Confused about case outcome

[aamtheman]

On the 7th December I sold a factory sealed iPhone 4S for £300 on eBay to a buyer in Portugal. Sent immediately fully tracked with DHL. Arrived next day.

On the 10th I get a return request, with the reason of "arrived damaged". I would usually just accept immediately, but on this occasion I knew the buyer was messing about because it was a factory sealed brand new iPhone. So this time I simply messaged back and asked what the issue was. He said the in-call volume was too low. So I suggested he remove the screen protector to resolve the issue as it covers up the ear piece and doesn't have a cut-out for it.

Did hear anything back for about 2 weeks, so I thought maybe the issue had been resolved and the request would either time out, or he might close it himself. But no. On the 24th December, he escalated the case to eBay support claiming that the battery runs out too soon, and that there was a scratch on the screen.

eBay then put the case "on hold awaiting documentation" from me. They sent a separate e-mail as follows:

"Please be informed that your buyer escalated this case to us stating that they received a damaged item. With this, we contacted you as a responsible seller of eBay to please assist your trading partner to return the item as this is valid claim. You may arrange a collection from your trusted courier or you send a label to your buyer to sort things out. Please know that I will be putting this case on hold for 5 days to wait for your response and do necessary action needed onto this case.

You can request for your trading partner’s contact information by clicking the link below and then entering your trading partner's user ID and the item number in question.

eBay Search: Advanced Search

We'll then send you your seller’s contact details by email. Bear in mind that, when we send you this, we'll also send an email to the seller with your contact information.

To avoid the same situation in the future, I suggest that you take the following steps when listing an item:

1. Ensure the item is accurately described; taking into account any marks, measurements, etc. that a buyer would need to know.
2. Take clear photos and add as many as necessary.
3. Be available to answer questions via email or phone for potential buyers.

To make sure your transactions go smoothly, we suggest you visit the eBay site and click the Safety Centre link located at the bottom of any page. There you will find tips on how to sell safely in the "Selling Safely" section.

eBay UK - eBay Safety Centre: Selling Safely

I trust this information is helpful and I wish you all the best in eBay in the future.

Kind regards,

Dona A.
eBay Customer Service"

So I messaged the buyer asking what date he wanted me to send a courier to collect the faulty handset, and that it needed to be returned in the same condition it was sent to him, with all the original packaging.

He then replied and said he didn't have the original packaging, and started asking how the battery would keep dying too soon (totally avoided the question about when he wanted it collecting).

I sent eBay customer service an e-mail about the situation and how I wasn't happy that he's been using the phone for weeks, has no original packaging and doesn't want to return it. I got a reply straight away, they said to wait for him to send the collection details, which he never did.

Then I received a decision e-mail on 30th December as follows:

Customer Support has reviewed the case and made a final decision.

Decision:
This case was decided in the buyer's favour. You won't have to reimburse your buyer for this transaction.

Comments:
For more information about this case, please refer to the email we sent you.

You can also view the details of this case in the Resolution Centre.

What I am confused about it, is how come eBay didn't ask him to comply and return the item and supply tracking information. Also, if the decision was made in his favour, how come I didn't have to make a refund? I have been checking my seller performance dashboard daily and so far, I haven't had any defects, although it could reflect in my ratings next month.

Sorry about the long post

[phaz0rz]

This could be one of those rare situations where eBay eats the loss, and you get out scot-free.

[GreenBean]

Factory sealed 4S is a really old model.

They were buggy with volume levels.

ebay has made that decision because the buyer did not cooperate with them. Because you did, you come out ahead.
Nice one.

[muzzie]

Ebay just wasted 300 gbp. Wtf are they doing... killing accs for 99p china garbage, and just throwing away 300 quid for some PT retard.

[Haidukken]

As weird as it sounds as looks, usually, I'm pretty sure that the decision making is down to pieces of code and various different algorithms, that are not known to us.
I seriously doubt that each and every one of those cases will get a review from a real person and I'm pretty sure eBay are procedures in place for certain cases, based on the data that they can extract from the listing, buyer/seller accounts, market value and few other factors.

You know, the same way I sell items and usually refund £10-20 items without even any questions asked, I'm sure a corporation like eBay has enough data to code few lines, build up more sophisiticated algorithms every year and keep most of the cases automated.

I seriously doubt that a company that has millions, of millions of millions of transactions every year, has a team of 7 monkeys who sit and decide who gets a refund.

YES, it seems like it doesn't make sense, but you only hear about the ones that don't make sense- You never hear that 99% of the time it makes perfect sense.

Just wave and smile, just wave and smile.

[muzzie]

Oh yes they have monkeys who decide if to refund or not, as each case should be reviewed manually. How often i speak to reps, which know ebay worse than I do! So, these monkeys have some set of rules which they follow, but I personally cant imagine what could be the rules, that tell to refund the buyer without taking moneys from the seller!

[Haidukken]

Originally Posted by muzzie

Oh yes they have monkeys who decide if to refund or not, as each case should be reviewed manually. How often i speak to reps, which know ebay worse than I do! So, these monkeys have some set of rules which they follow, but I personally cant imagine what could be the rules, that tell to refund the buyer without taking moneys from the seller!

I see one of your eBay hate rants at least once a week and its always something about cases. To me, it seems like you need to improve yourself so that you wouldn't have so many cases to talk about

[richie2065]

Rubbish, Ebay must get literally tens of thousands of cases raised each week there is no way they review each one on its evidence and merits.. these monkey employees prob have no idea about their own companies systems processes.
When you phone up and talk to them sure they then check the case and override/input a decision but no chance they review each and everyone

Originally Posted by muzzie

Oh yes they have monkeys who decide if to refund or not, as each case should be reviewed manually. How often i speak to reps, which know ebay worse than I do! So, these monkeys have some set of rules which they follow, but I personally cant imagine what could be the rules, that tell to refund the buyer without taking moneys from the seller!

[BigCJ]

Buyer opened a case.
You accepted the case and tried to work it out with the buyer.
Buyer never replied with sending it back.
You kept in contact.
?????
PROFIT!

[yaBeh8ater]

Originally Posted by BigCJ

Buyer opened a case.
You accepted the case and tried to work it out with the buyer.
Buyer never replied with sending it back.
You kept in contact.
?????
PROFIT!

if only it were that easy. ebay would die out in a matter of weeks.

[dallis]

You got lucky. Why complain? What do you care if EB's bots made a stupid call? Call it Christmas and move on.