Buyer claims wrong item sent to get free return?

[sea.n.van._60]

I sell some cables which are a common part of consumer equipment. I presume a percentage of customers are people trying to repair their own electronics and some of them clearly don't know what they're doing or care to take the time to find out exactly what cable they need so they just guess. I used to send these cables by ordinary Royal Mail Second Class. They're thin enough to go as a regular letter. Of everything I sell, they were the most common item to to go "missing in the post" and I was getting warnings off eBay about how many INR claims I was getting. Ebay's cookie-cutter messages say that items need to go tracked so I removed free postage from that listing and added a charge to send the items tracked, almost doubling the cost to buy a cable.

Now what happens when someone has bought the wrong cable? They just start a return claiming that the wrong cable was sent and eBay forces me to either refund or send the buyer a tracked postage label to return the cable which costs less than the cost of postage (and then refund).

I sent a message asking if the buyer would please send a photograph of the cable they've received but of course they're just ignoring me. Is this no-win situation? I'm now going to be forced to refund the buyer for the cable and the tracked delivery charge which is more than three times what the standard Second Class post cost.

[style_wise]

If you post from the account you're asking about, you will receive better advice.

Sellers get way too worked up about returns. They are not that big of a deal, and definitely not worth losing sleep over.

The Buyer has to upload a photograph when they open an IND Case, so you can check the Item there. There is no use trying to fight an IND Return. Personally I would not refund/part refund without a case being opened. Also I assume the Buyer is honest until proven otherwise (again for peace of mind, and to save valuable time).

If something had something with a high rate of returns, I would double-check that Item is worth selling on eBay. Then I would ask: Can I improve  my photos/description? I would also consider sealing the item with clear size/model on it. If a Buyer returns an opened/unsealed item you then have an easy to explain reason to refunding as little as 50%. At least on eBay UK they still protect Business Sellers' Feedback in these instances!