Buyer falsely claimed that all the contents of the package were damaged

[abbott015]

I recently sold some glassware and received a message to ask if the picture (which was showing the box I had posted) was 'the item', and then went on to say they requested a return, as it was the only option, but would mean sending broken glass back, and went on to say they didn't want to open it as it sounded like a lot of it.

Naturally, I initially said I would look into this and send a refund. I looked into where I stood with regards to claiming compensation from the courier and asked the buyer to send pictures as requested by the courier, one being of the broken contents. After no response, I sent further messages to ask again and finally ended up asking again and informing them that I would report them to eBay for misusing the return policy. They did send some pictures, but the damage shown, was only of one broken item and not all of the contents. Had I been aware of this, I would only have offered a partial refund and not a full one, including the postage. 

I have reported this to eBay, but where do I stand in trying to recover some of the money that should have been paid, had I not been duped into making a full refund? Is this not fraud?

[tressygirl]

Nothing you can do through eBay now if a full refund was offered and only this can be when a case for item not as described is opened.

Was this a set of some glassware?  If only one item is broken this then still qualifies as item not as described as it is then not a set,  and all items must reach a  buyer in good order.

I do understand the reasoning behind a partial refund but this is only made when both buyer and seller are in agreement,  your buyer may not have wished for a part refund if the set is not complete.

Your fight now is with the courier used,  and hopefully they do cover glassware,  some do not.

@abbott015 

[abbott015]

It wasn't a set as such, just three storage jars. The buyer was asked to send pictures of all three broken items, and when they didn't it was obvious that they had falsely claimed that all of them were damaged. I had sent the full refund in good faith (how wrong I was!) that all of the items had been damaged, but then to find out only one was damaged was annoying (that is the polite version!).

There was an option for me to offer a partial refund, but as I was under the impression all were broken, I thought it was only fair to offer the full refund and take it up with the courier, but as the buyer was hesitant in sending any pictures whatsoever, it sent the alarm bells ringing that my thoughts were correct.

Although monetary wise it wasn't a massive amount, the fact it is effectively gaining products by deception, is what really needs to start happening for sellers to have some form of protection against such occurrences happening. People might think twice about doing it..... possibly!

[abbott015]

Update: The buyer has now come back to say they didn't open the package until the other day so now only found the one broken, and said they weren't sure what to do. So, I have contacted the customer help, and they advised to ask the buyer to settle this outside of eBay as the refund has already taken place, so I have sent the message to the buyer, to see what happens.

Hopefully, this will get resolved soon, but as I explained to the buyer, had they communicated in a more timely fashion and checked the parcel before making me believe the complete contents had been smashed, then it could have been resolved a lot quicker with an agreed partial refund.

This is the first time this has happened to me so it has been a learning curve all round with regards to sellers rights, and despite there being a deadline on the 'actions' that I needed to take, the eBay agent said that if there was any uncertainty regards the refund/return, I could have requested an extension, if needed, to get the necessary evidence required (which would have been the case in this matter, as the buyer was very slow in responding and sending photographic evidence as requested) 

I thought I would post this to let anyone else know, should they experience a similar event.... hopefully not.