Minor Ethical Dilemma

I have a minor ethical dilemma, wondering what the group consensus on how to deal with it is.

I ordered a record on Ebay. Minor luxury item. No urgency. Seller is a private individual, not a company. Item has been shipped but still has not arrived (due tomorrow). Running about two weeks late. Fault is entirely on the seller. Either dropped the ball himself, or entrusted his teenage son, who dropped the ball. He (apparently) did not realize the problem until I asked about it.

PayPal issued me a refund for what I paid. Not sure if this was initiated by the seller, or a default action by Ebay.

Once the record arrives, assuming it's in as-advertised condition, would you pay the seller? This was poor customer service, but I'm fine getting the item a bit late, and it is something of value. Does it deserve full price? Half or partial price (so that he at least does not take a loss on the transaction)? Or should I expect the seller to eat the loss as a cost-of-business for probably violating Ebay policies?

I would contact the seller:

"Hey, did you mean to refund that to me?  I got the record, didnt mind the wait, and would happily send you the money back"

See what they say then.

Id pay full, cause thats what i agreed to do. Keep my side of the street clean. If seller feels like he shouldn't take my money, he can send it back.

Yeah, I'd pay for it in full.  You were OK with the original price, it wasn't a time-sensitive need, and you're really not suffering any damage or loss for it being 2 weeks late (assuming it is physically as advertised when you get it).

Stuff happens.

I'd keep it, unless it was returned in error. If it was returned automatically due to seller not following eBay or PayPal policy, then the seller should have no claim to the funds. It is more likely that the seller initiated the return in order to avoid you leaving a negative feedback, as that would make selling items harder for him in the future. Or he refunded you because he realized he screwed up and wants to make it up to you.

Also, dollar amount is somewhat relevant. If it's a $5 record plus $5 shipping, no big deal either way. $500 record, I'd feel bad keeping all of the refund, even if he intentionally refunded it and would offer him a partial amount of at least half. Basically, he did not send the item when he should have, and you should be compensated fairly for the value of the delay, which is hard to determine a fair monetary value on. Dollar a day for delay in shipping seems fair to me, $50/day would be ridiculously high, and therefore I would only accept that if the seller refused to accept any payment from me.

People make mistakes. No need to berkeley the guy for dropping the ball. Pay the man. 

If one is offered, that's one thing, but I don't believe that imperfect service and minor inconveniences automatically warrant a discount to make it up to me. Simply acknowledging and remedying the mistake are generally sufficient for me. 

I'd verify whether or not the refund was initiated by the seller, and would offer to pay in full if it wasn't. The worst the seller deserves in this case is not leaving a review. But even then, as long as the seller was responsive to my concern and remedied it (got your items shipped out ASAP when the discrepancy was discovered) to the best of their ability, I think it may still even warrant a positive overall review.

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

I would contact the seller:

"Hey, did you mean to refund that to me?  I got the record, didnt mind the wait, and would happily send you the money back"

See what they say then.

This. I'd be pushing pretty hard to make sure the dude gets paid. Heck, he could've meant to refund someone else and now that other guy is super pissed he hasn't gotten money back.

In reply to 90BuickCentury :

$20 total. $15 record +$5 tax and shipping. Not a huge deal for me either way.

I will most likely resolve this by waiting for it to arrive, assessing the quality of the record, and contacting the seller to see what he meant to do and what he thinks is fair.

Were roles reversed and I were the seller, I would not expect full payment due to bad service. But I would want to recoup the cost to acquire and ship the record so it's not a loss. Getting this record at his cost would be a good deal for me, and I would be very happy with that. Realistically, That means paying $10-$15, and that money is kinda BFD for me.

But that would be me wanting to be sure the buyer is happy and assuming the worst on their level of chill. I figure I'm a lot more chill and understanding of things like this than the average person.

Sent the guy a message informing him of the situation. Put the ball in his court, asking him how he'd like to resolve the issue.

Well... I had an eBay shipment misplaced for a couple of months by the USPS. Eventually the seller asked for a refund, which was processed through eBay.  I had been in contact with them throughout and had tried to get some feedback from the USPS, but they basically blamed it on the pandemic.  I asked the seller to process the refund through eBay so at least I would get refunded the eBay fees that had already been charged to me. Since it was a $180 sale, the fees were somewhat substantial.  Fortunately, the buyer was understanding and said if it did show up, they would PP me the $$$.  A few weeks goes by and lo and behold, the USPS finds the package and sends it to the buyer. Fortunately, the buyer was true to his word and did PP me the money. 

So yes... If the item arrives after getting issued a refund, I'd PP him some $$.

Seller said he initiated the refund himself as apology and thanks for my being patient, polite, and cooperative.

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

I would contact the seller:

"Hey, did you mean to refund that to me?  I got the record, didnt mind the wait, and would happily send you the money back"

See what they say then.

This!

Beer Baron said:

Seller said he initiated the refund himself as apology and thanks for my being patient, polite, and cooperative.

I'd give him an A+ rating describing his customer service and move on. 

In reply to Toyman01 (Moderately Supportive Dude) :

I plan to. I won't give the detail of "Dude gave me a full refund!" lest someone less scrupulous tries to take advantage. But am thinking something along the lines of, "After a minor SNAFU, went above and beyond what is necessary to be sure I had a good experience."

Also looking through his shop to see if he's got anything else that I'd want to show him some more business.

In reply to Beer Baron :

Perfect. 

If the seller sent the record USPS, the problem may well be entirely caused by USPS. I recently had a 2 day priority parcel take over two weeks to get to me, and that really wasn't the seller's fault. They sent it the day after I paid for it and then it took over two weeks for the parcel to resurface in Delaware of all places.

You ate the steak, you pay the cook.

Contact the guy and tell of your frustration, but nothing is free.  You got what you paid for (pay the man) and he gets a crappy write up. (he pays).  He may learn from this, but don't boink the guy by stiffing him.  Tell him you're pissed and will tell your friends.

This is exactly how 2 adults handle a problem. Good on both of you. 

In reply to Appleseed :

Adults are pretty rare to find nowadays. I know I don't see very many on the daily.

I had a similar situation recently. Ordered an item from overseas, no big deal, not expecting to get it fast. But after more than a month, I did inquire to see if they had any info, since they hadn't supplied a tracking number. They asked me to be patient, because other deliveries had taken similar lengths of time in their recent experience. But the next day, eBay seemingly auto-refunded me because of some technicality. A week or so later, the item finally did arrive. I messaged the seller and asked them if I could send them the payment again. They gave me paypal info, but then that message was seemingly deleted and they sent another message saying they weren't allowed by ebay to give me that sort of info. But since I had an email copy of the deleted message, I still had their paypal info so I sent them the payment again anyway.

I have bought hundreds of things on ebay, and never once sold a thing, but I really hate how ebay screws sellers in their desire to cater to buyers sometimes.

...minor fly in the ointment for review. Record came, and it is not in the condition advertised.

I don't think this was malicious though. Just a guy who probably isn't a good judge of record quality. He still gets a positive review, but I'm deducting stars on item description.

Will probably temper my feedback so that others don't buy from him and get disappointed. I would be if I'd paid that price for a record in this condition. "Great service! Went above and beyond. Poor judge of record condition."

Beer Baron said:

...minor fly in the ointment for review. Record came, and it is not in the condition advertised.

I don't think this was malicious though. Just a guy who probably isn't a good judge of record quality. He still gets a positive review, but I'm deducting stars on item description.

Will probably temper my feedback so that others don't buy from him and get disappointed. I would be if I'd paid that price for a record in this condition. "Great service! Went above and beyond. Poor judge of record condition."

You're expecting a lot for a free record