Question
I've just encountered my first defective purchase on eBay. I bid on an Xbox game disk, and it doesn't play / gets an error. I emailed the seller, and they are willing to refund the purchase price, but not the shipping.
Part of me doesn't mind, and I guess that's fair.
The other part of me knows that there's no way the seller could not have known the disk was defective unless he hadn't played it.
He also had a *required* insurance charge of $1.95 but he never insured it. When I told him that, he said "sorry, I must have forgot", and is going to refund that too.
So is it considered normal and acceptable to not refund shipping in this situation? What kind of feedback would you leave?
The reason I'm asking is because I sold a label printer one time that didn't work upon arrival to the buyer, and I refunded her 100%, including the shipping. I thought that was the right thing to do, since it was my fault for not testing it right before sending it to her. If he had tested this disk, he would have known it was defective.
I'm not in a rage or anything, and it's not the end of the world, I'm just curious to know what you all think.
Thanks!
Answer
By the way, he just told me in AIM that he is 14. Nice, huh?
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Many many auctions include the terms that they will refund the purchase price if the item is not as described, but not the shipping costs. It *seems* to be an accepted practice.
I *personally* feel that it is totally wrong. If an item is returned because it is not as described, the buyer is not at fault and should not be out of pocket at all. The couple of times when I have refunded, I have included the shipping costs in both directions. If a buyer returns an item because they do not like the colour, or just have buyer remorse, through no fault of the seller, then I consider it fair enough that the seller not be out of pocket for the shipping expenses.
Just how I see it, but I know that many consider that postage should not be refunded.
Kind Regards, Kevin
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If something is wrong with the item beyond you the buyers control then you should geta full refund as you should not be "out" anything. Now if you dropped the box on your way from the post box then no or if you didn't like what you got but it was what you were sold then no again but in your case I would expect a full refund but if hes only 14 he might not have the money to take a loss on shippin either
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Though sellers general practices are getting progressively worse on the average, and indeed there may be new 'norms' - for the logest time it was considered ethical practice to:
1. Refund complete costs ONLY on items clearly misdescribed or defective.
2. Refund ONLY item cost for minor imperfections, misunderstood descriptions, or unrealistic expectations. SOme even go further and deduct eBay fees.
In this case since you did opt for insurance, and it arrived non-functional in either case the seller is at fault.
The return policy SHOULD be stated in the auction or at least EOA.
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Thanks for the input everyone. Although it is OBVIOUS that the kid sent me a bad disk (very scratched up and does not work), I think I'm going to have to eat this one. He has no return policy stated, and all he says in his description is basically "this item is in used condition".
I'm just going to chalk it up to another lesson learned, and from now on make sure I that the description states that the item is in perfect working condition (ridiculous that I would have to), or at least get an email from them saying it is not a scratched up damaged disk.
I'm acutally kind of mad about it today.
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Here's a take on it (not necessarily my personal opinion).
Shipping is a service.
You paid for shipping.
Item was shipped.
Your received it.
Service performed.
How, then, does one "un-do" the shipping service in order to justify a refund of price paid for service performed?
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Originally Posted by Kathleen
How, then, does one "un-do" the shipping service in order to justify a refund of price paid for service performed?
Very good point.
But if you had a scratched up Xbox game disk and knew it probably didn't work (I'd bet money that this kid knew, he didn't even bother trying to say "it worked for me" when I told him it didn't work) and you decided to sell it on eBay to pull a fast one, then wouldn't the shipping be part of the consequence you should pay for doing a shady deal to begin with?
While I fully understand your point, I personally choose to be a bit more ethical about my sales, and if a bidder buys something from me that turns out to be broken at no fault of theirs, I'm not going to stick them with the shipping charges.
But the logic behind your post makes sense, and is one of the reasons I am chalking this up to a lesson learned.
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I pay shipping both ways if an item needs to be returned due to an error on my part. To me it's only proper and how I choose to handle my business. I'm responsible for the hands on inspection for the buyer who cannot do that online. If I failed in my description to accurately describe the item then I feel the buyer would never have purchased thus should not be out any funds including shipping.
I do look for return policies when shopping. Then bid accordingly. I think that many do.
chloe
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I think the shipping should not be returned in full and let me tell you why up till this happened I would have said the whole thing but here is two points
One it takes gas,time,etc to package also remeber there are 2 parts of S&H one is the shipping and one is the handling now some find it ridciloius to charge both but markers.tape.paper.invoices.ink etc all cost so I can see one not wanted to refund all
Second and this just happened to my I had a few small game systems up from a dropshipper they should great most were really happy with them well two said that their's did not work well the place I use will exchange it but less the S&H so I have to come up with that or ask the buyer to pay the shipping well a lot of buyers dont know sellers use dropshippers so they dont know that us sellers have to foot the diffrence maybe this guy used a dropshipper you just never know
Just my two cents however I think half is fair is possible