Shipping damage, order refunded to buyer

[steveorrenee]

I sold a set of antique plates, cups, saucers, and shipped them in a USPS Priority box. I have never had an issue with this method before. The buyer received the order and half the plates, tea cups, were damaged. Ebay suggested I refund the buyer. This was a $10 sale with $20.50 shipping the buyer paid. I refunded the total of sale/shipping and the buyer kept half the order that was not damaged. Seems odd that I pay back 2.5 times my sale price, and don't get the dollar value of the nondamaged plates, or those pieces returned to me. I asked the buyer about the good plates with no response, and checked all the order information to see if I could click something to notify Ebay, and didn't see anything. Anybody seen this before?

[kathiec]

You're responsible for getting the purchase to the buyer in the condition it was advertised. There is no dispensation for "I've never had an issue with this method before". So there was no question that the buyer had to be refunded fully. However, if you wanted the undamaged items you could have sent the buyer a return label and refunded when you received them. That's the normal process when a buyer opens a not as described case. You can still send the buyer a label and request their return, but since you've already refunded there's no way to force the buyer to do so.

Since USPS Priority comes with $50 insurance you should ask the buyer for pictures of the damaged items as well as the packaging (if you haven't already gotten them). You can use those to file an insurance claim.