Wow, yet another heartbreaking buyer-fraud complaint to go along with the hundreds, and probably now many thousands, of others. Ebay's Seller Protection is not what it used to be in years past when the playing field was pretty level.
For all the sellers seeing this, especially newer ones with low feedback, which is a magnet for scammers:
NEVER, EVER sell online and ship a higher value item that your business model is not prepared to lose, along with your payment, on a forced refund that is way out of line with common sense.
Instead, use a more local venue like Craigslist, where the buyer has to go to the effort to meet with you, sees the item in person and asks any questions about it, accepts it as-is, pays with cash, and leaves a handshake... DONE! -- NO shipping scams, NO deceptive international freight forwarder can of worms, NO return hassles like a box of rocks, NO cc chargebacks to automatically lose, NO waste of lots of time and emotional energy just to end up losing, and NO hassles with an incompetent Customer-No-Service series of reps that will tell you anything just to get you off the phone - if you can even understand what they're saying. I have sold many higher-value large and small items on Craigslist or other local venues, from automobiles to jewelry, with zero hassles or scams pulled on me.
The deck is stacked against online sellers, especially where common sense enters the picture. Amazon is just as bad. It is your choice where your loss threshold is that dictates whether you take a chance on selling and shipping higher-value items online, or with a safer and more efficient local venue.
Cheers, Duffy
