eBay iPhone dispute

Pixie5740

The buyer has come back saying that rather than returning the phone he would prefer to unlock the handset and for me to refund him the cost of unlocking it. The cost of unlocking has now come down to £10 which is about the same as the cost of P&P. I'm just going to give the git the £10 refund and put an end to this.

campdave

Pixie5740 wrote: »

I'm just going to give the git the £10 refund and put an end to this.

An therein is the reason why your buyer has done it, and will go on to do it to others.

Caving in just makes it more difficult for everyone else who sells on ebay.

Pixie5740

This is very true. Maybe I should call his bluff and get him to post the handset back.

I don't remember eBay being as bad when I first started using it in 2002 but after the last couple of experiences I won't be using eBay again.

chickendipperbabe

If the buyer opens a not as described request/case or whatever they're called these days the seller will be asked to provide the buyer a pre-paid postage label or ebay will do it (at the sellers expense)

You could give them their £10 refund and then in a few weeks they could come back again asking for more after finding something else wrong with the phone. Remember they have 180 days to open up a PayPal dispute.

I'm in two minds about this, I wouldn't want to give in to a suspect buyer but for the sake of a tenner I would be tempted to refund and be done with it but then you run the risk of them coming back for more, its a no-win situation for a seller. Seeing as they've said they don't want to return it and they've knocked down the unlocking price I would be tempted to call their bluff and ask them to return it for a full refund.

Kingsd316

I would be amazed if he can get the phone unlocked for £10 without being the original owner, there is nearly always a premium doing through a back door method

Pixie5740

It sure is a minefield. :undecided

theonlywayisup

chickendipperbabe wrote: »

If the buyer opens a not as described request/case or whatever they're called these days the seller will be asked to provide the buyer a pre-paid postage label or ebay will do it (at the sellers expense)

You could give them their £10 refund and then in a few weeks they could come back again asking for more after finding something else wrong with the phone. Remember they have 180 days to open up a PayPal dispute.

I'm in two minds about this, I wouldn't want to give in to a suspect buyer but for the sake of a tenner I would be tempted to refund and be done with it but then you run the risk of them coming back for more, its a no-win situation for a seller. Seeing as they've said they don't want to return it and they've knocked down the unlocking price I would be tempted to call their bluff and ask them to return it for a full refund.

You can only open an Ebay OR a Paypal case for SNAD, not both.

If the buyer has opened a case (and I can't see for sure if this is the situation) he cannot receive a partial and open another.

fishybusiness

I would be amazed if he can get the phone unlocked for £10 without being the original owner, there is nearly always a premium doing through a back door method

Unless you go to the carrier, iPhones are not cheap to unlock - £30 is about right and it takes a good few days as the unlock merchant needs to contact the Apple servers.

printerinksucks

Yeah it is certainly a tricky situation - Do you have the IMEI number? If so, just get confirmation that the phone is unlocked, file it away somewhere safe and tell the buyer to jog on.

If they open a dispute, then use your safely filed away proof as evidence to Ebay that the phone is indeed unlocked.

chickendipperbabe

theonlywayisup wrote: »

You can only open an Ebay OR a Paypal case for SNAD, not both.

If the buyer has opened a case (and I can't see for sure if this is the situation) he cannot receive a partial and open another.

I was aware of that fact but I've seen a few reports of buyers being able to open both. There is also nothing stopping the buyer coming back for another refund in a few weeks time. Assuming this is currently all being done through messages and there is no case/dispute open the OP could issue a partial refund now and in a few weeks time the buyer could then open a case if their demands aren't met.