Yesterday I received back the broken wheels I sent back to China. Sending them there with a tracking number was $114 since China Mail doesn't normally track items.

The company I bought them from closed their doors and so they were returned "Address Unknown".

A little while ago I called Ebay to see if I could get a return or a credit for that $114. As is usual, I kept getting cut off but finally got through to someone that actually knew what they were talking about.

If you buy from a US company that has an account with Ebay, and you are returning something, Ebay will issue a return address label and after a sufficient time issue you a refund usually from a seller's account. This is why if you sell things through Ebay it is something like 30-60 days before you can actually get your money out of them.

However, you DO NOT return anything without an Ebay issued return label. The way this works is that if you discover something wrong with your item within the 30-60 days you request a return label. They send a letter of inquiry to the foreign seller asking for a postage guarantee for the item so that they can issue a return label.

If the foreign seller does not respond in 3 days, you have to then wait one additional day at which time you can keep whatever the inadequate product is and Ebay issues you a full refund and you no longer have any obligations..

This is very difficult to find in the "help" items on Ebay but once explained it is completely fair and logical. I expected no return of my postage and didn't get it. But now I know that Ebay has a sensible policy for such cases and I won't repeat my error.

And writing this all out like this allows me to memorize it.