Buyer decided they don't want item, opened a false "not working" claim

neo1607

Sold a Samsung Galaxy S10 on ebay a few days ago, a buyer submitted a best offer which I was happy with and accepted the price, afterwards I started getting loads of emails asking specific details about it's condition, how many scratches, does it have screen burn etc, and asking for loads and loads of detailed photos of the condition (most of which were shown in the listing along with description).  I began to get suspicious and asked the seller why they wanted so much detail, the reply i got was "so I know what i am going to be buying", I messaged back and reminded the seller they had already won the listing, I got a reply back saying "that's fine post it"

I posted the item well packaged up, royal mail special delivery etc. Surprise surprise, as soon as the buyer received it he has opened a case claiming multiple things wrong with it such as earpiece not working during calls, buttons are sticky/hard to push, sim tray doesn't open. Buyer has opened it as a faulty item case and every couple of hours keeps adding a new fault with the device.

Where do I stand with this? The buyer obviously didn't want the phone in the first place or didn't expect his offer to be won and this is all a big case of buyers remorse, I don't really want the hassle of having to get the phone back to re-list it again as I was getting loads of offers/bids/messages from sellers with 0 feedback and accounts created June 2020 (probably scammers). The item was very well detailed and plenty of photos of condition, I also marked it as a No Returns listing.

Am i going to be forced to accept this back under the sellers protection guidelines as the buyer has opened a fraudulent faulty item case to get himself a free return? Or is it worth attempting to deny the return (it's giving me the option to) and fighting my case with ebay? I am also worried the buyer is attempting to scam me in some way, possibly send phone back damaged/swapped etc, although I took many many detailed photos of the device before posting

[Deleted User]

I’m pretty sure regardless if you stated no returns that if a buyer claims it’s faulty you have to accept the return. More knowledgable members will probably be better to advise though. 

neo1607

I'm more interested to know what kind of seller protection I have. Obviously I will have to refund the buyer the item + shipping and pay his return shipping so I lose out on 2 lots. Am I able to open a case myself to say it's a fake return to claim my shipping expenses back?

theonlywayisup

Your no returns policy doesn't include SNAD.
The buyer has opened a case.  You have 8 days to resolve it.  If you don't it can be escalated to ebay.

You are not able to open a case, but you can appeal the case when the item has been returned and you've refunded. 

fenwick458

neo1607 said:

I'm more interested to know what kind of seller protection I have. Obviously I will have to refund the buyer the item + shipping and pay his return shipping so I lose out on 2 lots. Am I able to open a case myself to say it's a fake return to claim my shipping expenses back?

none really. you can report the buyer to ebay, don't know what that does though.
you could just play them at their own game and say it wasn't received in the same condition you sent it to them!?

liggerz87

Yep years ago i sold on ebay a htc u11 and had no return they claimed faulty as the back button the phone was known to have thenproblem if you missed the back button it seemed like it wasn't working i called eBay and PayPal and did what they asked asked the buyer for proof ebay sided with buyer and I did refuse but it got sent back and they left me with bad feedback got phone back it worked perfectly 

maisie_cat

As annoying as it is there isn't much you can do, just hope that you get the same phone back and it hasn't had any parts swapped. I sold an item years ago that they buyer stripped down and removed parts, then sent it back to me it bits. I was forced to refund him and had to throw the item away because he'd pinched the parts. I stopped selling on Ebay then, using facebook or gumtree instead

[Deleted User]

I always do sales of electronics, phones etc through Facebook or gumtree now as it’s easier to just do cash on collection and individuals can inspect before they commit to buy. 

bris

Good chance you won't even get the same phone back so hope you took a record of the IMEI. wont help with getting your phone back but at least you can get it blocked.

neo1607

Update on this, buyer sent it back with a massive deep scratch on the screen. Had to refund him, reported him to eBay for abuse of the return system and also for sending it back in different condition.

 I then phoned eBay and the advisor pretty much told me because I had listed it as "returns not accepted" in the first place that eBay will more than likely not help me in this case and that eBay do not like sellers to list items with no returns. I was then advised to change any future listings to "returns accepted" to enable the best seller protection (even though they still abuse the return reasons anyway) how does that even make sense?

eBay seem to be getting worse and worse as of late.

theonlywayisup

The problem with citing no returns is that a buyer likes the option to return and if you prevent them doing so, some will purposely damage an item purely to open a SNAD.