Buyer kept both the item and the refund – no seller protection and no clear response from eBay | Member To Member Support

flamingo1975 · 2025-10-23T10:52:51.943000Z

Hi everyone, I hope someone here can help or share similar experience, because I’m completely stuck, and eBay Customer Service keeps replying with the same copy-paste answers. I sold a set of electronic parts worth several thousand pounds, all clearly marked with unique MAC addresses and serial numbers. After a while, the buyer opened a return case claiming the items were “not as described.” However, the photos the buyer uploaded to eBay show completely different parts – different markings, different MAC addresses. They are not the same items that I sold and shipped. When I pointed this out and showed him the original auction photos, he immediately stopped responding and cut off all communication. The buyer never provided any details or address so that I could generate a return label. Even worse, eBay’s system gave me no option to create or upload a label manually. A few days later, eBay closed the case in the buyer’s favour and took the money from my account, even though the buyer never returned anything and still has all the items. Now I’m left with no goods and no money, while the buyer has both. On top of that, I’ve received messages from different eBay agents giving conflicting information – some said the case was on hold, others that it was already closed, and a few messages seemed to be about completely different users. Every response I got looked like a template, with no real attention to the facts I provided. So my question is simple: What can a seller do if a buyer uploads photos of different items, stops communicating, and eBay still automatically refunds them? Is there any real seller protection left, or has everything become a fully automated system with no human review? Any advice or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

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Buyer kept both the item and the refund – no seller protection and no clear response from eBay | Member To Member Support | eBay UK