Need Help with Claim on Shipment

[Twong_24]

Hello there PayPal Community, I am new to the PayPal transaction world and have been testing sales through social media. Recently I shipped out a shipment that contained used car parts, many photos were taken and exchanged with the buyer. Now that he has received the parts he now is claiming them to not be as described and has sent me photos of them now being damaged. He was also saying this was not a shipping issue but claiming they were sent damaged prior to packaging. I know that they were not in that condition when photoed and packaged along with how they were packed into the box. The damage to them is inadequate of how shipment would have effected them. So my concerns is that he damaged them purposefully in the desire to claim full refund. I also noticed that there may be a possibility that one of the items doesn’t appear to be one of which I shipped to him, being that he may switched out his damaged good with mine. So how should I go about this matter and how am I protected as a buyer? I tried contacting the dispute center on PayPal through telephone but after five attempts only ending with the dial up tone I am left to come here for help. -Thanks Tommy.

[PayPal_Rich]

Hi Twong_24,

Thank you for your excellent question and for posing it to the PayPal community. This is obviously a situation any merchant would be concerned about and I'm happy to share my knowledge and experience with you on matters such as this. 

In the case of the item being reported as "significantly not as described", it is certainly important to respond to the case explaining why you believe these differences to exist and to provide any evidence that you might have that the items were not sent in such a condition. If the claim is found in the buyer's favor, the buyer will need to return the items, at their own expense, and will only be refunded once their tracking information concerns that the items arrived back to you via the address PayPal provides.

If you receive the items in a condition that is different than you sent them or different items altogether, you may be asked to provide additional information such as a professional's evaluation or an affidavit with further explaination. PayPal will review both sides, without bias, to adjudicate this issue. 

Please note that you always have the option to resolve this issue outside of PayPal with your client directly as well. PayPal's disputes process is just one method in which merchants and customers can civilly resolve transactional disputes.