Does anyone have any experience with returning items that were not as described to private sellers on Amazon.com?

This happened to me with a book. It was not “like new” at all. It smelled of cigarette smoke and had been thumbed to about the halfway point, where I found a boarding pass with a name on it. The seller had purchased a large lot of books, had accepted the rating of her source, and had not inspected each one.

When I reported my dissatisfaction, the seller told me just to toss it and she would refund my money. I offered to return it, and she said it would cost more in postage than it was worth. She did not have another copy for sale. So I put it in the recycle box, accepted her refund check, and reordered the book from another vendor. I also gave the original seller top marks for handling complaints.

I would start by letting your seller know that the item is not as described. How they handle make-goods is part of what they get rated on, and ratings affect sales. If you have already done that (if his offer is part of his response and not a blanket policy stated up front), send him the item and ask him to cover your postage in his refund check.

If you don’t get satisfaction, complain to Amazon.

I am such a seller, and when I ship an item that turns out to be not as described, I ask the buyer to drop it in the mail in the original packaging with “Refused- Return to sender” on it. That way if anyone pays return postage I do. Once it arrives back I refund in full through Amazon. However, in some cases when a book is very inexpensive I simply refund the buyer.

I have very few returns for “not as described” because at the risk of being very slow I personally inspect everything as I list it. I have no control over the USPS, however, so if they destroy it (typically the PO sends me the empty packaging back) I refund the buyers money through Amazon.

I hesitate to refund by check because I prefer that all transactions be recorded by Amazon.

I read on Yahoo Answers that one can only write “Return to Sender” if the package is unopened, which is not the case here. I had to open it to inspect the quality of the item.

Technically that is true, but I have gotten items back as long as the package was not all torn up.