Ebay Advice (Dispute Resolution)

[chazus]

I recently had a situation on ebay that I was hoping someone might have some insight/advice on.

I recently sold a cable modem (Which I own, not rent), after making sure it was de-provisioned from my account. The buyer opened a refund claim at 11am today saying it didn't work, stating that they were not able to activate it on their account. I contacted Cox (the ISP) to double check. Turns out they needed to de-provision it AND remove it from my account (They didn't inform me this before, and said it was clear to sell/give to someone), which they promptly did so, making the modem clear to use elsewhere (Which I have noted, and the tech's name and ticket number to refer to).

The buyer still wants a refund, since he 'already bought a new modem' before he even filed the claim. I effectively had it handled and resolved within 6 hours of opening the claim. The modem is perfectly functional, and able to be used.

Should I just stick to my guns on this? Is there a way to have ebay review the situation? I've heard too many stories of ebay siding with wonky orders and returns.

[Vash The Stampede]

Ebay will always side with the buyer. I've had a similar situation selling an Android phone with CM installed but the people who bought it didn't like it and wanted a refund. I accepted and just put Android 2.3 back on and sold it for more money and no complaints. It sucks that you went through all the trouble to fix the situation with the modem but best thing to do is refund the money and have them send it back, but make sure they pay for shipping. If you charged shipping separately then it's really no skin off your back. Just more repackaging when you put the modem back for sale on Ebay.

[Deleted]

snip

I'd say you got screwed mostly by ISP since they said it was de-provisioned and realy do sell but clearly it wasn't. The buyer was indeed fast to sent it back but you can't claim there was nothing wrong with modem either since he opened the box and didn't work.

As for the shipping, from an objective eye, if he payed for initial shipping to receive it and he doesn't get money back for that then you can't ask him to pay for return as well. If its just a few bucks i'd say don't bother for all the fuss alone.

Ebay will always side with the buyer.

Well not always but most of the time yeah, since they have to deal with a lot of weird sellers and their products.

[chazus]

but you can't claim there was nothing wrong with modem either since he opened the box and didn't work.

I guess my point of contention is that it -did- work. It functions fine. It never 'didnt work'. The company simply told him that there was a registration issue. And all it took was a simple phone call to clear something up. He hasn't sent it back yet... But I think its his own fault for going and buying a new unit before even trying to contact me. I literally had the account situation fixed within 2 hours of opening the claim.

Ill see what he says tomorrow and then probably hand it over to ebay.

[nocturnus]

I guess my point of contention is that it -did- work. It functions fine. It never 'didnt work'. The company simply told him that there was a registration issue. And all it took was a simple phone call to clear something up. He hasn't sent it back yet... But I think its his own fault for going and buying a new unit before even trying to contact me. I literally had the account situation fixed within 2 hours of opening the claim.

Ill see what he says tomorrow and then probably hand it over to ebay.

As a frequent seller on Ebay I can confirm what Duke said; Ebay will always side with the buyer, unless the buyer has 0 purchases in its history.

[Shinzai]

There's literally no point debating the matter with the buyer, he's well within his rights to return the item and eBay will back him up on that. Simply accept the return and ensure he goes through the proper procedure, as he will have to supply a returns tracking code, or you can supply him with a printable sticker/sheet for it. As long as you get the item back as it was, there's no issue. By debating it, you're just losing potential re-sale time. The buyer doesn't legally have to keep the item, especially if he wants to return it well within online returns time frame.

[Lathais]

Sadly, you are kinda screwed. I would contact the ISP and make them pay the shipping back since they told you it was good to go and it was not totally good to go. I know if I bought something on Ebay and when I got it it did not work and I wanted my internet functioning andI had already waited a couple days on shipping I would be sick of waiting and go buy one locally. It's well within his rights as it did not function properly right out of the box. It doesn't matter how quickly you got it resolved, he had an issue as soon as he opened the box, he has the right to return it.

[kail]

When it comes to business, the buyer tends to have more rights than the seller. This is especially true when it comes to eBay. At this point, I'd just concede instead of trying to reason with some stranger or eBay; wasted effort in 99% of the time. If the item is not sent back to you though, then by all means keep eBay notified.