I have been trying to pinpoint a problem with refunds that appear out of no where by customers that have not contacted me over being dissatisfied with their purchase. Now usually when a customer isn't happy they contact me and I either help them resolve the issue or I give them a refund and I'm okay with this practice.

The thing I'm not okay with is when a buyer makes purchases of multiple files from several different sellers, and then has problem with a single file from a seller other than myself and they either contact tradebit for a refund, do a reversal on paypal, or possibly contact the seller that sold them the bad file and start a refund.

What ends up happening is that not only are they refunded for the file that they originally had a problem with but they are also refunded for files purchased from other sellers that had nothing to do with the issue that initiated the refund. I am assuming this happens because everything that was purchased in the shopping cart is refunded and file purchases are refunded on a per file basis.

I have suspected this for a couple months and have contacted every buyer that mysteriously was refunded (without asking for it from me) to find out the circumstances of their refund as far as which file was problematic, if there were other sellers on their purchase, and who they requested the refund from.

I don't know if this is a bug or just an unfortunate shopping cart flaw. Unfortunately sellers are now giving away files for free because another seller in the shopping cart causes a refund for the entire shopping cart order.

I hope I have explained the situation thoroughly and I wouldn't bring it up if I didn't investigate this myself first. How can we fix this?

Update: Just heard back from a customer that was one of these mystery refunds. His order was $17.00, he was refunded $1.50 for some bad files from another seller, but everything he purchased from me in that order was refunded from my account (which was $2.49). So the refund was individually by file on the buyers end but I loss money for being part of the shopping cart and don't profit on the files that I sold because my sales where refunded (but not to the buyer).

The buyer isn't getting refunded for the files he purchased from me but the refund is still going against my account. How can this be?

I'm not trying to make any accusations (or get myself banned). I've been selling on tradebit for over 3 years and I just want to help make this a better marketplace for both buyers and sellers.

Respectfully,
Mark



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2010 11:24AM by marcos-eshop.

Very well written Mark. I notice from time to time refunds for my sales as well. If the customer didn't contact me first I will usually send them an email asking if they had a problem with the file, and why did they ask for the refund. I have had several that said they didn't ask for a refund of my sale. I always just assumed they were lying and didn't want me to figure out they bought the file and asked for a refund to get the file for free, knowing I couldn't prove anything. Maybe there is more to it though?

rideredmanuals Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Very well written Mark. I notice from time to time
> refunds for my sales as well. If the customer
> didn't contact me first I will usually send them
> an email asking if they had a problem with the
> file, and why did they ask for the refund. I have
> had several that said they didn't ask for a refund
> of my sale. I always just assumed they were lying
> and didn't want me to figure out they bought the
> file and asked for a refund to get the file for
> free, knowing I couldn't prove anything. Maybe
> there is more to it though?


Pretty much exactly the same for me. I go out of my way to help my buyers by hosting files on other sites (Send6, Rapidshare) when they can't download or have a problem. A few buyers do respond saying they haven't asked for a refund so will be interested to see what comes of this.

Hi folks, that shopping cart refund thing is indeed not very easy to handle. I will talk to Martin and see if we can split up the refund to the single item in basket. Much easier so for credit card payments, which we have full control over. Give me until Monday afternoon to give you statements for that and the payout process!

ralf

Ralf,

As always thank you for your prompt and courteous response.

Do you mind if I send you an email? Just wanted to bounce something off of you related to this matter that doesn't need to be discussed in the open.

Thanks,
Mark

mark: you can always send me requests and private details via email to puzzler(at)tradebit.com and I can also give you my skype-in number or skype account directly to discuss problems face-to-face...

ralf

Thanks, I'm going to drop you line in a second.

Mark

Just talked to Martin: it is more complex than one would think - we estimate around 4 days of coding and testing... will try to squeeze it in before Christmas!

Just for your information, I'm still getting hit with reversals because of refunds that occur in the same purchase order that I was in, even when it isn't my file that caused the refund (another sellers file was the reason refund was initiated).

I'm hoping that this will be resolved soon, because myself and others are losing money from being bundled with other sellers that have refunds against them and cause refunds against what should be non-affected sellers.

Mark

This topic has finally been solved! Partial refunds can now be done, registered, assigned, etc. by our support team!