I've been dealing with the following situation for the past 3 months now and have no other options now besides requesting forum advice.
I sold an item of high value, and back in January the buyer filed for a return claiming the item was "defective". I initially tried to help the buyer with his purchase, given it was new and sealed when originally sent out, but no reply. I'm moderately aware of ebay policy, so I accepted the return. Instead of the original item, whose size and weight I have pictures/documentation of, I received a small box that weight next to nothing. Given the current COVID situation, the package was shoved in my mailbox and signed "Covid" instead of actually getting my signature.
I immediately reached out to ebay and the agent opened a claim, instructing me to obtain a police report. I planned to very soon, but the next day I was notified that a case had been escalated by the buyer, and subsequently closed in their favor (IN SECONDS!). Outraged I gave them another call, and was told my only option at this point was to appeal. Given I needed a little more time to gather all my information and obtain the police report, I opted not to create an appeal at that time. Before I could even get off the phone with this agent, I received an email saying an appeal was created for the case decision and closed in the buyer's favor. I SAID I DIDNT WANT TO APPEAL YET! They even violated their seller policy by not allowing me the full time period to respond to the case.
Since January it has been nonstop phone calls and complaints with ebay agents, some sympathetic some not. I have uploaded every document asked of me, filed and sent the police report, and signed an affidavit affirming i was not returned the item I originally sold. Twice now I've been told the case was sent to the "manual corrections department", but I haven't heard back from them in the given time frame. Every time an agent sends it up to a supervisor I get the same generic reply: "It looks like over 30 days have passed since our final decision. 30 days is the maximum amount of time allowed to resolve a case in the Resolution Center; then, after the case is closed, you have 30 more days to request an appeal. Because it's after this second 30-day time frame, we won't be able to accept your appeal. We understand that some situations can prevent a timely response, but please keep in mind that these time frames are for the benefit of both buyers and sellers. The 30-day limit on appeals allows us to be sure we're being consistent, and thus more fair, with all of our case decisions."
The buyer is of course not responding knowing what he's doing. The negligence of ebay is unbelievable and I could really use some help here.
