Buyer returned item in altered (used) condition, wants a full refund, opened chargeback

[dustybutterflyvintage]

I sold a brand new "deadstock" vintage item of clothing & about 10 days ago the buyer returned it for the reason  "doesn't fit". When I received the item I could smell perfume through the packaging. I don't know for sure if she wore the item, but it was covered with lint & dirt as well as strong fragrance and is now in used condition, losing half it's value.

I kindly offered her a 50% refund, explaining the reason, and alternatively offered to ship the item back to her at my expense. She replied with 5 abusive messages, refused my offers, accused me of being a scammer & threatened to leave "tons" of bad reviews & have her lawyer friends sue me. This person is clearly mentally ill, so I decided to ignore her messages rather than engage in the nonsense.

Then I noticed she never uploaded tracking. Because of that eBay closed the return & she had to go to her bank to dispute the charge. (If it matters, yes, I'm kicking myself for sending her a message before checking the return status/tracking!!!)

Trying to communicate with her is pointless because she's really whacked out & beyond unreasonable. Today she sent more abusive messages, 3 so far.

Is there anything I can do to protect myself from this chargeback? The only evidence I can give is pics of the item, but the strong fragrance isn't going to show, and it's the main cause of the loss in value. Washing or treating the item to remove the fragrance would further reduce it's value, and fragrance can last for years, even decades on fabric even when washed or dry cleaned. So there's no way I can regain that full value.

[martin2001]

Just provide all the information including the statement about the fragrance. You can strengthen your case if you get your statement notarized. A little bit extra hassle but it shows that you are serious.

Don't accuse the buyer of anything (i.e. she is a scammer etc) or use bad language.  Indicate that you tried to resolve the the issue in a friendly manner (as you indicated above) but instead you got the abusive answers. This should also work in your favor.

[rebell45]

Well you can't legally keep the item and her money, and I don't think her bank will settle for a partial refund, so you may be stuck. All you can do is offer the information you have and offer to send the item back to her. 

[dustybutterflyvintage]

I was hoping to leverage the fact that she didn’t upload tracking for her return. Ebay has no record of it being sent or received.  Perhaps I confused her return for another, since I have sold multiples of this item (army surplus). Perhaps I never received her return. 

[subtle-beauty]

I am so sorry this happened to you. I think there's a lot of garbage buyers now and a lot of things are wrong with ebay's return policy as well. I also don't mean to be the bearer of bad news but most likely she will win the chargeback so your best bet is to get all the evidence you can and slam ebay with it. 

I had a customer steal a perfume from me with a chargeback and paypal nor ebay would do anything. He stated to his CC company that it was a "subscription service". It was a PERFUME and all the data was there, it was indisputable! Nonetheless, the chargeback went through and paypal nor ebay stepped in. Nice huh?  That's what I call respect for your seller... not!

[no_zero369]

@dustybutterflyvintage 

If you want evidence, perhaps you have a favorite dry cleaner you could employ to help out?  Pay them a small fee to get a written estimate to clean the item and remove the odors.  Perhaps they would be willing to state that in their opinion/experience the item looks to have been worn?  Also some "expert opinion" on whether the fragrance could be removed from this particular item or it is permanently damaged.  Something on a business document where the adjudicator can call the cleaner to verify the veracity of the document.

Might make some sense to have pictures of the same item as new and what it looks like after as part of the case file with the CC Chargeback.  You are trying to show wear and degradation.  Don't assume the wear is obvious from just the after pics.

Once this case is resolved I would use the "report buyer" function of eBay and include the abusive language emails as attachments.  Of course add them to your BBL too.

[johnrj1226]

The best  way to have  handled this buyer was  to  accept the return, refund the items less any shipping charges they may have paid , unless the listing offer free shipping.    This is OK because the return reason of "doesn't fit" is a remorse reason.   This is probably too late now as the buyer is "excited" now by your message exchange and you can't reasonable   prove  this items was dosed in a fragrances.

Not having a tracking number uploaded to the return doesn't mean any thing, if you opened a dispute w/eBay all they would need to do is upload  the tracking number to the your dispute case.

Certainly fragrances can be washed or dry cleaned out.  My wife a True Lone Star Lady to dress to the 9s, enjoys wearing fragrances and won't go outside to the mail box without hair done and full make-up on - I enjoy & appreciate it  - but none of clothing permeates her closet in the many decades we have been together.

In sellings sometimes you have to be nice & bite the bullet - I sold for 41  years.

[wastingtime101]

As a top rated seller you could have reported the buyer for returning the item in an altered state and issued a 50% refund through the return. No direct communication with the buyer necessary. It's too late for that now, though. You screwed up by letting the return time out and now you're stuck. You will lose the chargeback. Voluntarily refund and move on from it - or let the bank decide which will cost you an extra 20 bucks chargeback fee and a loss of your eBay fees when all is said and done.

[netwizz760]

Fully refund and block this buyer.  Unfortunately the item is probably valueless now unless it is something that has value used...  we know most things have about 1/3rd value used.

[dustybutterflyvintage]

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@johnrj1226 wrote:
Not having a tracking number uploaded to the return doesn't mean any thing, if you opened a dispute w/eBay all they would need to do is upload the tracking number to the your dispute case.

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There has to be proof that she sent the item back to me. So far I haven't seen any. AFAIK ebay doesn't  have the tracking number. And I've asked the buyer to send it to me but she hasn't replied. It's possible that she didn't save her receipt from the post office. If that's the case she has no proof that she sent it back to me, and neither does her bank.

[johnrj1226]

Anything is possible but at this point in time it is just speculation.  The  shipping label on the package you received the return would  tell you if there was a tracking number or not.  If shipped  by  USPS I feel confident a tracking number was on the label.  Unless this item could be shipped in a flat (1/4" thick max.) First Class envelope - all other USPS shipping services would have tracking.

[xpertcarpet74]

What return 

[wastingtime101]

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@dustybutterflyvintage wrote:

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@johnrj1226 wrote:
Not having a tracking number uploaded to the return doesn't mean any thing, if you opened a dispute w/eBay all they would need to do is upload the tracking number to the your dispute case.

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There has to be proof that she sent the item back to me. So far I haven't seen any. AFAIK ebay doesn't  have the tracking number. And I've asked the buyer to send it to me but she hasn't replied. It's possible that she didn't save her receipt from the post office. If that's the case she has no proof that she sent it back to me, and neither does her bank.

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You already confirmed through messages that you received the return - if she lost  her tracking number the buyer can use your message as proof. Unless she's worn out her privileges with them, the bank/credit card will take that message as proof. You should have refunded the 50% and reported her when you had the chance.

[kh-shakhib]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.