What is your policy on returns?

[Quesci]

I've never had anyone request to return an item before and am not sure how to handle it. A situation came up a while ago with someone who bought 19 golden idols and one faithstone (they look identical and because of the way I had stackable items in my bags, they ended up next to each other). I offered to trade back the faithstone for an idol but he decided to keep it. I gave him the 20th idol at cost (and struck up a deal for a better rate on quantities)

I sold an item on Quellious while I was at work today. I returned to find a tell from the buyer saying "I bought the bone bracelet of corruption thinking it was a waist item Will you refund the money I paid for the item back? Please" This is the first time I have ever been asked to refund the money flat out.

Do you guys ever refund items you sell? I am inclined to take it back--I think a good customer relationship is important and 6k is a lot for some people. But then I start to think about how it could be taken to an extreme. Maybe another merchant came on and is selling them for half my price? Or what if the player realized that they have a guild potter and bought the ingredients themselves and wants a refund?

[andyhre]

Reshelving Fee

Not that I would dare try this, but you need to charge a 15% reshelving fee. :twisted:

I would be inclined to take it back, but it is annoying as who knows if the time it was off the market you missed out on the real sale. You might note his name somewhere in case you catch him trying it again.

[cattywumpus]

If I'm on and someone wants a refund within a few minutes I'll be more than happy to oblige. If someone bought something by mistake I'm not going to make them eat their mistake. My prices are fair and I can always sell to someone else.

I don't give refunds after that short grace period. I don't bother to watch who buys my stuff. As you stated it would be too easy to get me to buy stuff that I didn't sell if I were more lenient.

[Aandaie]

Yeah, I kind of agree with the "right then" return policy if I'm even on the vendor.

Honestly, though, I have an alt that is only for being a vendor. All sales with it are final, it talks to no one, etc. For all practical purposes when I'm not paying attention to it I'm roleplaying an NPC VENDOR
So someone could be talking to it about buying something by mistake all day, nothing is going to come of it.

The NPC vendor me is not the player character me.

[splunge]

More than once ive bought back purchase errors on Gnomish tinkered armor or Tunare-only bows.
I dont think ive gotten a buy-back request on something that wasnt extremeley class/deity/race specific.

[Flea]

if it is something that someone bought and instantly replied sayin the got the wrong item i most of the time will ... but if i do a search in bazaar and see one that is for sale cheaper then what mine was i am hesitant .. because they may have just found that item as well ...

a lot of times i will just act like i don't wish to take a refund on an item and the person most all of the time will tell me to keep around 20% of the money ... if they say something like that then i will always do a return...

less it is like 6 months later..

hmm now that i think about it tho maybe i should charge rental on items i have loaned out to friends... that windblade sure could make some nice PP for tradeskilling... now to figure out how to get it from a ranger friends hands

[Sanna]

somehow this question came up betwixt Roomie and I. I don't recall actually having to make this decision, I think it was hypothetical.

Roomie, however, was adamant.

"Buyer Beware. If they bought it wrong, tough luck. I've bought things wrongly before, didn't pay attention to class or race or something. Unless it was a friend, or a guildie, or an utter noob willing to un-/anon to prove noobness, then no. They should learn to look better."

I recall thinking it was a bit harsh, but sullon can do that to people. Make em harsh, i mean.

Personally... a) I'm rarely not-afk when in /trader, so even if i were to refund money, it would probably be too much later to actually get ahold of the people. and b)... yeah, harsh tho it is, 'buyer beware'. We ARE as good as NPCs, tho maybe a little worse, b/c if you buy something wrongly from an NPC, you can at least sell it back for a less of a loss.

I guess it comes down to, 'how much do you like em? Not enough? no refund for joo.'

[Suva]

If my trader is on then I am usually afk and unable to do a return just then. If i happen to be there and notice it then I will do the refund if it seems an honest mistake. I have different armors on my trader and I have had people buy the wrong one and just exchange it them for the piece they actually wanted and refund/charge more pp if needed. If the item has been on my trader for a long time, I'm less likly to refund if I notice it since the item finally sold. But that also depends again on the item and how big a mistake it could be.

[Iannyen]

Buying an item called "Bone Bracelet" thinking its a waist item seems like a careless mistake to me, and I think a restocking fee would be appropriate. After all, had they done this with an NPC vendor, the NPC would pay them less than they paid for it. On the other hand, before they changed the names on all the HIE cultural armor, the Tunare versions and the Non-Imbued versions had the same name, and for that, I would happily buy the incorrect one back, and either collect or return the difference on what the buyer really meant to purchase.

[Calabar]

From a vendor perspective, I’d take it on a case-by-case basis. Yes, it could be a scam, but it could have been an honest mistake as well. All you can do is look at the situation when it happens and decide how to respond. As others have said, if my vendor is up I’m not sitting in front of my PC. So it’s a moot point for me. But should I be present for such a situation I’d tend to favor the buyer unless there was some reason not to.

From a buyer’s perspective, I’d never have thought to try to return an item. If I bought something I couldn’t use I’d slap myself on the head and count it as a learning experience. Then I’d place it on my vendor and try to sell it. We can now look at the stats of EVERYTHING we buy. If I can’t be bothered to make sure I’m buying the right item I have only myself to blame.

[Zeralenn]

My trader is on a second account and is usually unattended. I only ever had this come up once and I offered the refund immediately. Someone also did this for me once when I accidentally bought a couple bricks of enchanted brellium instead of enchanted adamantite.

...Zera

[Verdandi]

I'm in with everyone else, it seems. If they come back as soon as they find the error (within reason) I'll issue the refund no problem. I'm willing to be flexible as long as I think they're being honest and haven't benefited from having the item. Of course I'm usually selling things I've made and will always have available, rather than looted items. If it were something I didn't have more of to sell, I might be inclined to do a price check first and see if it was a case of cheaper available elsewhere. In that case I'd decide if the price they'd paid me was unreasonable and refund (or not) accordingly.

In once case I actually bought back armor that had been in use for a short while. The customer in question bought a bunch of cultural and then promptly had access to several much better pieces through his guild. I keep one of each of the more popular pieces in stock for sale, so as I sold a piece to other people I sent him a tell and bought his back for the price he'd paid. He seemed like a good guy so I didn't want to make him sit there and compete with me when barbarian cultural has as small of a market as it does. He kept his up for sale at the same time but didn't feel compelled to undercut me, knowing that he'd be free of his if mine sold first. He got rid of it and I kept the market intact, so we both won.

[Liwsa]

If I have a record of the transaction(it happened while in that trade session), if the person just bought it and i was there, or if I know the person(I have a 2nd account and a lot of folks I know buy from me not knowing it is me hehe) then I will do a full refund. If someone I do not know comes to me days later sorry no idea if you bought that from me.

[Saleani]

If you think the person is fooling you on the "I bought it from you...." line, you can check in your everquest folder for a file that starts BZRLOG (there will be a number corresponding to the server, and the name of your bazaar trader). It will include all the prices you set, and every person who browsed or bought from your trader. It can get very large.

I have never had someone ask for a refund. I would probably take it back if they did though. But that is me.

[Anhar]

My Policy

I don't offer refunds. The user is buying from a NPC vendor, which like any other merchant in Norrath is unforgiving. If you bought from Alisia Clothspinner, you couldn't return it for a full refund. You would have to take whatever she is offering for it. And saying that they made a mistake about a slot, or class/race/diety is bunk. They can always look at the item and see what slot, race, diety restrictions are on it.

The only thing that doesn't show (and I wish that Sony would fix this) is charges on a charged item. I once bought a mask with 5 charges of invisibility on it for 250pp, only to discover that the item was out of charges. I wanted to take it back, but since it was priced so much cheaper than the others in the bazaar at the time, then I felt I should have been more careful and asked about the charges before purchace. At least it has a good CHR modifier on it, so I can make up the 250pp in vendor differences.