Seller refuses to accept return for defective item

[ang_tang]

A buyer said their item was defective, do I have to refund buyer even if I do not accept returns?

[the_fancy_fox]

Yep

[chrysylys]

You do have a choice.

You can accept the return and refund after you get the item back.

Or you can refuse the return and let the buyer escalate, which means the system will take the money from your account and refund the buyer without requiring them to return it and you will be out the money AND the item.

[flyerfandan999]

Your responsibility as an eBay Seller is, within eBay's rules and definitions, to accurately represent and describe the items you are selling to prospective Buyers.

If you described and represented the item in question as already being defective (such as a "ForParts---Not Working" listing) when you listed it, then No, you do not have to take it back and give a refund, because it was defective in the manner you described to the Buyer and they bought it anyway.

But the other side of the coin is true.  If you described the item as new, new other, used, these are classifications that on eBay mean the item is 100% fully functional.  [On eBay, "used' means fully functional.]  If the Buyer received the item that is supposed to be working and it does not work (even if it got damaged or broken in transit), then the Buyer did not get from you, the Seller, what you told them you were going to give them, so you have to make good with a refund, or if the Buyer agrees, a replacement.  When you are at fault, you also have to give the Buyer back the original shipping from you to them, plus (if you want the defective item back), you have to provide free shipping to them to send the item back.