offerOtherSolution

This call allows a seller to offer an alternative solution to a buyer in order to resolve an Item Not Received or Significantly Not As Described eBay Buyer Protection case.

Note: Although UK and DE buyers are able to initiate returns for a refund (if returns are accepted for the listing) in the Resolution Center, and the 'RETURN' case type is returned (when applicable) in the getUserCases and getEBPCaseDetails calls, offerOtherSolution cannot be used by UK or DE sellers for the 'RETURN' case type.

Request Details

In the offerOtherSolution request, the seller must provide the case ID and the case type (EBP_INR or EBP_SNAD) for the case, and a customized message for the buyer stating one or more possible solutions for resolving the case. The buyer will be able to view this message in the Resolution Center, and then act accordingly. If the caseId.id and caseId.type values don't match, the request is processed (if caseId.id is valid) but a warning message is returned.

If not already known, the case ID for an eBay Buyer Protection case can be retrieved with a call to getUserCases. If you make this call, use EBP_INR and/or EBP_SNAD case type filters to restrict results to Item Not Received and/or Significantly Not As cases. To get more detailed information on an eBay Buyer Protection case, you will want to call getEBPCaseDetail, using the same case ID in the request.

Working with the Response

The response for offerOtherSolution includes the standard fields for a successful call, which are timestamp and version. If applicable, errors and/or warnings may be returned in an errorMessage container.

offerOtherSolution Input

The box below lists all fields that could be included in the call request. To learn more about an individual field or its type, click its name in the box (or scroll down to find it in the table below the box).

offerOtherSolution Output

The box below lists all fields that might be returned in the response. To learn more about an individual field or its type, click its name in the box (or scroll down to find it in the table below the box).

See also Samples.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<offerOtherSolutionResponse xmlns="http://www.ebay.com/marketplace/resolution/v1/services">
  <!-- (No call-specific Output fields) -->

  <!-- Standard Output Fields -->
  <ack> AckValue </ack>
  <errorMessage> ErrorMessage
    <error> ErrorData
      <category> ErrorCategory </category>
      <domain> string </domain>
      <errorId> long </errorId>
      <exceptionId> token </exceptionId>
      <message> string </message>
      <parameter name="string"> ErrorParameter (string) </parameter>
      <!-- ... more parameter values allowed here ... -->
      <severity> ErrorSeverity </severity>
      <subdomain> string </subdomain>
    </error>
    <!-- ... more error nodes allowed here ... -->
  </errorMessage>
  <timestamp> dateTime </timestamp>
  <version> string </version>
</offerOtherSolutionResponse>

Return Value	Type	Occurrence	Meaning

(No call-specific fields)

Standard Output Fields

ack	AckValue	Always	Applicable values: • Failure eBay encountered a fatal error during the processing of the request, causing the request to fail. When a serious application-level error occurs, the error is returned instead of the business data. • PartialFailure eBay successfully processed the request, but one or more non-fatal errors occurred during the processing. Inspect the message details and resolve any problems before resubmitting the request. • Success eBay successfully processed the request and the business data is returned in the response. Note that it is possible for a response to return Success, but still not contain the expected data in the result. • Warning The request that triggered the error was processed successfully but with one or more warnings.
errorMessage	ErrorMessage	Conditionally	Information for an error or warning that occurred when eBay processed the request. This field is not returned if the ack value is Success.
errorMessage.error	ErrorData	Conditionally, repeatable: [0..*]	Details about a single error.
errorMessage.error.category	ErrorCategory	Conditionally	There are three categories of errors: request errors, application errors, and system errors. Applicable values: • Application An error occurred due to a problem with the request, with the most likely source being the application sending the request. For example, the request is missing a required data element or it contains an invalid field. The problem must be corrected before the request can be resent. Inspect the error message to find the cause of the problem. If the problem is due to an application error, modify the application and resend the request. If the error is due to invalid data, the source of the data must be corrected before you resend the resend request to eBay. • Request An error occurred due to a problem with the request, with the most likely source being missing or invalid data in the request. The problem must be corrected before the request can be retried. Inspect the error message to find the cause of the problem. If the problem is a result of end-user data, alert the end-user to the problem and provide the means for them to correct the problem. Once the problem is resolved, resend the request to eBay. • System Indicates that an error has occurred on the eBay system side. For example, a database or server could be down. Inspect the error message to find the cause of the problem. If the problem is on the eBay side, an application can retry the request a reasonable number of times (eBay recommends twice). If the error persists, contact Developer Technical Support. Once the problem has been resolved, the request may be resent in its original form.
errorMessage.error.domain	string	Conditionally	Name of the domain in which the error occurred.
errorMessage.error.errorId	long	Conditionally	A unique code that identifies the particular error condition that occurred. Your application can use error codes as identifiers in your customized error-handling algorithms.
errorMessage.error.exceptionId	token	Conditionally	Unique identifier for an exception associated with an error.
errorMessage.error.message	string	Conditionally	A detailed description of the condition that caused the error.
errorMessage.error.parameter	ErrorParameter (string)	Conditionally, repeatable: [0..*]	Various warning and error messages return one or more variables that contain contextual information about the error. This is often the field or value that triggered the error.
errorMessage.error.parameter [ attribute name ]	string	Conditionally	The name of the input parameter returned with the error. Inspecting the parameter (or its input value) will often aid in understanding the cause of the error. Not all error messages contain this value.
errorMessage.error.severity	ErrorSeverity	Conditionally	Indicates whether the reported problem is fatal (an error) or is less- severe (a warning). Review the error message details for information on the cause. If the request fails and the application is the source of the error (for example, a required element is missing), update the application before you retry the request. If the problem is due to incorrect user data, alert the end-user to the problem and provide the means for them to correct the data. Once the problem in the application or data is resolved, re-send the request to eBay. If the source of the problem is on eBay's side, you can retry the request a reasonable number of times (eBay recommends you try the request twice). If the error persists, contact Developer Technical Support. Once the problem has been resolved, you can resend the request in its original form. If a warning occurs, warning information is returned in addition to the business data. Normally, you do not need to resend the request (as the original request was successful). However, depending on the cause of the warning, you might need to contact the end user, or eBay, to effect a long term solution to the problem. Applicable values: • Error eBay encountered a fatal error during the processing of the request, causing the request to fail. When eBay encounters an error, it returns error data instead of the requested business data. Inspect the error details and resolve the problem before resubmitting the request. • Warning The request was successfully processed, but eBay encountered a non-fatal error during the processing that could affect the data returned. For example, eBay might have changed the value of an input field. In this case, eBay returns a successful response, but it also returns a warning. For best results, requests should return without warnings. Inspect the warning details and resolve the problem before resubmitting the request.
errorMessage.error.subdomain	string	Conditionally	Name of the subdomain in which the error occurred.
timestamp	dateTime	Always	This value represents the date and time when eBay processed the request. The time zone of this value is GMT and the format is the ISO 8601 date and time format (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.SSSZ). See Time Values in the eBay Web Services guide for information about this time format and converting to and from the GMT time zone.
version	string	Always	The version of the response payload schema. Indicates the version of the schema that eBay used to process the request.

offerOtherSolution Samples

New to making API calls? Please see Making an API Call.

Note: Some data in these samples might no longer be active. If necessary, you can substitute current data in your requests.

Sample: Basic Call

This call is used by seller to offer another solution to the buyer that will help settle the open case.

Description

This offerOtherSolution call sample offers a customized solution to the buyer to help settle an open Significantly Not As Described case.

This call will fail if an invalid case ID is passed in. If the case ID does not match the case type that is passed in, a warning message will be returned in the request, but the call will succeed (if case ID is valid). The caller must be authenticated to make this call. The seller passes in a customized message in the required messageToBuyer field.

Input

A seller wants to offer another solution to the buyer to help resolve an open Significantly Not As Described case. The case ID is 5000227686. 'EBP_SNAD' is passed in as the caseId.type value. Through the messageToBuyer field, the seller is proposing the solution of sending a replacement item to the buyer.

XML format (HTTP POST). Also available are the .txt version of this XML and the SOAP equivalent.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<offerOtherSolutionRequest  xmlns:"http://www.ebay.com/marketplace/resolution/v1/services">
   <RequesterCredentials>
        <eBayAuthToken>ABC...123</eBayAuthToken>
   </RequesterCredentials>
   <caseId>
      <id>5000227686</id>
      <type>EBP_SNAD</type>
   </caseId>
   <messageToBuyer>If you return SNAD item, I'll send replacement item</messageToBuyer>
</offerOtherSolutionRequest>

Output

The seller's customized solution offer for case 5000227686 is successful as indicated by the Success value in the ack field.

XML format. Also available are the .txt version of this XML and the SOAP equivalent.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<offerOtherSolutionResponse xmlns:"http://www.ebay.com/marketplace/resolution/v1/services">
   <ack>Success</ack>
   <version>1.2.0</version>
   <timestamp>2011-02-09T19:05:38.476Z</timestamp>
</offerOtherSolutionResponse>

offerOtherSolution Change History

Version	Description
1.2.0 2011-02-16	(added) New call.

User-Contributed Notes

caseId	CaseIdType	Required	This container is used to identify a specific eBay Buyer Protection case opened by a buyer in the eBay Resolution Center.
caseId.id	string	Required	Unique identifier of the case. The caseId.id value is required in the request of every call except getVersion. The caseId.id value for a case is always returned in the caseSummary container of the getUserCases and getEBPCaseDetail calls. Max length: 38.
messageToBuyer	token	Required	The seller writes a customized message in this field to the buyer suggesting one or more suggested solutions for resolving the eBay Buyer Protection case.

eBay Resolution Case Management API Call Reference Version 1.3.0