Buyer openly admitted to breaking eBay terms of service, eBay still refuses to refund my money

[monogrvm]

So I sold a luxury item for $1,250 and the buyer receives it and opens a return case due to the item being damaged. The buyer sends pictures of an item that is not mine, then sends a picture of my item that is photoshopped with a rip on it. I am not an experienced seller at all, so i dont know how to handle it from here. eBay says i have no further actions as ive already submitted an appeal and they ruled in the buyers favor. multiple ebay employees telling me that i am in the right and the buyer broke terms of service by saying that he repaired the damaged item... yet i still got denied my refund. i am now out almost $300 USD in fees and shipping. PLEASE HELP!!!

Also, the buyer left me a nasty negative feedback. how can i get it removed? its my only negative feedback, and eBay wont let me leave the buyer anything but positive feedback.. what is going on!?

[ittybitnot]

what is going on!?

Your same scenario has been playing out just like this (buyer always prevails, seller is thrown under the bus) for many many years.  The only thing "new" about the situation now is that ebay has found a way to make money on the liar buyer crowd.  SNad returns, be they real or trumped up,  now count in the new seller metric that puts you closer and closer to final value fee punnishment camp with the 40% fee increase.  IF you offer any returns at all, you can no longer contest a phony SNAD claim.

So very sorry for your loss.  

[monogrvm]

Thats the thing, My listing specifically states i do not accept returns. So the buyer had to do all of these things to get his money back (breaking TOS in the process) and eBay still ignores it all

[threshold.sales.group]

Fwiw, right up front the c-s help you received was simply embarrassing.  Full stop. 

From what I'm gathering you do have the actual item back and the mystery "rip" is nowhere to be found, so that's great. Agree that the pictures of the "rip" were a joke and it appears you had scammer decide to no go through with the scam. You dodged a bullet.  Your $300 in final value fees will be fully refunded by eBay and since you have the original item back you should be whole other than the return shipping and small paypal fees. 

As you discovered there really is no seller protection. The bad news is that even if the buyer did send back that old ripped faded bag, you were going to have to issue a full refund.  Imo, that should be made crystal clear to folks so they know what to expect.  

[gryhndmom3]

I learned today as you already have that eBay will always believe the buyer ALWAYS. My buyer said the jeans I sold her were black and the photos clearly show indigo blue but eBay said sorry buyer says item not as described . And I also said no returns but too bad eBay says. Even CS admitted eBay takes buyer side in item not as described. Haven’t sold a lot on eBay but eventuallyknew I would get a bad Apple someday. This buyer also sells items so I can only hope it comes back to her in spades. Told CS I don’t know why eBay allows us sellers to say no returns when eBay will let a buyer return for whatever reason they say.

[everything-from-trinkets-to-treasures]

@g0yard wrote:

So I sold a luxury item for $1,250 and the buyer receives it and opens a return case due to the item being damaged. The buyer sends pictures of an item that is not mine, then sends a picture of my item that is photoshopped with a rip on it. I am not an experienced seller at all, so i dont know how to handle it from here. eBay says i have no further actions as ive already submitted an appeal and they ruled in the buyers favor. multiple ebay employees telling me that i am in the right and the buyer broke terms of service by saying that he repaired the damaged item... yet i still got denied my refund. i am now out almost $300 USD in fees and shipping. PLEASE HELP!!!

Also, the buyer left me a nasty negative feedback. how can i get it removed? its my only negative feedback, and eBay wont let me leave the buyer anything but positive feedback.. what is going on!?

All you can do is try to get to a supervisor or team leader and go from there and explain it all to them. Supervisors or team leaders do have the ability to change decisions and appeals if they are so moved to do so, which is rare. But you have nothing to lose. It make take several calls to accomplish this.

[sly_kitten2018]

@threshold.sales.group wrote:

Fwiw, right up front the c-s help you received was simply embarrassing.  Full stop. 

From what I'm gathering you do have the actual item back and the mystery "rip" is nowhere to be found, so that's great. Agree that the pictures of the "rip" were a joke and it appears you had scammer decide to no go through with the scam. You dodged a bullet.  Your $300 in final value fees will be fully refunded by eBay and since you have the original item back you should be whole other than the return shipping and small paypal fees. 

As you discovered there really is no seller protection. The bad news is that even if the buyer did send back that old ripped faded bag, you were going to have to issue a full refund.  Imo, that should be made crystal clear to folks so they know what to expect.  

I do not believe ebay is going to refund the final value fees because it appears the seller fought the return and lost.

[warmestflame]

Just call an Ebay rep and say something like,” I ran out of hot water while taking a shower today. Will you please remove their negative feedback?” Watch the magic happen. You’ll be at 100% again in no time.

[warmestflame]

If you stand behind your product and sell quality merchandise, you should accept returns.

[tenbigdogs]

Hi @monogrvm, https://community.ebay.com/t5/About-the-Community/Rules-of-Engagement/m-p/26164369?nobounce    Good luck!

[mam98031]

There is no such thing as a true No Return policy on Ebay.

The return policies options are as follows.

1. No Returns
2. 30 day returns w/ buyer pays shipping
3. 60 day returns w/ buyer pays shipping
4. 30 day returns w/ seller pays shipping
5. 60 day returns w/ seller pays shipping.

On the last two options above, they are also known as Free Returns.  I your seller has either of those policies, the seller will pay your return shipping even on a buyer's remorse return.  And the seller can withhold the original shipping value if it was separately stated on the listing [not free shipping] from your refund.  Also Seller’s offering options 4 or 5 have the ability to do partial refunds in certain cases if the item arrives back damaged, missing something or in a condition less than what it was sent to the buyer in.

On option number 1.  No Returns.  The seller can completely deny taking a return for a Buyer's Remorse Return Request.  Or if they want to they can accept your return and have you pay the return shipping.  If the seller so chooses they can withhold the original shipping if it was separately stated on the listing [not free shipping].

On options 2 & 3 the buyer is responsible for the return shipping on a Buyer's Remorse Rreturn.  Plus if the seller so chooses they can withhold the original shipping if it was separately stated on the listing [not free shipping].

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/handle-return-request-seller?id=4115

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2018-spring/simplified-returns.html#m17-1-tb1

[bigdeals.etc]

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@everything-from-trinkets-to-treasures wrote:

@g0yard wrote:

So I sold a luxury item for $1,250 and the buyer receives it and opens a return case due to the item being damaged. The buyer sends pictures of an item that is not mine, then sends a picture of my item that is photoshopped with a rip on it. I am not an experienced seller at all, so i dont know how to handle it from here. eBay says i have no further actions as ive already submitted an appeal and they ruled in the buyers favor. multiple ebay employees telling me that i am in the right and the buyer broke terms of service by saying that he repaired the damaged item... yet i still got denied my refund. i am now out almost $300 USD in fees and shipping. PLEASE HELP!!!

Also, the buyer left me a nasty negative feedback. how can i get it removed? its my only negative feedback, and eBay wont let me leave the buyer anything but positive feedback.. what is going on!?

All you can do is try to get to a supervisor or team leader and go from there and explain it all to them. Supervisors or team leaders do have the ability to change decisions and appeals if they are so moved to do so, which is rare. But you have nothing to lose. It make take several calls to accomplish this.

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What the OP said sounds about right... that's how eBay is now. But for 1200, I'd give it a shot and try to talk with an eBay higher up. Also someone else chime in here... does this merit a police report for fraud? If so, call and file one. Not sure what that would do though.

[monogrvm]

I don't know if this is mainly about returns policies... I have blatant proof that the buyer broke eBay's terms of service by stating they repaired the broken item before returning... that being their explanation as to why i received an item back with the rip being gone. So this is more a buyer breaking multiple TOS, ebay on the phone reading the messages back to me, confirming that yes, the buyer is breaking TOS.. and I am still left with almost $300 in shipping back and forth internationally, paypal and ebay fees.

[monogrvm]

quick update:
My manual review for appeal was denied the other day. I called back last night seeing what i can do, they tell me nothing. I begin to plead my case once again that there are ebay msgs stating the buyer fixed the item. Customer service states that since I accepted the return and received an item in the same condition theres nothing else to be done. I then tell him that I have a previous CS rep recorded telling me that even though the pictures the buyer provided weren't of the item i sold, i still have to accept the return and send the buyer a shipping label. Once he heard that, he stated he will put in for a SECOND manual review, and that I have to wait another 5-7 business days. At this point I just hope my youtube vid gets someones attention at eBay, because after seeing what already happened so far, im not too confident anything will change with this second review.

[b8uvs9e-0]

It is always best to offer some sort of a returns accepted policy.