Buyer says items arrived broken.

Question

What do I do when a buyer sends me a picture of the item and itâ€™s all broken. It was packaged a box inside of a box with lots of tissue paper. Have no idea how it could have that many broken items. He said the box was not damaged on the outside. He didnâ€™t ask officially for a refund, but what do I do?

comics-scifi-collectibles · Answer

@christfen-0 I understand that this is frustrating. Tissue paper is not good packing material. You should use bubble wrap and peanuts. Peanuts to cushion the second box too for very fragile items.

If the buyer files a refund request you WILL lose the case. You can wait and see if they file the refund request and handle it from there OR proceed with these steps>

Contact your buyer and ask for pictures of the item, the packing material and the box. Ask the buyer to hold on to all items as the postal carrier may wish to see everything before they decide your insurance claim.
USPS is now REQUIRING buyers to bring the items to a local post office before they will pay on a claim.

Insurance claims are not paid for damage in shipping if the seller didn't package the item well enough.

Then you refund the buyer as soon as you have your pictures. The buyer doesn't wait for the insurance payout if any. Insurance is for the SELLER the buyer is covered by the eBay Money Back Guarantee. The seller files the insurance claim.

eBay shipping labels come with $100 insurance except for media mail.

Here's how to file insurance claims with each postal carrier or insurance provider>

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/shipping-items/shipping-insurance?id=4643&st=

Note that reshipping the item voids the insurance so don't have the buyer return the item if you plan on filing an insurance claim.

rfmtm · Answer

Carrier's toss packages like bowling balls and all should be packed to at least take a four foot fall onto concrete.

If you want the item back before refunding, have the buyer open a return request. Otherwise, you can try to make a claim with the carrier using those photos and ask buyer to hang onto everything for inspection if required. Likely your claim will initially be denied for insufficient packing, but you can appeal. Regardless you will still need to refund the buyer.

What type of item was it?