Buyer claiming 3 dishes were broken in the box.

[geogeorgsharo]

Hi,

I am a fairly new seller on eBay. On June 8th I had a buyer buy a teaset from me. He received it on June 11, 2018.  On July 6th he sent me an email with pictures saying 3 of the dishes were broken. At the time, after asking many people and coming on here for advise. I told him to return everything to me. I would pay for the return shipping and refund his money 100% including shipping, That was on July 7th. I didn't hear anything from him. Today I got an email that said he was going to keep the dishes and glue them. I suspect they were never broken, but photoshop. So he doesn't want to start a return. Am I obligated to give him any type of refund? 

Thanks for anyones help

[secretsquirrelisnowhere]

I've done that before. Sometimes it's better to just glue them together. I usually voice my displeasure through feedback though. Why can't seller's pack better? This is the first time I've ever heard someone blame Photoshop for their packing misadventures.

[missjen831]

You aren’t obligated to do anything. But if he sent proof, I would issue a partial refund myself if I was the seller. 

[gkyn29]

You have no way of knowing either way. Just be thankful the seller chose to either fix the dishes or drop a potentially troublesome return claim.

[muttlymob]

Today I got an email that said he was going to keep the dishes and glue them. I suspect they were never broken, but photoshop. So he doesn't want to start a return.

Or maybe he realized the difficulty in repacking the tea set safely so it would not be further damaged, and decided it was easier to keep.

How did you package that set?  Double boxed?  lots of padding (bubble wrap, packing peanuts, eg) to prevent pieces from hitting each other?  enough (packing material filled) space between pieces and box(es)?  Could you toss the packed box(es) on a concrete floor without any breakage?

As for Photoshopped damage, seriously?  for an $11 tea set that's just silly.