Am I getting scammed by seller on "not as described" eBay return shipping? Any eBay experts?

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Stereodude

Active Member
Feb 21, 2016
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I bought a movie (sorry, it's not directly STH related) on eBay that was not as described from blowitoutahere (large volume commercial seller). The listing says it's a Blu-ray. I got a DVD. I start the return process for item not as described. eBay tells me the seller is responsible for the shipping. The seller declines to provide me a label. Now I'm supposed to ship it back to them at my expense, but AFAIK there's no way for me to extract the shipping cost of the return from them. The shipping cost is going to be more than the amount of the refund on the DVD.

It seems like this is intentional strategy to escape their mistake. They're basically forcing me to keep the disc while they keep my money because it would be dumb for me to have even less money in my pocket than I do now and no movie.

Is there some way to extract the cost of shipping from them, or a way to get eBay to extract it from them for me?
What should I do?
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
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Not sure what the law says whereever you are, but Ebay+ or Paypal (if you have activated the option) might cover the return.
Over in EU/DE a wrongly delivered item can be returned at no cost (although many vendors as well try not to cover that).
 

Stephan

Well-Known Member
Apr 21, 2017
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Here is my last resort tactic:

Mail them again. Tell them again but only in 3 lines that due to their mistake, you got a lesser resolution DVD instead of a Bluray. Tell "the reader" aka employee to forward it to their superior for reconsideration. Give them 5 days to send the Bluray or a return label or a refund. Otherwise you will make a song like
(send the link) about the experience and post it to Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and Tiktok. "Long live Randy Rhoads!"

Normally to be reserved for larger sums, but I stopped applying any threshold to companies or their staff when trying to screw their way out of their mistakes.

Edit: Markess below has a point. Also when I can see an outfit is very small, I pick up the phone and just call them. Ends in 99% of cases in resolution. Because nobody calls anymore? My charme? (gf says "oh hell no") I don't know. Not a small company here alright.
 
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Markess

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2018
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Northern California
@Stereodude , your profile says you're in the USA. So, assuming your case with Ebay is still open, and hasn't autoclosed tue to elapsed time, and also assuming you used the most common payment method (Paypal), then...

You ought to be able to you do a new reply to Ebay in your case history saying that the seller refuses to pay for shipping/provide you a label. Ebay should give the seller a timeframe to send you a label or make other arrangements. If they don't comply, within the time frame, Ebay will usually rule in the buyers favor and you'll get your full purchase price (including any shipping) refunded to you via Paypal.

And you'll get to keep the DVD :D
 

Stereodude

Active Member
Feb 21, 2016
453
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USA
@Stereodude , your profile says you're in the USA. So, assuming your case with Ebay is still open, and hasn't autoclosed tue to elapsed time, and also assuming you used the most common payment method (Paypal), then...

You ought to be able to you do a new reply to Ebay in your case history saying that the seller refuses to pay for shipping/provide you a label. Ebay should give the seller a timeframe to send you a label or make other arrangements. If they don't comply, within the time frame, Ebay will usually rule in the buyers favor and you'll get your full purchase price (including any shipping) refunded to you via Paypal.

And you'll get to keep the DVD :D
Thanks for the tips / advice. How do I see the case history? If I view the return status there is no way to contact / escalate eBay. eBay tells me I need to ship it to them.

Here's the email I got from eBay
1663876950919.png

Here's what I see when I click "See return details"
1663876778445.png
1663876790289.png
I did the "contact seller" and sent them a message asking how they would reimburse me for the return shipping. I don't expect they'll reply. So it seems like I'm currently stuck.
 

Markess

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2018
1,146
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Northern California
Okay. So, my advice, which I'll warn you up front may not be 100% correct, is to give the shipper a week. Then if they don't make it good, you can open up a complaint in the resolution center. There should be a way to do that, but I'm not sure how you escalate a return into a complaint in your case. I thought you'd opened a complaint already, not just a return. When you open a complaint there's going to be a place to enter the info on them not doing their part. Ebay will lthen look to ensure you contatcted them, and presumably see they didn't make arrangements to pay.
 
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Markess

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2018
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Northern California
I will also note that in many cases, the seller hopes you will go just go away if they tell you "No".

But, if you bother to open a complaint, they will either cough up the label (doubtful at that point), or give you a refund, or just let the grace period for a response that Ebay will have given them expire (in which case Ebay should automatically find in your favor and they will refund).

If you get a refund, it locks you out of giving them a poor review because there wasn't a sale. Their favorite course of action is that you go away and they keep your money, but thier secondary objective is to avoid a poor review. They can do that if they just give you your money back when you complain.
 

JSchuricht

Active Member
Apr 4, 2011
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Went through this a few months ago. Pay attention to the time frames so you don't let anything expire on the case. You potentially have three layers of protection, use ebay first, paypal second then credit card third. If you skip ahead, you can't go back and use an earlier method and ebay is typically the only one that requires the seller cover return shipping.

You probably won't get an option to escalate the case on ebay since the automated system doesn't see you have returned the item and the ebay site is worded poorly where they make you think you will loose without sending the dvd back even without a return label. Facebook is generally the most recommended method to contact ebay, however I called them. Once you contact ebay and explain that the seller isn't giving you a return label they will put the case on hold to give the seller more time. You will have to call again a few days later to tell ebay the seller still isn't providing a label. At that point, ebay will refund you, it can take a few hours for the emails to start showing up.

If you contact ebay and they give you advice like wait till the expiration of the case and call back or pay for the label yourself and they will compinsate you later, hang up and call back. Some ebay reps tell you whatever it takes to get you off the phone and you will have a bigger mess to clean up.

If the seller actually wants to play ball, they cannot buy a return label from a different country. You would need to find out the cost and the seller would need to send funds through paypal. Most won't do this because it costs too much to ship from the US.
 

Stereodude

Active Member
Feb 21, 2016
453
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USA
Went through this a few months ago. Pay attention to the time frames so you don't let anything expire on the case. You potentially have three layers of protection, use ebay first, paypal second then credit card third. If you skip ahead, you can't go back and use an earlier method and ebay is typically the only one that requires the seller cover return shipping.

You probably won't get an option to escalate the case on ebay since the automated system doesn't see you have returned the item and the ebay site is worded poorly where they make you think you will loose without sending the dvd back even without a return label. Facebook is generally the most recommended method to contact ebay, however I called them. Once you contact ebay and explain that the seller isn't giving you a return label they will put the case on hold to give the seller more time. You will have to call again a few days later to tell ebay the seller still isn't providing a label. At that point, ebay will refund you, it can take a few hours for the emails to start showing up.

If you contact ebay and they give you advice like wait till the expiration of the case and call back or pay for the label yourself and they will compinsate you later, hang up and call back. Some ebay reps tell you whatever it takes to get you off the phone and you will have a bigger mess to clean up.

If the seller actually wants to play ball, they cannot buy a return label from a different country. You would need to find out the cost and the seller would need to send funds through paypal. Most won't do this because it costs too much to ship from the US.
I don't use Facebook or have an account. This all sounds like too much work for less than $4. I thinking maybe I should just give them negative feedback and call it a day.
 

Stephan

Well-Known Member
Apr 21, 2017
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Germany
Yeah, $4, soon worth $0.9 probably not worth it. Gotta pick your battles carefully in life and not get distracted needlessly.

I am sure the resident Ferengi has a suitable Rule of Acquisition. Your seller followed rule #1 for sure. ("Once you have their money, you never give it back.") And #239.
 

gb00s

Well-Known Member
Jul 25, 2018
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Get eBay membership for some US$ and be covered for all the 'complicated' cases. Saves you a lot of time and keeps you covered all the time.
 

JSchuricht

Active Member
Apr 4, 2011
198
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I don't use Facebook or have an account. This all sounds like too much work for less than $4. I thinking maybe I should just give them negative feedback and call it a day.

It is a bunch of work which is why sellers keep doing this. I hate facebook too, ebay community forums recommends them but calling is still an option.
 

Stereodude

Active Member
Feb 21, 2016
453
88
28
USA
It is a bunch of work which is why sellers keep doing this. I hate facebook too, ebay community forums recommends them but calling is still an option.
The seller finally responded and told me they're snail mailing me a label to use. I guess we're back in the late 90's. o_O