Buyer wants a return/refund on an item, claiming that it's not as described

[benjra-1227]

A buyer won the auction on a mobile phone that I had for sale recently. The buyer had previously message me & asked about the condition of the phone which I replied that it was in good conditon; no scratches, dents, etc. (as per the listing). 

The buyer recieved the phone & left me positive feedbaack stating that it was "perfect" on the same day that it was delivered. The following day I recieved a return request & the buyer is claiming that their son hadn't examined the phone properly & that the screen is covered in scratches. They sent me photos/screenshots of the front of a phone as well as screenshots of the conversation I had with them & a similar conversation that they had with another seller for a similar phone. This is making me think that either their son has damaged the phone or that they have sent me photos of a different phone. I have looked on their account & they sell a lot of phones. When I asked for photos of all angles of the phone they replied saying  that it certainly is my phone & when I recieve it the IMEI number will match the phone shown in my listing.

I have asked ebay to step in & they are reviewing the report that I made for the buyer. 

Has anyone got any advice? Do I have any chance of ebay siding with me or will I have to refund the buyer & get a phone back that isn't in the condition that I sent it in?

[benjra-1227]

Another question- The money that I received off the buyer for the phone have been on hold in my paypal account since they paid for it. When I received the return request, the money disappeared completely. Is this normal, will I be able to use that money to issue a refund & if I win the case will the money be put back into my paypal account?

[m25jet]

If you win the case the hold on the money will be relinquished and the funds will be made available to you again. If you lose the case the buyer will be issued with a total refund. It's completely normal for the funds to be frozen when a case is opened in relation to a sold item - this is to prevent the seller from spending the money in case the matter is decided in the buyer's favour and the money needs to be refunded to the buyer.

[m25jet]

Unfortunately eBay are so heavily biased towards buyers that if the buyer escalates the case to eBay they'll just refund the money in full, the end result being that you'd end up with a defect on your account for not refunding the money voluntarily.  If the buyer leaves negative feedback after that then that would result in another defect on your account.  Therefore, the best option would be to reply to the buyer via the case and ask him to return the phone to you, stating that you will refund his money in full upon receipt of the phone.  Issue an eBay Returns Label via the case, but don't refund the money unless you get the phone back.  If you do get the phone back then refund the buyer's money and the eBay case will close automatically.  That way you can avoid eBay hitting you with a defect relating to a forced refund, although there's still a possibility that the buyer could leave you negative feedback and leave you with a defect that way.

If the buyer returns the phone and it is in exactly the same condition that it was in when you sent it to him then it's more likely to be a case of buyer's remorse and he was just trying to think of something that he thought would sound like a justifiable reason to return the phone to you, although if that is indeed the case then I don't know why he couldn't have just said "I've changed my mind - could I please return the phone for a refund?"  The only logical reason that I can think of for this is because the buyer would have had to pay the return postage for a change of mind return, whereas if he made allegations that the item was not as described you'd have no option but to pay for the return postage if you wanted the phone back again.

In the event that you end up getting a completely different phone returned to you that's in worse condition than the one you sent out, or if you receive something totally different, then report the buyer to eBay for abuse of the eBay Money Back Guarantee.  If you click on the Policies link at the bottom of this page then when the Policies page loads up scroll right down to the bottom of the page and you'll see an option there to report the buyer to eBay.  If the buyer does end up sending you something other than the phone you sent  out, or if he returns your phone in a damaged condition, then report the buyer to eBay, as that way eBay will more than likely start to watch his account more closely.  If this buyer is deliberately buying items and abusing the eBay Money Back Guarantee in order to get items for free then the more complaints against him he receives, the better the chances are that eBay will take action against him, whether that's restricting his use of the eBay Money Back Guarantee, or if he proves to be a repeat offender then eBay may even close his account down and chuck him off of the site for good.