Item damaged by buyer

[Anonymous]

I sold a pair of sunglasses recently. A month later the buyer is claiming that they are fake. The lenses have also been severely damaged while in their possession, blistering and bubbling.  I would of been happy to refund if they were in the same condition but they will be unsellable now. What can I do? 

[red_magpie]

Has the buyer opened a case under eBay's money back guarantee? If not, they need to open one, and eBay will automatically find in their favour.

In theory you can appeal, and refer to eBay's policy on the condition of returned items, see:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/member-behaviour-policies/condition-returned-items-policy?id=47...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/appeal-ebays-decision-return-missing-it...

In practice, eBay is almost certain to accept their claim that the sunglasses are fake, rather than yours that they were authentic and sold in good condition.

You may be lucky, but other sellers have told us that eBay's response to items being returned damaged, or even swapped for another one, was that as eBay didn't see the item either as received by the buyer or returned to the seller they are not in a position to verify who has the valid complaint, or "take sides". EBay's idea of not taking sides is to apply their defect policy in cases of doubt, and require the seller to refund the buyer.

The whole system is massively biased in favour of the buyer. EBay is unregulated, so there is no right to any independent appeal.

[Anonymous]

They have opened a case and I want to challenge it due to the damage.

[john1297576]

Has buyer opened a NOT AS DESCRIBED CASE,if so did you supply or ebay send a reply paid label.

If so on return you have very little choice but to refund, otherwise ebay will do it at your expense.

You can then report buyerv for abuse of the returns system, but if they are fake, then you should not have sold them and I doubt that ebay would agree to help if they found you were selling fakes. In fact it could lead to more problems for you.

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I’ve never sold fakes and never would. The sunglasses are authentic and I would of happily refunded them but there is extensive damage to the lenses now. They cannot be sold again until repaired. I think they’ve used something to clean them with and wrecked them.

Sent from my iPhone