Buyer returned wrong item

[gojig_88]

Hello. I am devastated that ebay has allowed a scammer to steal from me as a good standing seller. This person kept the cell phone that I sold to them for $600 (this was a new unused phone). They opened a claim saying the phone was defective and requested a return and refund (even though the listing said no returns) and they "returned" it back to me...however, the box that they returned did NOT contain the cell phone, but instead a cheap pair of shoes. Therefore, I was forced to refund the buyer without receiving the item. I filed an appeal, but ebay denied it. I do not understand how this is allowed? Any help with this would be appreciated!

[mega-ma-roo]

I am sorry this happened to you and wish you had come here before making the appeal to eBay. I don't know if there is even a way to make another appeal at this point.

The default decision by eBay will always be in favor of the buyer, that's just the way it is. It is very difficult for a seller to win an appeal unless they have overwhelming evidence to support the appeal. Simply saying that the buyer did not return your item is not good enough. That makes it a he said/I said situation and eBay always takes the buyer's word over the seller's.

In a case like yours, some sellers have been successful by filing a police report for fraud and also reporting the case to the postal authorities for mail fraud. Those reports can be submitted to eBay to support the seller's case and sometimes this works, sometimes not.

Should eBay still deny the appeal, the final option is to take eBay to arbitration or small claim court. I have not seen any reports on the outcome of these attempts (I imagine there is a non-disclosure clause involved), but it's worth a try. See the Legal Disputes section of the eBay User Agreement on the process used.
User Agreement | eBay

You can also contact the eBay for Business Team on Facebook to see if they have any thoughts on this.

You can reach them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/
You can also reach them on Twitter: https://twitter.com/askebay?lang=en

Good luck!