Buyer wants return because battery is missing due to postal regulations

[tech-x-world]

I sold an old PC motherboard several weeks ago. The buyer was from the UK and he asked me right after the purchase whether the accessories and the original box were included. I told him that neither the photos nor the description implied that any such thing would be included simply because I didn't have them.

It took several days for eBay/Paypal to clear the buyers payment and I threw in a bonus CPU. However, at the post office I was forced to remove the CMOS battery due to international restrictions. I explained this to the buyer in the 2 messages on the same day before the parcel could leave the country and he didn't protest.

Today, I saw on eBay that the buyer has requested the return due to missing CMOS battery.  My description did not explicitly promise that the CMOS battery would also be sent. I immediately offered $3 partial refund so he could buy the battery himself and he rejected. I suspect that the buyer is not being honest. Is there anything I can do so eBay can close the case my favor?

[tech-x-world]

Today I contacted again the US reps before the work hours would be over at the eBay HQ. When I asked for a supervisor, the rep said the they themselves would help me instead. So the key is to keep insisting. I insisted and I got someone named J.C. He was defending the buyer. I stopped talking with him because I saw no reason to argue with him because he was not accepting my arguments. On the second try, I got the same J.C. and I didn't even talk to him again.

On the final attempt, I got someone named E. He sounded nice, but really didn't want to do anything. He first advised to continue working with the buyer.  When I pointed out to him the messages sent on March 4, he said he understood my reasoning why the return should not be accepted. I made several attempt to explain my case, and he said he understood my logic. I told him that I had told if I made eBay supervisors aware that the buyer is making a false claim, eBay supervisors can close the case in seller's favor before the escalation. He responded: "That is not the case, I will have to make sure that information is made clear to my fellow members of leadership." He further stated that he understood that the buyer was being unreasonable, but they could not close this case in my favor and I could appeal once the item was in my possession. I protested  and he kept insisting that the buyer had opened a SNAD case and I was obliged to resolve the problem.  He also said that if the buyer escalated the claim, the human would review the case. 

[tech-x-world]

I tried to contact the UK reps on on the first round. The first UK rep was named J. and she conceded that she could not see the battery mentioned in the description, then transferred me to the UK account manager R.R. UK manager R.R. advised me to continue working with the buyer and referred to the eBay user agreement. When I protested whether this meant that the buyer could get away with false claims, he filed a report  on the buyer.

The second UK rep D. started to defend the buyer's point of view. The third UK rep A. started advising to accept the return and then forwarded me to the same manager I had previously spoken to. The fourth UK rep A. transferred me to manager M.Z. who started to defend the buyer.  The fifth UK rep M. told me that he could see that the case had already been explained to me today many times and I stopped talking to him. On the next try I again got the same M. 

The sixth UK rep A. started to explain to me that the buyers were entitled to return no matter what, then transferred to manager J.B. who explained to me how UK eBay policy was based on UK Trading Standard. when I asked her whether the battery was promised in the listing's description, She conceded that this was unfair to me, but she was bound by the policies and she was sorry that she could do nothing.

I tried to contact the US rep after a while. I got someone named M.R.K. She said that if this was buyers remorse case, I had the right not to accept the return and I could escalate the case. She also said that there was no battery mentioned in the description and the messages sent on March 4 proved that the buyer had been aware no battery would be included. I asked whether the case could be closed in my favor, she said not to worry, but the case needed to be escalated to be reviewed. She said "what we can assure is that it will be close on your favor as long as you have set up the proper expectation to your buyer." But she could not transfer me to the manager.

Then I got rep called A. While he was waiting for the supervisor to become available for about 29 minutes, he read the entire case and decided to shut down the case as a courtesy refund to the buyer, even though it had been rough case. When I asked what role messages sent on March 4 played, he responded: "Messages do not play into accepting a claim return or not.  Policy is to accept it regardless."

MORAL OF A STORY: Don't sell to the UK. If things go down, you will be obliged to accept the return no matter what due to the UK laws and refund the buyer.