What would you do with this Ebay customer?

[MuffD]

I sold him a brand new printer and he seems to be having problems. This is the email I received from him. Please keep in mind I paid $129.00 for the printer and he bought it from me for $305.00

I don?t know if you can help with this problem or not. I don?t think that it?s really your issue, but here it is:



The Dell 3100 CN printer wrinkles envelopes very badly. So does the one that I have at home, but I never print envelopes at home?the quality of the color printed envelopes from my office, however, does matter.



I have been around and around with Dell on this matter, finally writing them a letter, which did get some positive response. They have finally acknowledged that this model does have a problem wrinkling envelopes, and are willing to refund my money.

BUT? since I am not the original purchaser, they will only refund the original purchase price. I also have here at my office a second 3100 CN that they sent to try to address the wrinkling problem. It works just as bad as the first one.

Dell is willing to refund the original purchase price, plus shipping, plus the service contract price.

Would you be willing to take this printer back and refund my purchase price to me?

I am not going to ship either printer back until I get satisfaction from Dell one way or another. I have tried for several hours to resolve this matter with Dell, and at long last I have found a party who will admit that they cannot make this printer work without wrinkling envelopes.

Email from Dell:

As per our phone conversation I have agreed to try to find a way to refund to you what Dell was paid for the printer. This amount would be $129.00. You were going to contact the E-Bay seller to see if they would work with you. Please stay in contact with me. I want to help you resolve this in anyway I can.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[shilala]

Wow, that's awesome service from Dell.
I'm impressed (and surprised).

 

[Cheezeit]

You made a hell of a profit there.

But if I were you, just cause of my values and morals, I would just ship it back to dell and refund the guy. He asked politely and seems like a honest guy.

 

[D1gger]

If you value your customer service reputation, take back the printer and give him a full refund. Then you can decide if you want to resell it to another customer, or get your money back from Dell.

 

[thecrecarc]

u made a gasint profit... how did u do it?

i would just refund 75$ and call it even.

 

[Kelvrick]

That sounds like a crappy printer. I'd take it back, but if he'd cover the shipping. Or get Dell to somehow cover the shipping.

 

[MuffD]

I am willing to take this back but only if he can get Dell to send back a new one. We have been emailing back forth since I first posted this and he now has a refurbed unit.

thoughts?

 

[cavemanmoron]

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
That sounds like a crappy printer. I'd take it back, but if he'd cover the shipping. Or get Dell to somehow cover the shipping.

 

[handoverfist]

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
That sounds like a crappy printer. I'd take it back, but if he'd cover the shipping. Or get Dell to somehow cover the shipping.

Well dexmark printers are crappy... good luck OP

 

[Baked]

/em wishes he can con as good as the OP. OP, you're my hero of the day.

 

[thehstrybean]

*writes printer down as one not to buy*

 

[MuffD]

Originally posted by: Baked
/em wishes he can con as good as the OP. OP, you're my hero of the day.

How did i con? I bought these printers for about $129.0 and they all happened to sell for about 300-350 just because that's what the going rate was.

 

[MuffD]

So I've been emailing with this guy back and forth. He's trying to compare this transaction to Home Depot. I told him, it's like when you buy something at Best Buy or Circuit City. You have usually around 15-30 days to return a defective item. In this case, it has been 2 months already. Well beyond the return period. I told him also, if he had this item brand new and sealed or unopened, I could give him a complete refund but he now he has the original one and also a (I'm assuming) refurb unit from Dell.

Questions:
Would you give a complete refund?

Would you give a refund minus shipping and fees?

Do you think a paypal dispute can be sought after by the buyer?

Thanks again.

 

[kranky]

Everyone seems to be staying calm, so I would refund the full amount to the seller, and then get a refund from Dell. Clearly the printer has a problem with envelopes, and that's a critical issue for the buyer.

Yes, that means you lose out on the extra profit, but things don't always go the way we'd like. You'll still get a full refund from Dell.

 

[robphelan]

Originally posted by: D1gger
If you value your customer service reputation, take back the printer and give him a full refund. Then you can decide if you want to resell it to another customer, or get your money back from Dell.

 

[ahurtt]

Shoot him with a shotgun loaded with rock salt.

 

[DaWhim]

gotta be a real pain to deal with something like this. sh!t happens, good luck dealing with the buyer.

 

[Budmantom]

Originally posted by: MuffD
So I've been emailing with this guy back and forth. He's trying to compare this transaction to Home Depot. I told him, it's like when you buy something at Best Buy or Circuit City. You have usually around 15-30 days to return a defective item. In this case, it has been 2 months already. Well beyond the return period. I told him also, if he had this item brand new and sealed or unopened, I could give him a complete refund but he now he has the original one and also a (I'm assuming) refurb unit from Dell.

Questions:
Would you give a complete refund?

Would you give a refund minus shipping and fees?

Do you think a paypal dispute can be sought after by the buyer?

Thanks again.

Refund minus shipping and chop it up to the price of doing business.



Tom

 

[imported_KuJaX]

This is sad.....

The printer you sold the buyer works perfectly fine. It is the buyers own fault that he/she didn't do the research to find out it wrinkles envelopes. THIS IS NOT YOUR PROBLEM.

The people that say "refund the buyer" are people that obviously don't do eBay business. You don't need to have returning customers (nor would you ever if they even have a itzy bitzy problem like this). The buyer is responsible for not researching out the printer.

NOW, if the printer did infact have a problem before-hand, then it may be a little bit of a different story. Definately don't take a big hit for this. I can't believe your profit margin there. Although it really shrinks after eBay takes their percentage, paypal takes their percentage and shipping takes their percentage doesnt it?

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: KuJaX
This is sad.....

The printer you sold the buyer works perfectly fine. It is the buyers own fault that he/she didn't do the research to find out it wrinkles envelopes. THIS IS NOT YOUR PROBLEM.

The people that say "refund the buyer" are people that obviously don't do eBay business. You don't need to have returning customers (nor would you ever if they even have a itzy bitzy problem like this). The buyer is responsible for not researching out the printer.

NOW, if the printer did infact have a problem before-hand, then it may be a little bit of a different story. Definately don't take a big hit for this. I can't believe your profit margin there. Although it really shrinks after eBay takes their percentage, paypal takes their percentage and shipping takes their percentage doesnt it?

Let me know your Ebay name so I can make sure I never buy from you.

 

[step-dawg]

2 months? that's a long time. are you a reseller or otherwise run a business off ebay? cuz if this was just a one off thing, I wouldn't feel that it was my responsibility any longer. 2 months is a while and anything could have happened during that time.

 

[Syrch]

wow im impressed with dell on this one

 

[Bryophyte]

Did you advertise it as having a full warranty from the manufacturer? Did you advertise it as being good for printing envelopes? If so, he may have a good point in that it's understandable he might assume a warranty would cover *his* purchase price. Are they (Dell) willing to substitute a comparable model that won't have this problem?

2 months *is* a pretty long time for him to come up with this gripe if he uses it for a business regularly.

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: step-dawg
2 months? that's a long time. are you a reseller or otherwise run a business off ebay? cuz if this was just a one off thing, I wouldn't feel that it was my responsibility any longer. 2 months is a while and anything could have happened during that time.

This isn't the same as "it's broken". Dell knows it is defective and is willing to refund the full purchase price. Why should the ebay buyer get nothing?

I know it's not the ideal situation for the OP, but everyone getting their money back seems to be the fair solution. He'll lose the profit on the deal, but will be made whole. He still has the option for selling it again on ebay and maybe next time the buyer won't need to do envelopes and will love the printer.

 

[imported_KuJaX]

Originally posted by: kranky

Let me know your Ebay name so I can make sure I never buy from you.

Hilarious.. it wouldn't matter if you bought from me or not. There are millions of others browsing eBay that enjoy my 100% positive feedback.

Unless you are selling specialty items, eBay sellers don't need to have any customer service what-so-ever.

The OP in this situation sold a brand new item. It was the buyer's responsibility to do the research on the product and shop around and read reviews, etc. The OP is just the middle-man that gets the product to the buyer. I just know from personal experience how frustrating it is when you have a buyer that didn't do their homework. That is their own fault, and they should live with it. Tell the buyer to sell it on eBay.