Sorry, but with how hard it is to get solid answers on the phone with eBay, I am going to vent here. Maybe someone can enlighten me. I sold a car part. I thought it could be NOS. (meaning an old part, but never actually used) because it was so clean. I didn't know for sure. So in my title, I wrote NOS?? and in my description I wrote "could this be NOS?." I let the buyer decide. Someone bought it. A week after they recieved it I get a notice that he started a return. I have a no returns policy. However when people message me with actual issues I show grace and usually do the return. This person did not reach out. Just started a return and his note in the returns section literally read "This is not NOS ?" With a question mark too! I messaged him in messages. I messaged him in the returns / case cue. A total of three times politely asking what was up, what was wrong with it. He also had submitted a picture. The picture almost exactly matched a picture in my auction. So you cannot claim I did not show that part of the part clearly. I submitted my auction picture to the case cue to show this. Without any communication or understanding of what is wrong with the part, (like why is it not NOS, and why didn't you figure that out before bidding base on pics) I am not apt to offer a refund. So after I had sent the third message in the return cue, instead of saying "message sent" it went to a page saying I approved the return! And sent them a return postage. I kid you not it automatically approved it when I hit the paper airplane send button. So weird. I called eBay and finally talked with someone. They said I could not take it back. I said I never sent the approval. She ignored that and said don't worry, it's just a return. Not a refund. When you get it you can inspect it and if it matches the photos and description then you can file a case. (This I would find out is a lie. If you receive an item and it is not damaged or missing stuff, you PAY automatically.) So I recieved the item. I look into doing a case, talked with someone on the phone. They said I had to sign an affidavit. They emailed me one. I hung up. I looked at the affidavit. The only three options to check, that the box came back empty, that it is in different condition than when I sent it, or that an item of lesser of lower value came back. I called eBay back. I said this won't work, the part is fine, in fact it is AS PICTURED AND AS DESCRIBED but the buyer is just sending it back. The woman literally said to check the box that it came back in different condition. I said that would not be true. This is something I have to sign "under penalty of perjury" as it was written. She said yea but that is what you need to do. We have no other option. You check that and sign it and then you're protected. I said I cannot say that- it is isn't true. What if the seller sees that? She said he wouldn't. I said well maybe I can message the guy one more time and come to some sort of agreement. She said she would put my case on hold for 5 days so I could do what I need to do, but make sure to call them on the 5th day. Then I try to contact the guy one more time to be nice. No response. Next morning I get an email saying case closed in his favor. What?! What happened to 5 days? I tried to call eBay, but it only allowed me an email option to appeal. (no phone calls on the weekend?) So I sent an email explaining everythng. Tonight I get a very generic email (AI?) saying it was reviewed and also that since I received the item they automatically get a refund. No, I am sorry, but if a human being actually reviews the case it wouldn't be some weird AI generic email with a lot of flowery pleasantries. Someone may actually say, yea his picture was in your auction, where is his evidence this isn't what you say, he hasn't chimed in once to explain himself, so... Anyways, eBay should hire some actual case workers and actually do some work. Not use programs that look at boxes checked and tracking numbers and make decisions.
