”In your experience, what, if any, are potential negative ramifications if I choose not to accept the return?”
There are several possible negative outcomes.
One is they leave you negative feedback. Two, they can open an Item Not As Described case via the Money Back Guarantee—that means you will be forced to refund, pay for return shipping if you want the item back, and likely receive a defect on your account.
Three, they completely bypass eBay and go straight to a chargeback with the credit card company, where you’ll lose the item and the funds plus pay $20 in chargeback fees.
As a low feedback infrequent seller, the above outcomes might affect your account health. It boils down to evaluating whether it is worth the $28 to risk a negative outcome.
If it were my choice, i’d have set my policy at “Accepts returns, with buyer paying return shipping.” The reason i’d do it that way is to enhance the seller-buyer relationship with trust, rather than foster an “us against them” mentality. Good customer service could allow returns rather than create an unhappy buyer by making them keep an unwanted item—even if it was the buyer’s failure to adequately measure when the size was correctly given in the listing.
Or, one could float a possible alternate resolution to the buyer, by offering to refund minus the shipping charges since the measurements were clear.
Best of luck to you in any event. You have some really nice items in well done listings. No doubt you could re-sell the item again, raising the price slightly to recoup any losses.
