Item not as described, to refund or not?

[stillconfused]

I sold a set of DVDs that I had opened and checked, just a scratch and some finger prints, and sold them as used.
Now the buyer is saying that the DVD with the scratch won't play properly and another one has some sticky stuff on it. He has asked if he should return them for a refund. I suggested that he send them back for a replacement.
Now he claims that he took one of the discs to someone and they said that it is a pirated DVD and he wants a full refund including postage BEFORE he sends them back to me.
This communication is taking place outside of ebay.
Doesn't he have to send them back first or else provide proof of his allegations?

Advice would be greatly appreciated.

[teedon]

i think you should refund him but the buyer need to cover the half shipping cost at least. As the buyer will very sad if the dvds can not play .

[stillconfused]

Thanks Teedon, but shouldn't he return them first?

Anyone had this problem?

Any suggestions, please.

[aking]

Unfortately, what the buyer is requesting is not the way paypal works (if you use paypal to process payments). The buyer has to send the package back and provide tracking info in order to receive a refund. If they refuse to send it back first, you have nothing to worry about.

[oge]

I just had this similar thing happen to me. But on a ebay dispute they will refund them first without returning the product.

[teedon]

you can refund 10% to the buyer firstly ,and then tell the buyer return the product to you,after you check all things are ok and then refund more to the buyer,but i think the buyer have to cover some shipping cost and some other fee for you.

[stillconfused]

Thanks for the advice.
I ended up giving him a full refund as he was holding the set as hostage, and it's not worth the grief of going through a paypal claim.

Are all DVDs on dhgate the same quality, or are there some sellers who offer better quality?

[Ballsack]

Since you sold these on ebay I can't advise what you should do. I know that if you sell outside of ebay, item not as described complaints are summarily dismissed by paypal once the buyer escalates it to a claim. I don't understand why they don't file a chargeback later on once they find it they can't win with paypal.

Anyway, I sold a handful of dvds over a year ago and it simply isn't worth the hassle. You're not even sure what the buyer is getting when you dropship. Not all boxsets are the same. The same set of star trek dvds can be on dvd5 discs instead of dvd9. You have to ask a ton of questions to make certain you are getting a high quality set. Even then there might be slight to medium differences with the cases the discs are housed in or there might be a missing booklet, etc. Even when a set appears to be perfect I believe you will often find small surface scratches on the backs of the discs making them look used. Although alot of ppl seem to not notice this for some strange reason.

[jbluntz]

Only a small percentage of people ask for refunds after recieving dhgate dvds, most of the time I just give a refund and let em keep it, no big deal.

[teedon]

there are a lot of dvds factories here,some are high quality,some are lowest copy quality.You really need to take some time to choose the good one.