Advice - eBay/PayPal related

[Exon]

I sold a Sound Card on eBay a couple weeks ago. As you can see, it sold for $10 buy it now, and $4 shipping. I sent it out and about a week ago got an E-mail from the buyer stating that the card did not work, that one of the transformers was broken and demanded a full refund, including shipping. He was quite rude about it, I felt:

I got the sound card today and realized that you sent me a defectve card. There are actually transistors that are broken off of the card. I need a full refund + shipping or I will file a complaint with paypal and ebay.

This theme carries on throughout all his E-mails. Here is my response:

David,
I am surprised that there are actually transistors that are broken. When I had taken it out of my computer it was working fine, and in the pictures I see no broken off transistors:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6837500243

I will either refund your auction price, or ship you a new sound card depending on which you'd rather do. I cannot refund shipping costs.

Let me know how you would like to proceed.

I felt that was fair - I was willing to ship him a brand new card, on the belief that the card I sent him was truely defective. I explained to him - as you can see, that I cannot refund shipping costs. I didn't even ask for the defective card back. I had truely, just taken it out of one of our computers at home.

His response was that he wanted the card, not a refund. So I sent the second card - at my expense, he now has two cards, totalling over $50 worth of retail merchandise, for $10 + $4 shipping (shipping cost me $8.10 - total for both cards to be sent. I packaged them in bublewrap and antistatic bags. They were in perfect condition!).

Message I got yesterday:

ok...............you sent me another card that does not work. I would like a refund.
thanks!

My response yesterday:

David,
As I did not have a refund policy stated in the listing I will issue a refund, but only after you send the two sound cards back. I have troubles believing that last sound card did not work properly as I tested it BEFORE I sent it to prevent that issue. Both cards worked before I sent them. Everything I sold had either only been sitting for a couple days, or I had tested before sending out. And out of all the hardware I sold during that week, yours is the only one that has had an issue. Please send the cards back to me, and I will issue a refund (sans shipping) as soon as I receive the cards.

Thank you and have a good day.

Now am I missing something, or did I just tell him, again, that I cannot issue a refund for the shipping? His response today:

I will send both cards back. But if I do not recieve full refund + shipping, I will file a complaint with paypal and ebay. Paypal will then refund my money and debit your account.
Thanks

Am I talking to a brick wall here? Did I not just say twice that I would not refund shipping? TWICE?! Well, by this time I'm pretty angry - to say the least.

Then do not waste your time sending them back, as I have already told you I will not refund shipping. I can print you receipts, but shipping cost me more than I charged on the auction.

If you file your complaints, I do have an opportunity to respond to the complaints, and as I previously explained, twice, and now three times, that you would not receive shipping charges in the refund. It would be a refund of the auction price only.

I did not receive shipping costs from you to send the second card, that was out of my pocket as well. There is no need to get mean about this transaction David.

Now - my concern is that he is going to send me these cards back - and they're going to be busted to hell, or purposely destroyed with missing transistors. I have very detailed pictures of both that I can send to eBay/PayPal to prove this - but I do not want him getting off with even the $4 shipping that he does NOT deserve in this transaction. Is it just me, or is this guy being a jerk? What are the chances that he will get the $14, or if I don't pay up that my accounts could be suspended/closed?

God, now I hate selling on eBay, it was going so well!

 

[vito]

Yes, you're bound to run across a jerk like this sooner or later when selling on ebay. There are plenty of idiots out there. And this one takes the cake!

The problem with having him send back both cards is that he will probably (intentionally) break both of them before he ships them just so he can say that they were broken. So I'm not sure what benefit there is to getting them back.

I'm proboably not giving you the best advice on this, but if I were in your shoes, I would just refund the 14 bucks just to get this jerk out of my life. It's just not worth the aggravation IMO. Then again, you may feel compelled to fight him on principle alone. But as I said, it would bother me more knowing that he caused so much grief, aggravation, time lost, not to mention a possible bad ebay review if you end up fighting him on it.

Ugh. ebay. Thanks for reminding me why I stay away.

Anyways, good luck with it, John.

Vito

 

[Exon]

Yeah, but that's just the thing. If he breaks them intentionally, I have pictures of the items on the listing, why should I give him any refund then?

 

[vito]

I know, but he could claim that he received them broken. It's not like you have pics of the cards after he received them, right? He could say they were broken in transit.

Vito

 

[Exon]

In which case he should be taking this up with the USPS

I just...grr ebay has such great deals though

 

[vito]

It's a real pickle, John.

I was just discussing it with my daughter and I asked what she would do. Unequivocally she said "Fight it! Don't let him get away with it!"

So go figure. Who the heck knows what the best approach is?

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Vito

 

[ANMMark]

I'd fight him.

he was probably hoping that you wouldn't ask for them back, andjust refund, letting him walk off with two cards, for nothing.

The best you can do is check ebay's policy on refunds, and see if shipping is required to be refunded. If not....fight him on it, tooth and nail.

The absolute worse that could happen is that he get's the s&h. Then you can simply give him a bad review at eBay.

I just wouldn't give him the satisfaction of you giving in. I'd also let him know that you have proof that the items were not broken as he described, upon shipping them, and if they arrived broken, he should be taking that up with the USPS.

By any chance did you insure them when you sent them?

 

[Exon]

Insurance was up to the buyer - he did not purchase insurance.

 

[vito]

After sleeping on it and giving it more thought, I have come off the fence. I too agree that you should fight it. I think you have enough on your side to put up a meaningful fight. Guys like this probably do this all the time.

What confuses me, though, is why he would bother with a $10 item. I would imagine that he can't do this type of thing repeatedly without raising a red flag with ebay/paypal, so you'd think he would do it with items of more substantial value to make it worthwhile.

John, do let us know how it turns out.

Vito

 

[Jambo]

I'd suggest you just refund him to get him out of your life to be honest.

I have the same sound card i want to sell too, it came with a surround sound system i purchased.

Regards

 

[Exon]

Well, I got an E-mail from him this morning, it sounds like things may be working out. He is going to send the cards back, and it sounds like he will accept the $10 refund:

The reason I wanted shipping back is because $10 will hardly ciover shipping the cards back. By the way I will take a photo of the first card for you to see. How could it work if the were 4 capacitors broken off of the card and bent pins all over it? It wasnt a shipping issue because the missing capacitors would be in the box. the second card was in tact but would not be recognized by windows........I am NOT a newbie to ebay I realize that some people would not complain. They would probably just forget the $10 . The card s will be returned to you immediately. You put the junk in your PC and see what happens!

Will let you know how it does work out. And the biggest problem I had with refunding the shipping was then I'm out the time, effort, and I'm out even more money because of the fees, and shipping - so much that I would've been better off working late an hour.