Why did this customer receive a refund?

[green-tea]

I sell personalized gold jewelry and have a clear policy on my website that all sales of personalized items are final and customers can not return these items simply because they change their mind. I provide pictures, sizes, and weights of the items online and customers make their choices about what they want. Customers can also choose what type of gold they want, as in gold-filled, 10k, or 14k.  

I have a customer who purchased 2 gold-filled bracelets with upgraded chains, had them personalized, and received them. She emailed me that she did not like the upgraded chains after all because they were too bulky. But, she also changed her mind and wanted 10k gold instead because she did not like the look of gold-filled.  I advised the customer we can discuss a refund of the chains but would not offer a refund of the personalized portion of the bracelets. The customer mailed the bracelets back to me anyway and made a claim to Paypal saying the items were not as described. She even included a sarcastic note saying she has never lost a Paypal claim. I replied to Paypal saying these are personalized items and I only agreed to refund the customer the cost of the upgraded chains.  Paypal gave her a complete refund.  Why? 

[kernowlass]

@green-tea

Well they shouldn't have done as there is no buyer protection for ''Significantly Not As Described claims for custom-made items''.

Did you phone customer services whilst the dispute was ongoing and let them know that the item was custom made?

Sometimes the agents in the call centres are not the brightest lights in the harbour and you have to point things out to them.

[Coupe429]

Because Paypal has a very bad policy

They just agree with the buyer no matter what

They do not follow Ebays AS-IS no return policy

You can sell something on Ebay in the form of AS-IS

and Paypal will still refund the buyer there money

Horriable policy

I just got scammed out of $235 from Paypal

I sold some cables

and now the person is sending me back his broken cables and I have to refund his money

[sharpiemarker]

It is not that PayPal does not follow eBay's AS IS, No Return policy. There is no AS IS, No Returns policy at eBay.  PayPal does what eBay tells it to do on their transactions. Do you not know about the eBay Money Back Guarantee program?  You can mark your listing as Sold for parts/Not Working in the Condition field.  You can say No Returns for buyer remorse reasons (changed mind) but if the buyer selects Item Not As Described, you are considered at fault and you are obligated to accept return and pay for return shipping.  You can't prove you did not send an as described item, even with pics.  The high volume sellers have to operate this way, now the small or individual sellers have to operate this way too.

And sellers are not protected from SNAD disputes at PayPal, a policy that has been around like forever, if the buyer opts to file a PayPal dispute. Only INR or Unauthorized Use are protected.  Why the shock and awe.  If people would read the their protection rights, they may be more equipped to protect themselves.  And decide to sell or not. At least not be surprised and know what it is they are dealing with.  PayPal never said there will be 100% protection.

Shame what happened but that is the risk selling online these days.  Do not sell anything you cannot afford to lose. 

[DPCreations]

This case shows some very interesting aspects of online business issues, customer relations, and PayPal responsibilities.

First, businesses will sometimes have costs invoved in customer disappointments.  It's just part of business.  So, when a buyer has an issue, whether deserved or not, the sellers should evaluate all options recognizing that the resolution will invoice a business cost.  A quick resolution is often the least costly to the business.  A resoltuion directly between buyer and seller will likely be the best solution rather than force the buyer to escalate the dispute to a payment procesor.  As the owner of the business the seller can adjust refund polciies at any time to negotiate with the buyer.

Next, as the buyer is unhappy with the failure to resolve with seller, the buyer will escalate the issue to find the best route for a refund.  Typically, the buyer would dispute through PayPal.  Suppose the buyer had done that and then won the case of SNAD, PayPal would have required return for full refund.  During the dispute process seller would have been given an opportuntiy to resolve and close the dispute.

If the buyer failed to win the case, the buyer could have filed a dspute through credit card and get a refund.

So, the buyer skipped a couple steps and returned the item.  Seller received the items in good condition.  Should PayPal have refunded?  Well, seller can't keep the items and money.  Seller can appeal the decision, perhaps win and then be forced to ship the items back to the buyer who will be really unhappy.

Would appealing with the basis that these items were customized and, therefore, the buyer should not have been given a refund?  The chains were not customized.  The other part was personalized.  You would need to make a phone call to PayPal customer service to figure out what to do.

You'll need to make your own business decision to determine what is best for your business:  appeal and maybe win or likely lose.  What will be your business cost with each possibility?

[Whac-A-Mole]

You case is most likely handled by robot,with all SNAD cases,buyer return items and get full refund.

Since she has returned the items,she gets her refund.

Does paypal robot know these are custom orders?

you may appeal but I am afraid since you have accepted the returns,your appeal  will be denied. 

[sharpiemarker]

Because, you and the buyer can't come to an agreement so PayPal was asked to step in and since the items were returned, the buyer gets money back.  The transaction gets undone.  You can have your own store policies and they would apply ONLY if the buyer decides to observe them.  Some do, some don't.  When they don't, you'll need to make an exception to deviate from your policies to mitigate your loss.  Don't end up with a credit card chargeback, which will cost you $20 more.