Buyer made false claim to force me to accept a return because they don't want They ordered

[adventures-in-early-learning]

Frustrated to no end with the new eBay right now. A buyer has made a false claim so I'm penalized. Buyer ordered. Listing included picture of what was included & all 4 titles were listed in my description. Buyer was sent exactly what was ordered, well packaged & shipped promptly. Never even contacted me. Package arrived Monday. Buyer opened return claim this evening stating "not as pictured or described", noting they do not want a holiday book & want to trade! They purchased a set of 4 titles by the same author, & there's nothing to trade for. Ebay says because they claimed "not as pictured or described" I have to accept the return by a certain date, & can not decline when I do not accept returns, & my funds are on hold until this is settled. I canceled all my listings yesterday because I will not be able to ship anything for about 2wks. I can't find a way to respond to eBay's messages, which say this will affect my stats even though I believe I've done nothing wrong. I messaged the buyer almost immediately upon receiving the message, but still got another message from eBay that my funds are on hold until settled. It appears to me that it won't be settled until I accept the return, refund the money, & pay for the buyer's return shipping! So why am I penalized & have to fork over more money than the buyer paid in the first place, when the buyer made a false claim??? I'm not a business, was just sell some of my unused teaching stuff to help pay bills. The only thing I could find to dispute this with eBay was to report the buyer for the false claim.  What do I do now, especially if the buyer won't communicate with me? TYIA

[*lady*madonna*]

You will have to approve the return, provide the return shipping label and issue the refund when you receive the item back. That's according to Ebay.

If you dispute it, Ebay will refund the buyer out of YOUR funds and let the buyer keep the item.

[adventures-in-early-learning]

So what good does reporting the buyer for making a false claim do besides hurt the seller even more? Why would anyone want to ever sell on eBay if the buyer is always right, even when lying to eBay, and the seller is always in the wrong so pays the price no matter what? Already reported buyer so I guess I am SOL. Guess I won't be relisting anything here, then. I will just stick with teaching.

[disneyshopper]

Buyers have learned to state an item is not as described to get free return shipping.  If you accept the return, it does NOT hurt the seller.  It only hurts the seller if you refuse and ebay has to step in and force the refund.  We have all had buyers that change their minds and want to return an item.  Thankfully, it doesn't happen very often.  That is why we continue selling on ebay.

[tdumonde2014]

Your buyer's behavior is not new, buyer's have been doing this for years. Accept the return and send them a return shipping label if you want your item back. Spend some time reading the boards, your concerns and questions have been addressed hundreds of times in the last year alone.