What support do Ebay give sellers who feel they have been scammed, none as far as i can see,

[billboardmusic]

A buyer bought a 5 disc rare DVD set after payment asked me to pack well as he had bought 4 of these before and they were all damaged.

item arrived he left positive feedback, a week later he claimed one of the DVD's was cracked and wished to return he then started the return process which is automatic, despite calls and messages to Ebay I'm left with no option but to refund him.

I believe he either swapped the disc for one in the damaged sets he admitted buying or misused the disc

End result I have to accept a return which is now useless and am £35 down Thanks Ebay

[red_magpie]

am £35 down Thanks Ebay

Thank yourself lucky it wasn't £350, or even £3,500. Plenty of sellers have had to refund for high value items, even when buyers have returned something worthless instead of the item sent.

You accepted in the user agreement that when eBay couldn't determine that the item was as you described it, they will find in favour of the buyer. As they never even see the item, it's a no-brainer who they will support. It's almost impossible for the buyer to lose.

Every sale today is a gamble whether the buyer will abuse eBay's money back guarantee. EBay has become a very risky place for sellers.

[ducatimondo]

Definitely agree that eBay has become a risky place for sellers.
Over the years, I have had an empty plastic postage bag sent to me as a returned item, buyer had done that to get the tracking to show an item had been delivered. Difficult, but managed to fight that one as back then it shown the weight of the item on the Royal Mail label as being like 5 grams or something.
So they live and learn and get smarter unfortunately.
Recently had one where we sold some motorcycle brake pads and were "returned" as INAD as we have the pleasure of paying for the return label. What arrived took us by surprise and we have seen a lot, we received some used broken wall tiles as their weight and packing profile would be very similar to the brake pads we sold. That is unwinnable, as it is your word against the buyers and they always side with the buyers.
If you are lucky enough, you can sometimes find a small detail to help you fight your corner, but usually you will just have to give in a let it go as the majority are unwinnable.

Do you have the possibility to offer a partial refund and the buyer keeps the item in the return case?
Might be worth considering and see if they go for it with offering 20% back or something, for 1 out of 5 discs "damaged", as at least then you might have a chance of saving some hassle and offsetting the return postage costs against the partial refund. You wouldn't be winning or even feeling like you were, but sometimes damage limitation is the better way of looking at it, especially when you won't win any way you try it.