OT- selling on ebay

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by tonyo

This is the truth.

I just had a buyer initiate a return request. Ebay gave 6 or 7 options to respond, but none of them allowed me to argue my case or request a review.
I picked "pay to send a return shipping label".

Question for the ebay sellers who have gone thru this: shouldn't I receive an email or message from ebay with a tracking number for the return package? It isn't clear that my choice was actually registered. I expected to be asked to pay immediately, but wasn't. and the cost wasn't added to my eBay invoice balance, not even deducted from paypal. The email I did receive (after clicking the purchase return shipping button) says "you have accepted a return, next step is to send a return shipping label. Click on return details to purchase" . When I click on return details, it says "you have provided return information" But still no indication that I have paid anything for return shipping.

anyone experienced with this process?

When you use the "pay to send a return shipping label," the label cost is tacked onto your eBay invoice at the end of the month, not drawn on your account immediately. (I think this may be changing once Managed Payments kicks in, but that is a whole other mess). If the buyer uses the label to ship the item back to you, you will receive a notice when it has been shipped, and when it has been delivered. The buyer may not ever actually ship it back (just had this happen on an item where the return shipping was nearly the item cost, so I was glad). In that case, after a long waiting period, eBay will notify you that the buyer did not ship it back, and they will release any funds being held for the return. You are not charged for a return label that is never used.

What I'm not a big fan of is that you are never told how much the return shipping label actually cost in any kind of message from eBay. To find out, you have to go look at your overall invoice of eBay fees, which can be many many pages long.

You can also opt to send the buyer a shipping label of your own (for instance, purchased through stamps.com and printed to a pdf, then sending them the pdf), but I find that is an extra step that is hardly worth the effort.