I knew it was going to happen eventually, It seems there is nothing I could do as a seller to enforce ebays own policy.
A while back I sold a item, and got a very positive review for it. About a week later I then had a return request that simply stated that buyer changed there mind. I thought no problem, go ahead and return it. (My policy is that the buyer pays return shipping).
Once the buyer found that they were responcible they closed the return request, and opened a snad case, and still admighted fault by saying "it did not have all the features they were looking for., and no longer wanted it". At this point I was not worried because I have read the return policy and thought I was safe.
Before a official ebay decision was made I called ebay, and made sure they documented that the buyer was orriginally happy with the purchase, and then later changed there mind. I told them I have no problem with a return, but do to there own policy I should not have to pay for the return.
Then about 4 hours later I got a message that said the case was closed in the buyers favor, and I had to send them a prepaid return label, or give a complete refund and let them also keep the item.
It would have been cheaper for me to just issue a complete refund and be done with it, but I did not want to support the buyers behavior, so I sent them a return lablel. Once I recieve the Item I'm going to end up paying shipping both ways, and will also have to refund the buyer the purchase price.
Note: Shipping two dirrections exceeds the purchase price of the item itself. Also the buyer did not keep my orriginal packaging, so the item is being sent back in a larger and heavier box, so I had to pay more to ship it back to me, than I did to ship it out. The first lable sent by ebay was not satifactory for the buyer do to this. On top of that I shipped it out using a ground service, and ebay required me to ship it back to myself using priority mail.
In the big picture it was not a super expensive item and its not the end of the world. I will continue selling there, but it is frustrating that they make no attempt to enforce there own policy. I only lost about 45$ in shipping costs. I just hope the item comes back in the same condition so I could re-sell it.
What kind of upsets me is this buyer never once even contacted me durring this whole process, and did everything behind the scene.
As a seller I would never list a really high dollar item on ebay that would cost alot to ship "Like a Bike", because there is way to much risk involved if they are not able to enforce there own return policy. As a e-bay buyer I would have no problem purchasing a bike, and I have done so a few times in the past without any issues.
