Buyer says watch ‘does not fit’

[fredley1234]

I recently sold a watch for £275, buyer even haggled me down and got it for a very very good price.

The watch came with full box and papers, warranty card and 3 extra links for the bracelet.

He has now opened a refund case of ‘does not fit’, I have messaged him to try and resolve and he has basically said he doesn’t know how to add the links in himself so the watch is to small for him and he wants to return. He accepts ‘trying’ to add the links in, so he has clearly been messing about with the watch and potentially caused damage or scratches. It was virtually flawless when sold.

I don’t want to accept the return, I’m concerned he’s trying to pull a fast one and the value of the watch on resale will be lower as a result. I also have a policy of not accepting returns.

I also however don’t want to lose the watch and have to refund him if he does escalate.

any advise?

[fredley1234]

Completely fair enough. This case the bracelet is quite distinctive and the links are very clearly the same links in the pictures.

RE fitting the links, it’s something I’d probably do in the future just to save any aggro.

[5216elisabeth]

I personally would be inclined to accept the return as it's a high value item, the buyer should pay the return costs.  If it arrives back damaged then you can 'report a problem' on the return case stating that the buyer returned the item damaged.  You may get some seller protection from eBay as a private seller but it's not guaranteed.  A slightly damaged watch will be worth more than no watch and no money either which is the risk you take by refusing the return even though you are perfectly entitled to refuse it.  If it was a low value item a buyer would be much more likely to accept they can't return it but @vinylscot makes a very valid point about the chargeback.  It depends very much on the buyers mentality.  A lot of buyers seem to think that the eBay MBG means they can return anything for any reason within the 30 days even though that's actually not the case where private sellers are concerned. 

Unless the buyer has a long history of filing chargebacks it is unlikely eBay would ban him for filing one.