Ebay supports dishonest buyer who damaged camera lens, buyer gets full refund and a return?

[creambunkidsboutique]

I have a buyer who purchased an expensive camera lens from in almost NEW condition, buyer used the item and damaged it. I listed with no returns. Buyer asked for a return a week later with excuses of poor packaging and that I sold a damaged item. As a seller I responded to the buyer and kept open communication, I also offered a partial refund. The buyer turned it down flat. I called ebay about a “problem buyer”, Ebay was unhelpful! Buyer complained to ebay that I did not respond? Five minutes later I get a message to refund in full and pay return shipping? The item is a $1000 lens that I sold for $320 and the buyer damaged. 

So I will be the owner of a damaged lens. What happened to protecting the Seller against dishonest scamming Buyers? 

[bonjourami]

There s no seller protection here, other than using d/c to prove delivery of an item. And a no returns policy is useless too..against a snad complaint. Just hope you get your same lens back.

[missjen831]

What was eBay supposed to protect you from at this point? You are assuming the buyer damaged the lense. He’s claiming the lense was damaged when he received it. How can ebay know who is telling the truth? You can’t prove he didn’t receive a damaged lense. Unless he came right out and said he caused the damaged, you can’t prove he did. 

[busgre-0]

Buyer asked for a return a week later with excuses of poor packaging and that I sold a damaged item

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So the buyer claims the item was badly package and you're accusing a buyer of scamming? SMH no wonder buyers are leaving this place in droves

[jame234]

When a buyer opens a Item Not as Described case, it is the seller's best interest, to issue a prepaid return shipping label and refund in full when you receive the item back.  EBay rules in favor of the buyer.  If buyer escalates to eBay then you earn a defect and are forced to refund and with a No Return Policy, the seller risks eBya may decide to let the buyer keep the item and still force a refund.

eBay's Money Back Guarantee trumps your no return policy and basically it is your word vs the buyer's word.

The seller's Protection is applied when tracking shows delivered and buyer insists they did not receive the item.  Sometimes they did not receive the item due to postal carrier delivering incorrectly, but eBay rules in favor of seller.

[creambunkidsboutique]

I agree with you, however a few disturbing things to bare in mind ~ I did share these with EBay. 1. Buyer was a fussy buyer from the beginning. He NEEDED the lens by Saturday. It was scanned delivered the previous day on Friday. 2. The buyer did not report an issue until a few days after he had it in his possession? 3. Buyer then reports issues with my packaging, issues with the lens damage, issues with the package getting lost, too many issues and problems? 4. The lens was shipped in the manufacturers 3in padded, shock resistant case. The same case it was shipped to me from the manufacturer, when it was new. It would not get damaged in this case, also the the parcel was not damaged? 5. I kept up communication with the buyer and offered a partial refund, Buyer reported non communication from me? 

[fern*wood]

I'm curious if the buyer provided any evidence of damage or did you just offer a partial? 

Hopefully you get your lens back in the same condition as sent.   At this point, that's about the best case scenario.  Sometimes they just want a refund, and if you do not offer a return policy, they make something up. 

[ed8108]

As a seller on ebay you will discover that, Honesty , Truthfulness , Integrity , of the buyer to be your seller protections.

[missjen831]

It really doesn’t matter how long he had the item in his possession. He has 30 days from the date of delivery to file a case with eBay and 180 days from the date of payment to file with PayPal. 

[creambunkidsboutique]

We received the lens back from the buyer. The lens has either been traded out for an inferior lens or the buyer damaged it. Here are the photos of the lens we sent and the lens we received. Look at the scratches....The buyer was refunded $320.00 for the purchase plus shipping out of my account as soon as I signed for receipt of the package....and this is not my item. There are other damages...but this is one example

Our lens we sold and sent to buyerScratches on Lens we got back from buyer?

[sam9876]

Oh, well.

[creambunkidsboutique · Accepted solution]

Update: I phoned eBay after the buyer returned the lens that he damaged, and claimed I sent him a damaged item. I was instructed by ebay to file an affidavit and submit proof of the before and after damages, which I did. The ebay team reviewed my documents and REVERSED the refund. I didnt get a total refund but that really wasn’t the point. I knew that the buyer was dishonest and misusing the ebay money back guarantee. The lens we got back from the buyer is worthless. Such a waste. Nothing I can do about that. But at least, in the end, the dishonest buyer didn’t “get away with it”. Thank you ebay!

[missjen831]

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@creambunkidsboutique wrote:

Update: I phoned eBay after the buyer returned the lens that he damaged, and claimed I sent him a damaged item. I was instructed by ebay to file an affidavit and submit proof of the before and after damages, which I did. The ebay team reviewed my documents and REVERSED the refund. I didnt get a total refund but that really wasn’t the point. I knew that the buyer was dishonest and misusing the ebay money back guarantee. The lens we got back from the buyer is worthless. Such a waste. Nothing I can do about that. But at least, in the end, the dishonest buyer didn’t “get away with it”. Thank you ebay!

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@creambunkidsboutique  hate to give the bad news here but the refund wasn’t reversed. The buyer kept their refund. So yes they did get away with this. eBay refunded you. They didn’t take the refund back from the buyer-they can’t. 

[creambunkidsboutique]

Darn it! He did get away with it!!! Where is honor honesty and consequences?

[purginghouse]

As I was told by ebay support.... if you are not part of the free returns... you have NO protection whatsoever...  They have opened the flood gates for buyers to use and abuse the new items we sell and return for 100% if you are not part of the free returns.   But if you join the free returns then ebay "allows" you to deduct from the refund 5%-50%... isn't that nice of them!