Buyer says package was empty.

[jeffxxo]

Recently sold an IPhone 6, buyer opened a return request and says it arrived but package was empty and states that the postman marked it "received unsealed, received with out contents". I know it was slealed and overly taped. I opened a claim with USPS and I did have insurance. It seems with eBay you as a seller have no leg to stand on. My only option is to refund the buyer. I asked the buyer to send pictures of the opened package but they said they can only do it through text and would need a phone number. Do I have any options other than a refund, and hope to be refunded by USPS?

[chipper01work]

If the buyer is telling the truth you owe them a refund. 

[emerald40]

Call post office, give them tracking no and ask them if a notation was put on the package that the contents were missing.

Tell your buyer that he needs to keep all wrappings and packaging as well as the notice as a Postal Inspector will be contacting him so they can come out and see it.

If it is legit, you will get reimbursed because you have insurance.

If not, your buyer is committing mail fraud which hopefully the inspector will point out to him and he will think twice about it.

[duggmills]

I'm not sure I  buy the idea buyer can only send a picture through a text and needs you phone number.- it's a violation of eBay policy

[duggmills]

Continued from my other comment;

Call customer service to get a case number.

The buyer should be able to text pictures to his email on his compute  and then send an email to you through eBay comms. Tell the buyer to also email the pictures to eBay's customer service with the case number and relevant details.

The only  able to text sounds like a stalling tactic.

The pictures you receive and tracking number could be sent to the postmaster of the buyers post office seeking verification by the route person.  

[itsjustasprain]

You can attach photos to Ebay messages. Buyer is giving you a run around.

[stuff4divas]

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@jeffxxo wrote:

Recently sold an IPhone 6, buyer opened a return request and says it arrived but package was empty and states that the postman marked it "received unsealed, received with out contents". I know it was slealed and overly taped. I opened a claim with USPS and I did have insurance. It seems with eBay you as a seller have no leg to stand on. My only option is to refund the buyer. I asked the buyer to send pictures of the opened package but they said they can only do it through text and would need a phone number. Do I have any options other than a refund, and hope to be refunded by USPS?

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This happened to me recently, but with a much cheaper item, i asked the buyer to send me a photo of the package where USPS stamps it 'unsealed... ', which she did, so I knew she was not lying and I could use it as proof for a claim I might have filed.

Buyer saying they can't send photos other than to your phone sounds strange to me, and may be against ebay policy, and it does not protect you unless it is sent thru ebay messages, open cases, return requests, etc.

Did the buyer open a return request? if you are asking for photos to be uploaded, and they don't do it, that is an indication that something is 'not right' with the buyers claim (in my opinion). Did the buyer know that you had it insured before they rec'd the package?

The photo upload or lack of has some weight as far as a refund. Buyer should be able to prove their claim. If they show the 'official' USPS stamp of 'unsealed' on the package, then you'll need to refund them and file that USPS insurance claim.

[slati_2013]

Insist he send the pictures through eBay. He is trying to scam you. Tell the buyer you are contacting the Postal inspectors because this pretty much means the postal workers stole the item which is a serious offense, so the buyer should save the package.  You should also contact the Post Office in the buyer's zipcode responsible for the mail delivery to verify the buyer's claim. 

[bigchief2472000]

It's my understanding that ebay will not require the buyer to cooperate with you in filing an insurance claim.  Apparently they don't realize that the shipping companies don't take the buyers' words as gospel like ebay seems to do.  So my advice would be to not give the buyer any reason to become uncooperative, or ebay will just force a refund and you will be screwed on filing your insurance claim.  I've been on the receiving end of an empty box like that before and I sent pictures to my seller so they could provide it to USPS for their claim, they eventually requested that I bring the package to my local post office, which I did.  USPS sent the seller a check, he sent me a refund, and we all lived happily everafter.

[papermoneyforme]

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@bigchief2472000 wrote:

It's my understanding that ebay will not require the buyer to cooperate with you in filing an insurance claim.  Apparently they don't realize that the shipping companies don't take the buyers' words as gospel like ebay seems to do.  So my advice would be to not give the buyer any reason to become uncooperative, or ebay will just force a refund and you will be screwed on filing your insurance claim.  I've been on the receiving end of an empty box like that before and I sent pictures to my seller so they could provide it to USPS for their claim, they eventually requested that I bring the package to my local post office, which I did.  USPS sent the seller a check, he sent me a refund, and we all lived happily everafter.

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But you weren't trying to scam someone to get a cell phone free.

[bigchief2472000]

I know that cell phones are a high scam item, but I didn't see anything too suspicious about anything the OP said, so I wouldn't automatically assume the buyer is trying to scam them.

@jeffxxo

If you would rather not give out your phone number, or would just prefer to keep all messaging done through ebay, you'll just have to come up with another way of getting the buyer to get the pictures to you through ebay messaging.  Is it not possible to add an image to a message from a phone?  I don't even know if it's possible from a computer, never tried it.  There's plenty of image hosting sites that the buyer can upload an image to and then send a link for that image through an ebay message.  Postimage, imgur, google drive, etc.

[*eponymous*]

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@duggmills wrote:

I'm not sure I  buy the idea buyer can only send a picture through a text and needs you phone number.- it's a violation of eBay policy

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@duggmills  The buyer would attach pics to an eBay message.

[bigchief2472000]

A high resolution picture may be too large of a file to attach in a message.  Might need to get the buyer to figure out how to resize the image to get it down to an acceptable file size.

[*eponymous*]

I got a USPS package that was empty, but there was no stamp or note on it. I chased down the mail truck and had him record it.  However, tracking showed "Delivered".  My vendor believed me and reshipped the $400 worth of Sterling Wire. They said they had a batch of poor-sealing bubble mailers and my claim was not the first that day.

How do you know USPS would mark tracking as damaged/contents missing?  Why do you think this case would be any different from my own experience or that, even if the delivery person is supposed to record that somewhere, that necessarily happens?  None of us are naive enough to believe that. I'd just like it more if people stopped calling postal scam on everything -- and sellers filing reports with the justice dept (!!!!) -- when none of us knows what happened.

[emerald40]

A package arriving without its contents does happen, but not as often as it seems to happen here.

And it always seems to occur with expensive items like IPhones.

Seems more than coincidence imo.