The old hinting around for a partial refund scam.

[Cornelius]

Had a couple buyers recently that were hinting around for a discount after purchase or so it seems to me.

The first was on some printer ink that was in the factory packaging, never opened: (clicky)
I'll just quote our exchange...

I recieved my item today but it was not what was in the box I recieved 2 HP 15 in which one was a stapes brand and will not fit in my printer and what I wanted was the hp 15 & hp 78 tri color, Please advise what you would like to do?

Hi,
I'm sorry there has been a problem with your item, and I'm trying to understand what has happened. Did the HP 15/78 box arrive? Assuming it did, are you saying it had different cartridges in that box? The box was factory sealed when I packaged and shipped it, so I don't understand how this could have happened.

the box had double sided tape on itwhich the facacoty does not use and the box is old from 2008 what the pic shows is not what I got sorry to say

Hi,
That's very strange and unfortunate. Please make use of my return policy and send everything back as it is right now. I'm not sure exactly how this is supposed to work, but my mailing information should be on the listing or eBay's invoice or something like that (or even from the shipping label). There may also be a 'return item' link on a drop-down menu next to the item on your 'won' list that will help us through the process. I apologize that I don't know more about how this works, I've never had anything returned before.

I dont want to cause issues but I want the hp 15 as for the other one I will just donate it I guess, I dont want to have to return and pay for the shiping when it was not my fault. So I will just keep it, I wont put a neg remark either.

Thanks

Hi,
I'd just like to apologize again for the problem. If you change your mind about the return, please let me know.

np

Would you have handled this differently? She ended up leaving positive feedback as I recall, and said 'good communication or somesuch. The double-sided tape bit just really seems implausible. Those things are about impossible to open without destroying the packaging... it just didn't add up to me. I maybe should handle it differently since I'm at 889 feedback, top-rated, power-seller and all, but this sort of thing just gets my back up.

I'll post the next exchange in a new post.

[Cornelius]

Okay, so this is for a thick D&D Monster Manual from a big D&D collection I was selling off. Everything in the collection was open, but I have serious doubts if any of it was ever actually used. (Auction in question). And yes, I did fib in one of my replies below... this has happened before, but only the above case and maybe one other years ago.

Hello, I'm disappointed to say that the binding in this books is not tight as described. The glue strip that holds the pages together is holding the pages together but has separated from the spine. I have another copy of this book where the glue strip is not separated from the spine. I'm a little sad because I'm trying to complete my collection and you used phrases like tight binding and like new. Your return policy requires me to pay for postage on an item that has been inaccurately described. Somewhat disappointed in this picture...

Clearly fishing for some sort of refund from my perspective, but he doesn't say what. And I know collector's have their idiosyncrasies, but if he has another one in better shape than this, why is he after another?

Hi,
I'm sorry you are not satisfied with the book. I don't normally sell this sort of thing, and I'm certainly no expert on book condition so I described them as well as I could. This was a collection I had that I sold lots of items from. The books, especially the newer ones like this one, all appeared in excellent condition and I haven't had any complaints about the other books.
If there is anything else I can do for you, please let me know what.

Sometimes the seller offers a solution to the problem : )

Hi,
Even though I've sold a lot on Ebay, I've never actually had this happen before. Unfortunately for you, it sounds like you've been through this situation a few times before so maybe you know what to do better than I do. I have the Ebay "suggested" (pretty much required) return policy that you are welcome to make use of, but it doesn't sound like you want to do that.

Nope, not an expert. Here's your appeal to a potential buyer, in your writing: This book is very nice shape with sharp corners and tight binding. It has some shelf wear and some marks here and there on the covers, but feels pretty much new when opened.

I'm currently dealing with a ribcage injury and a hip injury, et-cetera, so convenience works great for me. I certainly don't want the runaround, or to have to run around in order to fix your inaccuracies. I expect sellers to be conscientious of buyers prior to the end of a deal. In this case, running circles around me is not only a physical inconvenience it is also an inconvenience of time. Just having to write this is a waste of time. I'm not looking a refund. I'm not looking to ruin your day. Maybe improve humanity. I was hopeful that this book was the book I was looking for. But, apparently, there are more people out to swindle others than to make a fair deal. This is not a fair deal. In the future, just don't do this. I was actually hoping that you had a warm heart toward a customer - especially when you made the error. I didn't.

The correct response - read my first email - would have been something like, "Return the book and not only will I refund you for the cost of the book and the original shipping I will refund you the cost of the return trip." After all, your description of the item was inaccurate- and eBay would not react kindly to that kind of transaction.

Thanks for being considerate toward me.

Not sure if I'll reply at this point. I assume that last line is supposed to be sarcasm given he insults me a few lines above it.

Well, you didn't ask for anything in your first email, and free return shipping just isn't practical for most anyone other than Amazon, and even they don't do it if you just change your mind. I still fully contend that the item was accurately described, and I only skimped on the pictures for this book (and others like it) because they were all so nice there wasn't much more to show about them. I normally have 3 or 4 photos that focus on any blemishes/damage to an item and so people can get an overall impression. Lesson learned there, I guess.

I know this sort of thing isn't new and won't go away, but having 2 in a short time prompted me to post. What do you do? I suppose for these two low dollar items the best thing is just to eat it, but like I said before, it just pisses me off too much to do that.

[Bojay1997]

I could be wrong, but I think you misinterpreted what the second guy was after. He was looking for you to pay return shipping which is pretty standard if the item isn't as described. Having said that, he never really came out and said it which made it very confusing and frankly, I'm not sure how far off the description really was if at all. For all I know, the spine got loose in shipping which is possible given the age of the book and the fact that glue dries out over time.

As for the first seller, I have no idea. As a buyer who has to return not as described items regularly, I find that most sellers will pay the return shipping as well if there is an issue and something clearly wasn't as described. My thought is that I did everything I was supposed to in carefully reviewing the description and photos and if something really doesn't match up, it's not my responsibility to pay return shipping for the seller's fraud or misrepresentation.

[Cornelius]

I take extreme pride in describing things as accurately as I can, and clearly my record of no returns, perfect feedback, etc, bears that out. And I stand by the description I made in my ad. I'm not a huge seller, so things don't get done sloppily. It is clear that the book was not up to his standards, but frankly, anyone with that high of standards should realize they have to take extra precautions unless they are purchasing something from a known expert or it is graded or something. Maybe ask for more photos or additional description, which is exactly what I suggest people do in my ad if they'd like to.

I believe these people were fishing for a partial refund just for asking for it, and I think the tone and attitude they display reinforce that idea. Especially being so indirect about what they want. I dunno, that was my interpretation as an honest seller that never* has problems.

[pseudonym]

I usually just offer a partial refund depending on the severity of the problem. It's not worth the hassle of a neg or a item not as described paypal dispute.

[fluid_matrix]

If you're a member in good standing, it's likely eBay will just issue a refund (on their behalf) w/out him having to send the book back. He will likely give you a negative feedback, but that will be gone in 12 months.

I sold an HDD last year and the buyer claimed it was faulty. He was replacing what he said was a bad HDD to begin with. I tested the HDD with a WD diagnostics tool before listing and it tested 100%. He sent me the blue screen error codes he was getting and when I googled them, the code was commonly associated with bad ram, not a bad HDD. I tried explaining that to him, but he was too ignorant to listen. I refused to accept the return, and he left me a negative feedback. It will disappear in Dec. and then I'll be back to 100%. Pretty sure he was trying to pull the ole' switcharoo on me.

[Damaniel]

I had a recent eBay buyer fish for partial refunds on the items they bought. Out of 25 items that I was selling, one buyer bought six items and complained about the quality of 5 of them -- for comparison, nobody else complained about the other 19 items that I sold, and all of the feedback offered nothing but praise for how accurate the item descriptions were. For each of those items that were complained about, the buyer demanded a partial refund. For the first couple of complaints, I gave the refund (the items were sent in 4 different shipments, hence the multiple complaints), but I put my foot down after that. I never heard back about the last couple items, and didn't receive any negative feedback (actually, I got no feedback at all from that person for any of the 6 items).

Not much you can do in these types of cases - either give the refund or accept the negative feedback. In this case, I blacklisted the buyer and moved on.

[Tokimemofan]

My experience with these types comes in 3 types:
1: Someone who never had any intention of buying an item (a guy who started off his question about a Dreamcast BroadBand adapter by accusing me of overpricing AND switching the board with a modem)
2: Someone who overreacts to a minor issue (UPS tried to deliver when my buyer was out of state)
3: The one time I actually DID issue a partial refund was on a recent sale (I think June) for Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise Edition, in which the set turned out to be Academic Edition which had the label removed, she was very respectful and I was able to verify her claim using the SKU numbers.
Those scammers do worry me though.