Return Received Fresh Air and not the item sold

[doctor.disc]

I have just had a **bleep**ty experience with a buyer with a feedback rating in the 1500's member since 2003

Although I am somewhat a new seller on eBay I have been on the platform since the early days 1996 as a buyer.

I recently sold a video game to a buyer the condition of the game was very good, I had good photos of the packaging, manuals, and game disc, which did not have a mark on them. for an item that was 15+ years old I could have described it as mint.

Seller received the item and after 4 days initiated a return saying the disc surface had scratching, they sent 6 pictures of a disc with light scratching that was hardly visible. And likly not the disc I sent them or if it was, damage had been sustained to it after they received it.  I contested the condition of disc but reluctantly accepted the return sending the buyer a return label. More then two weeks past and I received an envelope with fresh air in it but not the game sold or any game. I checked the seller’s feedback and he is a serial returner of items and likes to complain leave negative feedback with very unkind words. No negative feedback left for me currently.

Now the buyer has escalated, and eBay have sided with the buyer and refunded him without even allowing me to explain that the item was not sent back. They see the tracking as delivered and that is the end of that.

Clearly the buyer is a fraudulent Runt, we are not talking a lot of £’s and frankly the loss is not my priority. Stopping them repeating this however is.

That is the back story now my questions to the community are as follows:

1. Is it even worth me calling eBay? Will they log the incident? The focus for me is to get it on record that a fraud has been perpetrated.
2. Is there any set procedure I should follow? I have already banned the buyer from future auctions
3. Anyone else received fresh air as a return? Did you do anything about it?
4. Should I just take a chill pill and forget it – life is to short and Karma will catch up with them in the end 

Thanks for reading this far -  sorry for the rant 

[red_magpie]

You can appeal the decision, but very few appeals succeed.

EBay has explained to some sellers that as they never see the item at any stage they are "unable to take sides" as they can't tell who has the valid case. EBay's idea of not taking sides is to require the seller to refund the buyer! This is their default policy when they can't determined that an item was as described, and forms part of the user agreement.

This renders many of the reassurances that eBay gives sellers meaningless: for example that buyers must return items in the condition supplied, and that sellers can reduce the amount refunded if they don't. In reality, buyers can invent any fault to get a full refund. Many sellers have complained about being made to refund buyers who have returned items damaged, or even switched for another one

You can report the buyer for abusing eBay's money back guarantee. However, this is unlikely to achieve anything unless other sellers do the same.

You can read eBay's full money back guarantee policy here: http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/money-back-guarantee.html

[doctor.disc]

Many Thanks for your response, its sort of what I figured; my current thinking is to get this on the record

[arkwebus]

The problem is that for the amount in question there's probably not much point in doing much.   We certainly hear of sellers who do not get back what they send.  

You can contact eBay but they will simply say "we cannot see what was sent back". 

The chill pill is a good idea really.  Probably not on sale on eBay.  You have blocked the buyer which is good. 

EBay's view is that "it happens" and that you build it into your pricing.

@doctor.disc 

[doctor.disc]

Many Thanks for your response, I am still pretty annoyed. No one likes to be ripped off I guess