Buyer now says item is faulty.......where from here?

scheming_gypsy

chemical.galaxy wrote: »

To me it reads that the buyer found that the screen no longer worked and had to buy another - not to sell to his customer but to carry on trading and doing business with his customers!

how did you work that out?

nikki02_2

I'm still undecided on this. I'm not sure if I have a responsibility to refund or not. As far as I'm concerned the item was in perfect working order and has been for 2 weeks whilst in the buyers hands. There's no way to prove if he's damaged it or if it is genuinely faulty. The buyer has good feedback, but then he would if he waits until positive feedback has been left ( me being scpetical about how genuine this issue is).
If he opens a case are Ebay likely to back him do you think? If so, I think I'm better off refunding ( minus the postage cost and fees) him if he returns the item at his own cost?

mikey72

nikki02 wrote: »

I'm still undecided on this. I'm not sure if I have a responsibility to refund or not. As far as I'm concerned the item was in perfect working order and has been for 2 weeks whilst in the buyers hands. There's no way to prove if he's damaged it or if it is genuinely faulty. The buyer has good feedback, but then he would if he waits until positive feedback has been left ( me being scpetical about how genuine this issue is).
If he opens a case are Ebay likely to back him do you think? If so, I think I'm better off refunding ( minus the postage cost and fees) him if he returns the item at his own cost?

You have no chance.

At best, you'll get a dispute raised against you, and paypal will refund all the money the buyer paid. You don't get to make him pay your fees, or carriage for a broken item.

theonlywayisup

nikki02 wrote: »

I'm still undecided on this. I'm not sure if I have a responsibility to refund or not. As far as I'm concerned the item was in perfect working order and has been for 2 weeks whilst in the buyers hands. There's no way to prove if he's damaged it or if it is genuinely faulty. The buyer has good feedback, but then he would if he waits until positive feedback has been left ( me being scpetical about how genuine this issue is).
If he opens a case are Ebay likely to back him do you think? If so, I think I'm better off refunding ( minus the postage cost and fees) him if he returns the item at his own cost?

If he opens a paypal dispute they will tell him to send it back at his cost but he will get his full initial payment, including postage back. As for fees, if you disupte and he wins, you will lose those aswell. Regardless of this, you cannot withold your costs (fees) on a refund.

If he opens an eBay dispute, he may get a no fault refund. He will keep the item and the money, but then you will keep your money too.

Either way, you should not force a dispute as it counts against your dashboard and can stop you selling for a year if you are low volume.

ACon

Same thing happened here. Buyer claims item I sent was faulty. He left positive feedback, but now claims it never worked (feedback just says good seller etc)
He's sending back for refund, where do I stand? I don't want to refund to have a faulty item, worthless to me, if he dropped it or something

Crowqueen

ACon wrote: »

Same thing happened here. Buyer claims item I sent was faulty. He left positive feedback, but now claims it never worked (feedback just says good seller etc)
He's sending back for refund, where do I stand? I don't want to refund to have a faulty item, worthless to me, if he dropped it or something

You should refund. Sometimes items come quickly, the buyer leaves feedback before checking it - I've done it myself - but then when it does get checked, it doesn't work.

As a seller it's your responsibility to sort these things out; unfortunately you can't refuse a refund because an item is no longer saleable.

ACon

But I'll be £100 out of pocket for something that I sent out working. It doesn't seem fair to me. What if he's swapped it with a faulty item. I KNOW it was a working item, and feel really annoyed that someone can break my things/swap my things and send back to me so I have to give money back for something now worthless.
Wheres my rights?
It seems Im treated like a business, when I am in fact a mother trying to make ends meet.

Crowqueen

ACon wrote: »

But I'll be £100 out of pocket for something that I sent out working. It doesn't seem fair to me. What if he's swapped it with a faulty item. I KNOW it was a working item, and feel really annoyed that someone can break my things/swap my things and send back to me so I have to give money back for something now worthless.
Wheres my rights?
It seems Im treated like a business, when I am in fact a mother trying to make ends meet.

Your buyer is probably saying the same thing about being £100 out of pocket. You have a moral and in some cases legal responsibility to supply an item that works (SOGA applies to private sellers as well; the item has to be as described, which if it's not working it isn't); you can't prove that it was working when he got it, which means that it might have been damaged or jolted in the post, such that a component came loose and then caused the item to break down (it happens). The money does not belong to you unless the buyer is happy; even if you are trying to make ends meet there are still obligations to your customers that you have to fulfil. It's a risk you take selling anything online that you have to post.

It happened to me with an old phone I sold for £20. I didn't make the buyer send the item back because if it was as he said it was, it would have been no use to me to pay for him to return it, so I had to write the sale off. But at the end of the day, and even though I'm not a business either, I still have responsibilities to my customers.

Unless you have cast-iron proof that he broke it himself, put yourself in his shoes - if you'd spent £100 on an item and it turned out to be faulty, how would you feel?

ACon

Oh I know, if he's being honest, and something did happen in the post then of course he'll be peed. I just find it hard to believe that someone wouldn't test an expensive electrical item before leaving feedback.
He's also refusing to get me the original packaging, which I need if I am to make a claim with Royal Mail, it was sent Special Delivery, and marked fragile. As well as being extremely well packed.

breeze2007

I have a similar complaint i sold a Arcam Stereo last week via ebay for £313 it costs between £550-£750 brand new it is only 12mths old & was in perfect working order! right upto packing I wrapped it extremly well with 23 news papers and a bigger box it could'nt move it was solid i then wrapped the box with 3 rolls of extra large tape I even took pictures of each function before packing & especially the serial but the buyer whom is very poilte in wording has now stated he can only pick up 1 dab station i had 28 which should have been auto stored!! he has 3 other dab radios so it is my fault he states but i used dab daily even the day i was sending it on!! I am very disappointed now as i will now face a huge repair bill & possiabbly lose money! for a good working stereo, i also fear it may have been used for parts as he has told me he brought it to his mums as she has one too!! i can fully understand but i know it was all working so where do i stand??