The Yak Shack Forum

A friend of mine has a situation on eBay and I want all your opinions to pass along to her. She purchased a Pillsbury Doughboy figurine for $42. It is an older piece, but she spent good money as one sold only a few days earlier for $26. The item was listed as being in near mint condition and you will not be disappointed. She received the box, which appeared fine; however, when she opened it, she could tell it was not packaged securely, or in a way to protect the item. First, there was a green smudge mark on the dougboy’s hat (which you could see in the picture, so no big deal), but the doughboy is in a gravy boat holding two spoons. The spoon in the front of the figurine had the paint chipping off it and had a crack in the spoon by the doughboys hand.

She checked the auction and none of this was mentioned. The seller has a return policy for money back. She contacted them about the damage and asked if she could send the item back for a full refund. A couple days later, they asked her to send pictures of the damage, as they want to make sure she is sending back the same exact one they sold to her. Unfortunately, she only has internet access at work and was unable to get them pictures. She told them that once they receive it back, they will know it is the same item. Again, a couple days go by and the guy says “I spoke with my wife and she is not willing to issue a refund for this item. Maybe you can turn the figurine in a way where the damage is not showing. You might also want to consider insurance on future purchases” or something very similar to those lines anyway.

Well, that was when she filed a claim for item not as described. It took 5 days for the seller to come back and they said “The item was in perfect condition when it was shipped....I sold 13 others and did not have a problem. How am I supposed to know whether or not the buyer broke it after they received it?...The buyer could have asked for insurance. I do not feel that I should have to accept damaged goods back. But in the spirit of e-bay, I would be willing to refund $20.00 in order to resolve this."

She does not want a partial refund, so she escalated it to eBay customer support stating she still wants a full refund, as she will now have to spend the money to buy a new one and she does not want one damaged. She also mentioned that insurance was not an option in the auction and that the package from the post office arrived in perfect shape, but this either happened when they improperly packaged it, or they just missed the damage altogether when listing the item.

What happens next? She is still willing to send the item back if needed. The seller already left her positive feedback. Their feedback is 100%, with only a dozen or so feedback over the last year. I really hope eBay sides with my friend. She is not a picky person at all, so for her to not want this item with the damage is a big deal. Just hope you could all give your opinions on how this might turn out.

Thanks!

i had a simmilar situation with a seller from new york. i won the fat lady bookends from him. he sent them to me in a very small box (and for very over priced shipping charges) and there was hardly and protective packaging. when i emailed him complaining and asking for a refund, he mentioned the lack of insurance. i came back that he overcharged me by almost $11 in shipping and he should have bought the insurance.
     he then accused me of causing the damage because, get this--the package must have been hit with a hammer to cause the damage i described. he also said he wanted the damaged item so he could see if it was the same item he sent. this sounded fishy to me, so i said i would only send the item back if he paid for the return shipping. he wouldn't, so i called ebay and they advised me not to send the item back, that pictures would be fine.  i opened the dispute during that call and the seller was emailed a report of the conversation/ dispute. he then requested pictures of the broken bookends. so i sent him pictures of the box (without the hammer marks, lol) and the damaged bookends. he then claimed that the pictures were too fuzzy to see if it was the same item he sent (all 13 of them). the box he said was the same one he sent--big surprize, since it had his name and address on it. after getting nowhere with him on this, i escalated it to a claim. eventually he sent me an email saying that he would only issue the refund if i would not leave negative feedback, so i agreed.
      have your friend check this persons past feedback comments. it sounds eerily similar to my situation. one other buyer had a similar problem and did leave a negative comment. guess what it said--right, the same situation as i described. she should then contact ebays resolution hotline to speak to someone in person to express her situation. i would also tell her not to settle for the $20 refund. she paid top dollar for an item and the seller should have protected the item properly when it was shipped. due to the sellers neglect, the item arrived broken.
     good luck!!

Thanks! Their past feedback is fine. I also offered my friend my camera and computer so she could send pictures, but asking her to turn the figurine so you can display it without the damage showing??? Your situation sounds so familiar though. I should have my friend call eBay, but she did escalate it to eBay customer service through their site. Hopefully that is good enough. I just hope she wins this case, as the seller does not want a damaged item returned to them, yet why should my friend be out the money for a damaged item as well? She does not want the $20, she wants all her money back.

Thanks for sharing your story. I am glad you were able to get your money back. I just hope she can get hers as well. I sell on eBay and I sent something that the buyer did not like the condition of. I immediately offered to give them a full refund and pay for return shipping. It is called good customer service. These people my friend is dealing with does not understand that. To me, it is not worth the negative feedback when I can get the item back and relist it with the damage noted in the auction and at least make some sort of profit. Seems like these people just want their money and could care less about the buyer. Not to mention the item arrived completely dusty and dirty too. If you sold something for $42, wouldn't you send it out looking nice? It goes to show how well the seller looked the item over before shipping it.

By the way, remind me not to send anything to you in fear that a hammer might get used :rofl: Too funny.

UPDATE:

eBay decided in my friends favor. She has to send the item back to the seller and provide tracking info to eBay. Once they see it has been delivered, she will get a full refund. The only thing I don't like is that my friend is responsible for the return shipping price. eBay even states this to her in the case details. I guess it is better than being out the $42 plus shipping she paid for the item originally.

That's what eBay requires of all buyers who are returning items (unless they decide that the item shouldn't be returned --this happened to me once with a counterfeit item).  It's very important that your friend gets delivery confirmation, or the seller can claim he never received it.

The postal insurance issue is difficult with eBay's new rules.  Sellers aren't allowed to offer optional insurance.  You can either not offer it or build it into the shipping fee.  This was done because buyers were refusing the added cost of insurance, filing claims for damaged items, and sellers were refusing refunds because the buyers didn't pay for insurance.  If I were selling a fragile and potentially expensive item like a figurine, I would have added insurance to the shipping price and stated in the auction that this was included in the fee.

I believe she does.  I've had to file claims against a few sellers and always was able to leave feedback even after PayPal was involved.

Yup, she does. She just got her refund today, so she can leave feedback now. I believe she is going to leave a negative and I think she absolutely should 100%. The seller already left her really great feedback right after she paid.

Sorry for the double post. Just an update. My friend has now left this person a negative feedback. She said: "Item arrived damaged. Very unhelpful & refused refund. Had to file through eBay."

It brought this person from 100% to 87.5%!

It is a shame they had to drop so low, but if they would have refunded her to begin with and let her return the item on her own without having to file with eBay, they could have still gotten a positive. Maybe they have learned their lesson now. I am curious to know if they will relist the item.

UPDATE:

They left a follow up to her feedback stating: "Not fair! Didn't know if we were being scammed. Solutions offered. New eBayer."

My friend has 17 feedback, but has been on eBay since 1999. Also, their only solution was to turn it so you could not see the damage! That is not a solution! The scam part is because they think she damaged it and then wanted to return it. I could see this is maybe a week went buy after she received it, but she contacted them right away when it arrived.

My friend followed up saying: "Auction states returns accepted. Can't declare scam when buyer willing to return". There was so much more she wanted to say, but no more room. If the person is so worried about scams, they need to change their auctions to "no returns accepted". This person just makes me angry and I had nothing to do with it!!!!!