 weeks to go overseas, 2 weeks to come back [assuming it turns around that quickly - after all you have to factor in a return post office trip as well as payment from seller to buyer for shipping return], counting the first few days to your address and then the resending of the pony to you once it gets back to your seller...you could be at your paypal window. And all that assumes you get an honest buyer at the other end who is happy to return a more expensive perfect pony. :/ As its international shipping, I would make sure your seller gets the pony returned to her before she ships it on to you. It can get really confusing if you allow the other buyer to ship straight to you.

If it was me. I would message the seller; saying that you are worried about the turn around period involved and you need them to keep in touch with you on updates. Mainly they need to let you know when they knew the pony is on the route back to them, because then you can start working out if you are too close to deadline and also get the seller to pay you your shipping in order to return the pony you mistakenly have to her/him. 

If you dont have notification that the pony is on route to the seller after a couple of weeks or are unable to get any updates, I would file a not described case and get the buyer to pay for you to ship the pony back to her/him [with tracking]. Get a refund for that pony and walk away. It doesnt matter when you file the case after all - you can give your seller right up until the last moment and then make this decision after all.

[Brightglowpony]

Hi Cat No, I have not messaged the seller again yet.  I agree with the fact that, although they are not as personable as I would have hoped, at least they are responding.  I think what I will do is devise a message to write back based on your suggestions, and will post it here before sending it.  I really would like to have to pony if possible, and would be willing to wait it out if the other buyer is kind enough to send her back.  I really appreciate all of the advice!  It is very helpful!


EDIT: to add a draft of the message.  I have not sent it to the seller yet.  Does it sound ok?

Hello again,

Thank you for your response and for offering to contact the other buyer.  I’d be willing to wait for the pony I bought, but since she was sent internationally, I am concerned that it may take longer than the 45 day Paypal claim window to get her back.  Could you keep me updated on when you hear back from the other buyer, as well as when she is on her way back to you?  I don’t mind waiting, as I would love to have the pony. 

Thank you,


One more edit:  I sent the message to the seller.  Will post an update when I hear back again.

[hathorcat]

Nice pm!!! Let us know how it goes

[Gingerbread]

I had this happen before, I purchased a Sweet Suds on eBay but ended up with Sweet Lily. The seller never bothered replying to me. She is lovely, is in amazing condition, but not the pony I bought. I don't think I bothered leaving feedback in the end, just blocked the seller.

Thankfully I have recently acquired Sweet Suds from an Arena member

[Stormness_1]

As a seller occasionally, I had a panic attack thinking I'd done this the other day. I distinctly remembered popping some ponies someone enquired about into a padded envelope in order to quote combined shipping. Then the person bought them, and I couldn't find the envelope! I could see I hadn't printed the label, but there were some parcels that I'd had to address by hand (ebay AU don't do international labels) and I thought maybe I'd shipped two packages to the same person, one containing another buyer's ponies! But then I found the envelope (thank god! I'd popped it in a box with a pick-up buyer's items that was still bidding on things) and crisis averted.. but it made me realize how easy it would be to do - I'd popped a dozen or so packages in the post box and to the PO, and although I was pretty organised about it, with that many parcels, it'd be easy to pop the wrong label on an envelope!

If I was the seller, I'd have you ship back now and refund you, and then ask for re-payment when both the items got back to me and then I'd re-ship to both buyers. It would save anyone worrying about the paypal window.

[Brightglowpony]

Pinkamena- aww that stinks that your seller never even responded or tried to make it right :/  Glad you were able to get Sweet Suds in the end

Stormness- yikes, I can see how it would get confusing, especially when shipping a bunch of items out at once.  I like your idea of going ahead and getting re-imbursed.  That would take away the stress of a pending transaction and would prevent having to play a waiting game.  Wonder if that is something I can just ask the seller to do.

And thank you Cat I did hear back from the seller, and I got two back to back messages:


1) we now have 60 days to refund i will keep you posted

2) please return (US pony) and i will refund postage.

And I responded with:

Thank you, I appreciate the response.  Yes, I can send back (US pony).   Can you go ahead and send the (shipping cost) to my paypal account?  Since the post office here is now closed for the weekend, I can send her out Monday morning.

------
Is it true that there is now a 60 day window?  I'd rather not wait that long.   Though I still feel a bit unimpressed with the short and (in my opinion) somewhat blunt responses, at least the seller IS responding and offered to pay return shipping. 

[Stormness_1]

I'm going to check that out, right now... as a regular buyer seller atm, I haven't come across anything!

Post Merge: April 06, 2014, 12:35:59 AM

That's crap. From the Paypal website:

What must I to do to be Protected?
To be eligible for Buyer Protection you need to do all of the following:
Buy physical items that can be shipped (excluding vehicles such as cars, caravans and boats);
Pay for your item with PayPal;
Pay for your item in a single payment. Items purchased with multiple payments (like a deposit followed by a final payment) do not qualify; and
Open an Item Dispute in PayPal’s Resolution Centre within 45 calendar days of your payment (and escalate the dispute to a claim if necessary within 20 days of opening the dispute).

Maybe the refund option on payments sits there for 60 days, and they may get their fees refunded, but the buyer cannot lodge a claim after 45 days.

[Brightglowpony]

wow thanks for sharing that info, Stormness. 

Still waiting for a response from the seller to my last message.  But at this point I am not too worried, as it has not even been 24 hours since I last messaged him/her. 

[hathorcat]

Yes, stick to your 45 day window. Sounds like the seller is working to sort everything out - lets hope for a fast return on the other parcel.

Also, you probably already know, but make sure you get tracking on the returned pony - to cover yourself on getting your refund through.

[Brightglowpony]

Yes, stick to your 45 day window. Sounds like the seller is working to sort everything out - lets hope for a fast return on the other parcel.

Also, you probably already know, but make sure you get tracking on the returned pony - to cover yourself on getting your refund through.

I actually have a question about getting a refund for shipping- the seller messaged me and he/she will not refund return shipping until I send the US pony back.  And it took a couple of messages for them to actually answer my question "Can you go ahead and send the (shipping cost) to my paypal account?"  I can post the actual messages here if needed.  But I just don't feel comfortable laying out return shipping when I already laid out a fair amount for a pony plus shipping that I did not even receive :/  Last time I laid out money on ebay out of courtesy, I never heard back from the person after that (eBay was involved with that one).  So my question is, is it typical for a seller to ask the buyer to lay out return shipping?  I feel like since it is their error, they should be willing to lay out the amount to send the wrong item back.  What does everyone else think?

[thekozmicpig]

Yes, stick to your 45 day window. Sounds like the seller is working to sort everything out - lets hope for a fast return on the other parcel.

Also, you probably already know, but make sure you get tracking on the returned pony - to cover yourself on getting your refund through.

I actually have a question about getting a refund for shipping- the seller messaged me and he/she will not refund return shipping until I send the US pony back.  And it took a couple of messages for them to actually answer my question "Can you go ahead and send the (shipping cost) to my paypal account?"  I can post the actual messages here if needed.  But I just don't feel comfortable laying out return shipping when I already laid out a fair amount for a pony plus shipping that I did not even receive :/  Last time I laid out money on ebay out of courtesy, I never heard back from the person after that (eBay was involved with that one).  So my question is, is it typical for a seller to ask the buyer to lay out return shipping?  I feel like since it is their error, they should be willing to lay out the amount to send the wrong item back.  What does everyone else think?

If it's their mistake, you should not have to pay return shipping. There's probably something in the ToS that backs this up.

Buyer's remorse? Nope. Plenty of sellers will ask you to pay for return shipping if that happens, and I don't blame them.

[Stormness_1]

Yes, stick to your 45 day window. Sounds like the seller is working to sort everything out - lets hope for a fast return on the other parcel.

Also, you probably already know, but make sure you get tracking on the returned pony - to cover yourself on getting your refund through.

I actually have a question about getting a refund for shipping- the seller messaged me and he/she will not refund return shipping until I send the US pony back.  And it took a couple of messages for them to actually answer my question "Can you go ahead and send the (shipping cost) to my paypal account?"  I can post the actual messages here if needed.  But I just don't feel comfortable laying out return shipping when I already laid out a fair amount for a pony plus shipping that I did not even receive :/  Last time I laid out money on ebay out of courtesy, I never heard back from the person after that (eBay was involved with that one).  So my question is, is it typical for a seller to ask the buyer to lay out return shipping?  I feel like since it is their error, they should be willing to lay out the amount to send the wrong item back.  What does everyone else think?

If it's their mistake, you should not have to pay return shipping. There's probably something in the ToS that backs this up.

Buyer's remorse? Nope. Plenty of sellers will ask you to pay for return shipping if that happens, and I don't blame them.

I'm pretty sure if this was a dispute (Item Not As Described) ebay would refund your shipping, so no, you shouldn't have to ship out-of-pocket.

[Ringlets]

  I've been in this situation on ebay too - but thankfully the person who got my pony (and I got hers) was another Arena member who lived in the same country as me .  I'm glad that your seller is responding and hopefully the situation will get resolved and you'll get the correct pony. It may take longer though since the pony went to a different country.
If it was the sellers mistake (as it was in your case) , then they should pay for the return shipping.  It usually works this way: you send the pony back with tracking and then the seller will refund you the cost of return shipping. If it went to a case i believe you wouldnt have to pay return shipping since it was the sellers mistake.
(As mentioned though in ordinary circumstances, when a buyer is returning an item on ebay, then the buyer will pay the return shipping, not the seller )

[Brightglowpony]

Thank you all for the continued support   Just want to post a positive update- the seller decided to "prepay" the cost to return the US pony so I do not have to lay that amount out myself.  Once he/she receives the US pony, I will receive a full refund for the UK pony (plus shipping) I had originally bought.  This will avoid the chance of passing the 45 day claim period, and I will have my money back without playing a waiting game.  The seller has not heard back from the other buyer yet, but the seller let me know that if the UK pony does come back to the US, I will be notified so I can re-buy her.  So, all is well at this point.  Fingers crossed that the other buyer will be willing to send the UK pony back to the States!