New Year - New Dodgy Buyer

GadgetGuru

I'm a private seller just selling a few bits from home. 

Buyer purchased a PC Stick.
I had installed Windows and other software on the stick, and displayed images of it from every angle, as well as connected to a monitor showing it in action. 
Buyer purchased for £70+P&P.
I KNOW it was in MINT condition. 

Here is an image of from the listing - you can see all ports are mint. They are all aligned and intact, and they all worked perfect. 



Started a return at 10 mins past midnight on New Years saying the ports were all misaligned from the case and damaged. 
He uploaded a photo - the USB ports had clearly been trashed. Broken and unusable. 

Here is his image:
Note how the second USB port is damaged inside. 
It has been used so aggressively that the board inside the casing has even moved, so the ports no longer line up. 



Obviously I'm forced to accept a return and refund. No choice. 
I know if I get the item back I cant do anything with it, and it will annoy me even more seeing it in a state. 
I also know eBay will do nothing about it regardless. They'll say it could have happened in the post - even though it was well bubble wrapped and boxed very securely.
So I just refunded it. Didn't bother communicating with the buyer as there's just no point. 

I think I'm done with eBay now. I've whittled my listings down and only have 2 items left. I will be staying away from eBay for a while. 

dinosaur66

sadly 1 in every 100 approx are like this on ebay and i sell cds/dvds/audio books which are 99 % aimed at the over 50 market who are more unlikely to do something like this.

i can see the damage /surely if you respond to the ebay showing the before and after photos they should have  protection for a private seller

i thought private sellers were better protected than business sellers obviuosly not.

i guess when you read the buyers feedback left for others they will be someone who complains all the time

dinosaur66

looks like they have tried to force wrong cables into those ports /there is also scratches that were not there when you sent it showing how ham fisted they were.

sellers like you need protection from this kind of buyer

the before and after photos should surely make ebay side with you

pinkshoes

@GadgetGuru why did you refund?! You could have phoned eBay on this one and pointed out that quite clearly it is NOT the same item and the buyer has clearly swapped it or broken it. 

GDB2222

I sold a car radio for a Fiat Punto. The buyer had a different Fiat. He plugged it in, and amazingly it didn’t work. Clearly, the seller’s fault.

GadgetGuru

pinkshoes said:

@GadgetGuru why did you refund?! You could have phoned eBay on this one and pointed out that quite clearly it is NOT the same item and the buyer has clearly swapped it or broken it. 

Honestly I just can't be bothered with it any more. The hassle of trying to fight stuff like this. I get worked up over it in the end. My nan died a few days before Xmas, and in comparison this just seemed trivial. Life is too short. I hope karma catches up with him eventually. 

Daz2009

I reckon they had a duff one and swapped it with yours 

Micron

I have a similar problem, let’s hope someone can pass on their wisdom and give me some good news.

ebay-returned-item-damaged-partial-refund-conundrum

I've ended all my current auctions as the experience has taken all the 'fun' out of selling on eBay for the moment.

I too wish my tormentor shed loads of karma.

RFW

Micron said:

I too wish my tormentor shed loads of karma.

It's years ago now but one of the worst customers I've had appeared to have had some karma. I can barely remember the details but I remember abusive messages and a negative feedback that was taken down as soon as I reported it (it was foul and offensive). It was on a woman's account but the messages were from a man. 2-3 weeks after it all kicked off I received a message apologising for the behaviour on their account and that it was her partner and they were no longer together.