Recently:
I bought a nice looking Aero Bootlegger from an ebay seller in the UK. Put in an offer an was accepted. Package was shipped by ebay Global Shipping Program, arrived several days ago, jacket was shipped to me in a poly-bag mailer. When I opened it, the entire right shoulder was covered with scratches, which looked like the package had been dragged over concrete, scratching the surface of the leather through the plastic bag. It wasn't deep, but it was literally the entire upper right corner of the back panel, plus the upper right sleeve. I couldn't confidently say that the jacket [em]was[/em] damaged in shipping, although that seems likely. But the seller's photos conveniently had a large glare reflection exactly where these scratches were, meaning that it's possible they could have taken deliberately misleading photos designed to hide the flaw.
I contacted the seller to request a return; they do not accept returns for overseas buyers. Seller responded, saying that the scratches are "normal" for the type of leather Aero uses, suggested I could conceal the scratches with mink oil. I responded that yes, some superficial light scratches may be picked up with regular use, but this was extensive and detracted from the jacket's appearance. I preferred to return, but would be willing to attempt mink oil, provided seller agreed to accept a return if a spot test with mink oil didn't make the scratches disappear to my satisfaction; otherwise I would escalate the case to eBay Buyer Protection, and felt confident I would prevail.
Seller responded, apologizing and saying that they initially thought that I was located in the US (which, I am, so it appeared they were confused somehow) and that they would accept a return if I was still not satisfied after trying to conceal the scratches with mink oil. I did a very small test in a hidden spot on the jacket where there was a scratch, and it didn't help, so I replied and asked again for a return.
Seller accepted the return. Ebay automatically messaged me a link to print out a return shipping label. I clicked the link, but it didn't work, displaying a "it's not you, it's us, please try again later" error message. I re-tried several times, to no avail, and the next day I contacted eBay Customer Service. Explaining everything, the eBay Customer Service told me that I did not actually need to return the jacket, and would be refunded, and could keep the jacket. I wasn't clear why that would be, but perhaps due to being an international package, or perhaps due to the overloaded postal system, or perhaps due to the pandemic, they had instituted some policy that said to resolve cases this way. I accepted the resolution and hung up. Within an hour or so I had my refund post to my paypal account.
Seller messaged me shortly after to say that they were shocked that I had escalated the case after they had agreed to accept the return, and ask/demand that I return their property to them, as I now had my money back. I responded to the seller, explaining what had happened with the return shipping label, and that I had not asked ebay to escalate the case, only to assist me with printing the shipping label, but that they had elected to resolve the case in this manner, etc. and said I was willing to work with them to get the jacket returned, provided I didn't have to pay for the return shipping, as was my right per ebay's policy when it comes to items that arrive damaged/not as described.
Seller was relieved by my response, and offered to compensate me for the return shipping cost. I obtained several quotes, forwarded screen shots of the quotes, and explained that the options I was able to find were quite expensive (ranging from $83-300) and suggested it might be best if seller wanted to try to find a cheaper shipping method, pay for the label to be created, send me the label, and I would ship back to them; I provided dimensions and weight of the return package, asked them how they wished to proceed.
Seller responded that they would check into other couriers, and found a less expensive option, and emailed me a shipping label. Package is currently awaiting courier pick-up.
I'm satisfied with the outcome of this. I could have just told the seller that ebay's dispute resolution had close the case and that I owed them nothing more, and then done with the jacket whatever, I guess try to sell it as-is for whatever extra I could get for it, but I saw no reason to do that to the seller. Seller was quite agreeable to deal with apart from the initial statement that they don't accept returns on international purchases. I still don't understand what caused them to believe that I wasn't located in the USA, but after it came to light that I was, they never brought that up again, and were quite pleasant about everything, calming down immediately when I explained to them that I hadn't escalated the case and was still willing to return the item to them. I treated the seller as I would have hoped to be treated if the situation was reversed.
It's pretty bizarre how ebay (mis-)handled the return case, and I don't understand why they were not able to generate the shipping label. As a seller, it makes me feel less secure to trust ebay as a platform to sell anything, particularly on an international basis. As a buyer, I was initially happy with how easy it was to get my money back, but I wish that ebay had done the right thing and handled my question about generating the return shipping label in a more appropriate way.
You did the decent thing and hopefully Karma will come around, but boy oh boy that jacket was a headache. I’ve been caught out by sellers folding garments to hide defects in the eBay photos. I won’t ship international now after I had a couple of attempts to scam me & insist on tracking and signatures as a vendor. In fact I’m about to put a couple of items on in a minute.