Buyer says item is not as described, I disagree

[cncake89]

Buyer received my item, an iPhone on Saturday morning but waited until Monday evening to say she’s not happy with the phone as it has a big scratch on the screen. There definitely weren’t any scratches when it left me, the phone was described as being in excellent condition and I staff by that description. The photos listed when selling the phone show there aren’t any scratches and the phone was sent one week later.
I understand it’s my word against hers but if EBay force me to give a full refund and she returns the phone to me, I won’t be able to sell the phone again for the price she paid if it is scratched. Any advice on what to do please? She’s asking for a discount because I’ve lied at present which of course I’ve objected to and refused. Thank you 😊

[plpmr]

just because it might have some bearing -

you sold the phone twice on the same day via auction and via BIN and also stopped an auction as no longer available and cancelled all the bids - what is the story?

[rusticrye]

Most buyers aren't opening packages received for several days, to give the virus, if present, time to die. So your buyer not contacting you for a couple of days is not unusual. In any case, buyers have 30 days from the delivery estimate on the order in which to open an Ebay case.

How Ebay works, and why it has to work this way:

Ebay can have no idea what you actually sent, or what condition it was actually in when sent or received or received back, as they are  not present when sent or received or received back, so have no choice but to accept a buyer's word for it when they claim Not As Described, as per their Money Back Guarantee.  They cannot get into disputes between you and a buyer.  Only a judge can decide if a buyer is a liar or a scammer.

You agreed to comply with the MBG when you registered your account. If you dig your heels in and refuse to offer refund on return should the buyer open a case or return request, Ebay will either force you to pay for a returns label, or, more likely, they will force the refund without the need for return. You will also have a damaging defect slapped on your account for failing to comply.

This may sound unfair, but it's the fairest it can possibly be.  The MBG is a very good thing (although you may not think that at present) as it gives buyers the confidence to shop with you and every other Ebay seller.  Without it, you'd be lucky to sell anything at all. In fact, without it, Ebay would no longer exist.

You have to refund on receipt, and then report the buyer to Ebay for abusing the MBG by fraudulently claiming Not As Described (via the 'report' button on your ‘leave feedback’ page) if that is indeed what they have done. A few of those from different sellers, and their account will soon be toast. And add their Ebay ID to your Blocked Bidders List so they can’t darken your doorway again.

You can then deal with the buyer outside of Ebay as follows if you wish:

Send them a PayPal invoice to cover your losses, giving them 7 days to send cleared payment or you will be taking legal action and reporting them to Action Fraud (the police's online fraud unit).

If payment is not received within that timeframe, send them a 'before action' letter by Signed For post, giving them 7 days from receipt to make full and cleared payment, or you will report them to Action Fraud, and take them to Small Claims court to recover your money and all court and other costs.

If payment is still not received (unlikely, as this is generally enough to put the fear of god into small-time fraudsters), take them to Small Claims court if you wish.  Very easy to do, and the process can be started online.

@cncake89 

[red_magpie]

Buyer says item is not as described, I disagree

Unfortunately your disagreement will count for nothing if she uses eBay's money back guarantee.

EBay's policy, which you accepted in the user agreement, is that when they can't determine that the item was as described, they will support the buyer. As eBay never even sees the item, before or after delivery, they have no idea whether it was as described. As a result, buyers can claim any fault to get a full refund. No evidence is required.

If the buyer returns a completely different phone, don't count on eBay taking your word for that either.

EBay is a very risky place to sell things. Every sale is a gamble whether the buyer will abuse eBay's money back guarantee.

[m25jet]

Given that you mention that the buyer is asking for a discount I suspect that the buyer is making this whole thing up so as to try and get the phone for a cheaper price than she paid for it initially.  Don't give in to her demands - just say something along the lines of "I'm sorry to hear that you are unhappy with the phone you received.  Please open an Item Not As Described case so that I can issue you with an eBay returns label, and upon receipt of the phone I shall refund your money in full."  That way, if the buyer wants to keep the phone but is just trying to get a discount out of you then she may well end up thinking "Bugger - it didn't work!" and give up hassling you.  If she does not return the phone then do not issue the refund - the eBay returns label is a tracked label and eBay would be able to tell if the buyer had downloaded it by the time it had expired.  If the buyer fails to download the returns label by the time it expires and she doesn't return the phone then once the case times out she won't be able to open another one in relation to the same transaction.

In the event that the buyer does use the return label and sends the phone back check it over closely when you receive it back again to see whether it is indeed damaged or whether the buyer was just making up excuses to justify asking for a refund.  If it is damaged then check the serial number to see whether it matches that of the phone you sent out.  If the serial number doesn't match, or if it does but it appears that the buyer has deliberately damaged the phone to justify asking for a refund then report the buyer to eBay for abuse of the Money Back Guarantee so as to flag up her account.  If the buyer has a habit of doing this kind of thing then eBay may well restrict her use of the eBay Money Back Guarantee if they receive a lot of similar reports from other sellers as well as your own report, and in extreme cases buyers can sometimes end up with eBay closing their account and chucking them off of the site altogether.

Once you have received the phone back, and filed a report against the buyer if applicable, refund the buyer's money via eBay so that you don't end up picking up a refund-related defect.  You won't pick up a defect if you refund the buyer via eBay before she has the chance to escalate the case to eBay and force a refund, which would result in a defect.  You should also avoid issuing a refund via PayPal, as you would also pick up a refund-related defect if you issued a refund via PayPal rather than issuing the refund via eBay.

Whatever the final outcome of this matter, if you have not already done so make sure that you add the buyer's User ID to your Blocked Bidders List so that she cannot purchase anything else from you in the future and cause you any further problems.  In case you are unsure as to how to do this click on this link https://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/ebay/isapi.dlll?bidderblocklogin and a new page should appear on the screen with a big white box on it.  Add the buyer's User ID to that white box and then click on the blue "Submit" button beneath that white box.  Once you have done that the buyer in question will be blocked straightaway and will be unable to purchase anything else from you at any time in the future.

[john1297576]

DON'T give a Discount (a part refund). If she opens a Not As Described case you have no choice but to accept, provide a Reply Paid Label and get the phone back, then refund.

She wants a part refund on the strength of her claims, so make her return it. If it is that bad she would not want to keep it. It is a try on.

Do not argue otherwise ebay have a nasty habit of refunding without requiring a return and you would not get a refund of the selling fee either.

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

If your buyer opens a not as described case you would lose whatever you try to do.

Sounds like your buyer is trying to get a partial refund for a possible non fault but you wouldn't be able to prove it either way.

I guess it's up to you but phones are a huge scam magnet on any site.