Recently I auctioned out my original Pokemon books that I have kept in mint condition (brand new). It is quite rare to have a 20 years old books in brand new condition. As expected, the books were sold for USD $360. We carefully pack the books with a lot of padding and protection to make sure the items arrived without any issues. This is the link to our packing video: https://youtu.be/idLinn-hXqk
Unfortunately, the buyer was experiencing a buyer remorse and filed a claim that the item was not as described. He purposely damaged the cover of the book (bend the corner) and claimed the damaged (the buyer confirmed that the parcel was arrived undamaged). Based on how we packed the books, it is impossible for that damage to occur.
We checked with eBay how should we handle this and eBay told us that for the process to move forward, I must accept the return first. Even though I disagreed on accepting the return, I did accept the return and buy the return stamps for it. This way, I will have an opportunity to assess the damage and can confirm if my original assessment is correct.
When the books arrived, it was more damaged than what the buyer shown on the original claimed. It has scratches and tears on the covers. Not only the buyer lied, he also damaged my items. Here is our video of us unboxing the item: https://youtu.be/4Whn8VTu_SY
I called the eBay to see how should I deal with this. The reps told me that he will put the refund case on hold for 5 business days and will send avidavit for me to sign about the damaged goods. This happened on Feb 15, 2022 morning. The crazy thing, on Feb 15, 2022 evening, I received a notification that the case was closed in favor of the buyer. What about the whole thing about case being held for 5 days????
I called eBay to ask about what is going on with my case, the rep told me that the buyer called and escalate the case. Unfortunatelly, the rep who handled the buyer's call failed to read the information and overwritten the hold. The rep said the next process is to submit the appeal on the decisions. Just before this call, I submitted all the documentation that was required by eBay. eBay rep helped me filled in an appealed for the decision and almost instantly, the appealed was denied.
I called again about 30 minute from my last call and asked what is going on with my case and why it get denied instantly (I wondered if they even really check the proof that I submitted before they decided). For sure nobody checked the video that I posted on YouTube because I saw the statistic of how many people viewed the video. FYI, posting video on YouTube was also at the request of the eBay reps. The rep said she was sorry that my appeal was denied but I can go thru the offline appeal process which she will help me with. She mentioned that I will received communication back after 72 Hours.
Saturday, Feb 19, 2022, I decided to call eBay again since I did not receive any communication from eBay regarding my case. The rep that talked to me said that all the information is available and from the rep perspective, the case should go in favor of seller not buyer. She will file in a manual refund request and I should expect to hear back from eBay within 72 hours. She also said most likely I will hear back around Wednesday since the office is close on Saturday.
Fast forward to today, Feb 28, 2022. I have not received anything from eBay (not even acknowldgment on the case being submitted). So I decided to call again. This time around the rep said that based on what on file, there is nothing I can do. At least, he said that both my offline appeal and offline refund request were denied. All avenues have been explored and to paraphrase what rep was saying...
"I am so sorry but tough luck, you just need to suck it up"
Things that I wanted to share from my experiences with eBay is:
- eBay prefers the buyer more than the seller (Which I think most of the sellers have already know about this).
- eBay does not even follow its own policies (closing my case even though it was put on hold)
- some shady people know how eBay work and regardless how well you are trying to protect yourselves as seller, if this people want to mess you up, they will be able to do it and eBay will do nothing (see point 1 above).
I don't think eBay really care about my case and I don't have any hope that it will be resolved (heck, if I can have some eBay rep to look at my case, I will be so lucky).
It would be great if somebody from eBay can explain to me the full process so I can see if there is anything that I can do to make sure this thing will not happen again in the future (unfortunately, eBay has monopoly on this so I still need to use eBay for my future sale).
