Item falsely returned as defective and EBAY completely taken the side of buyer

[miffymadmum]

I don't sell on Ebay much but tried to sell some of my son's road cycle wheels. The buyer reported them as defective without even taking them out of packaging or putting on his cycle. They were returned and despite us detailing the situation and all the steps we had taken to help the buyer understand that they needed to be put on bike  - Ebay completely took the buyers side and refunded them without question. I'm so upset as we are now out of pocket with fees, postage costs and time spent packaging well and so forth. I want to complain to Ebay and appeal this but all the AI has closed case. Any help appreciated.

[btr.style]

eBay do not see or deal with the item being sold. None of their staff are involved with that process, it's you who sends it to the buyer. 

Therefore, as bad as it is, how can eBay take sides when it's your word against the buyers? They say it's defective, you say it isn't. How are eBay to know either way?

What swings it in the buyers favour is eBay's money back guarantee. The buyer gets the item advertised or they get their money back. So if they buyer is claiming it's defective, eBay just have to go with that as they never see or handle the item themselves. 

Probably they realised they weren't suitable or didn't need them after buying and decided to say they were defective to avoid having to pay for the return. 

[miffymadmum]

I understand your comments. It is a flawed system as the buyer can claim
it's defective, just because they have perhaps ordered incorrectly or
changed their mind and the wheels get put in motion by Ebay to cover
their back completely.

There was the option apparently of uploading evidence videos which the
buyer stated became impossible once he had instigated the return process. I
asked him to whatsapp us a vid but had no responses. I think what has taken
me aback is how utterly one sided it is - the buyer has all the power.

The automated response we've had from Ebay are so obviously AI generated
which adds to the joy