Fraudlent Return Attempt

[imperial_games]

The buyer has contacted me with images of a broken figurine. the pictures do not match the one we sent, clear differences in the painting, as they are hand painted i can only assume the buyer thought they would all be identical.

eBay options to report only give me options to return the item first, i do not want them to return the fake/already broken item

each is serialised and it will be easy to prove but the buyer won't provide a video.

Ebay have asked me to accept the return with promises of seller protection.

what should I do?

[john1297576]

Promise of seller protection should be taken with a pinch of salt.

If you do not deal with case, buyer can escalate and ebay takes over and will probably refund at your expense, no returned item, so no hope of complaining to ebay to prove not same item. You also get a defect.

If you accept return and refund, then you can attempt to report buyer, but do not expect anything to be done.

[tressygirl]

If a case for item not as described is opened, you will have to accept the case within 3 days.  Cases are all automated no point challenging it at that point.

If you want the item back,  pay for a fully tracked return postage,  and only refund through those case details,  when the item is back with you.  You will have 48 hours to do so.

Stick within those timelines,  and your seller performance will not be affected.

If you think the refund was unjustly granted,  and the buyer has abused eBay's 30 day MBG,  Money Back Guarantee policy,  you can appeal the decision.  I won't lie, it's not always easy,  and does favour the buyer in most cases. 

This explains the appeal process:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/appeal-outcome-case-seller?id=4369

@imperial_games 

[imperial_games]

As a follow-up, Ebay have told me to accept the return, and they will refund them out of their funds, not mine, but I am pleaded with them that they did not let the user get away with it.

The buyer, however, hasn't responded since I asked for a video, I think they might have realised there is a serial number on the base, so hopefully, they just close the fraudulent claim.

This is why we video all figurines before dispatch!