Bought a pr of wheels from an ebay bike shop but they’ve sent the wrong thing (clearly, incontrovertibly wrong)

No good to me and so I need a return/refund
Is there a “best” way to do this (never had the pleasure before)?

I see sellers often seem to ask buyers not to open a dispute if there’s anything wrong and to sort out direct instead. Is that a goer or do I risk losing protection by not following ebay procedure?

If you want to return them go through eBay. If you planned to keep them then going direct might get you some money back. Just raise a return through eBay. It’ll let print a postage label and you’ll have a full record. You don’t need to raise a dispute, just the return, but if that doesn’t work out for some reason you can still open a dispute, just keep an eye on the time scale

I see sellers often seem to ask buyers not to open a dispute if there’s anything wrong and to sort out direct instead. Is that a goer or do I risk losing protection by not following ebay procedure?

There’s a time limit on disputes IIRC so if they sort it quick, no problem. If they don’t sort it by the time limit then open a dispute just to be safe.
They should be able to send you a tracked postage label for the return.

Thanks both

They should be able to send you a tracked postage label for the return

Was wondering about that – what if they were to send me an “untracked” label? Can I insist?

Do everything through the returns process, its not like theyre going to receive 12 lashes from the cat o nine tails for a simple oversight, and it keeps everything on track should anything go amiss with the carrier.

I had an issue with some car headlights I’d bought on there and wanted to return. Tried to print off returns label but I could only see it was for Royal Mail ie smaller parcels.
Can you do one that you would use Parcel Force?
Tried asking on there and gave up, paid £20 🙄😳

Tried to print off returns label but I could only see it was for Royal Mail ie smaller parcels.

Royal Mail do parcels up to 20kg and 610mm Max dimension. How big were the headlights?

If the parcel label provided by eBay as part of the returns process isn’t signed for, you can pay the difference at the post office to upgrade it. I’ve done this a few times.

Raise a return request, and let them know via an ebay message.

It doesn’t matter if the return label is untracked, the whole beauty of getting the seller to buy the postage (either via ebay returns or directly) is that its their problem if it goes missing or gets damaged, you only have to box it sufficiently and hand it over.

I’ve repackaged stuff a couple of times, i.e. its arrived in a jiffy bag but squashed packaging would not be good form for resale so I boxed it up.

It doesn’t matter if the return label is untracked, the whole beauty of getting the seller to buy the postage (either via ebay returns or directly) is that its their problem if it goes missing or gets damaged, you only have to box it sufficiently and hand it over.

Yep. All eBay care about is proof of postage, not proof of delivery. The post office, or parcel drop place will give you a receipt

Have you actually contacted the seller, if so what are they saying?

Or is all this just whataboutery?