Item Not As Described Refund Appeal

[fffrrr]

Hello everyone, here's my story -

A buyer overseas misread my ebay listing and decided he did not want the item (a pair of jeans) because it was used, even though the listing clearly described them as "Previously worn." He filed an "Item not as described" claim and PayPal agreed in his favor, so the buyer's money was to be refunded as soon as the jeans were returned. The jeans took forever to get back to me and when they did, it was obvious that the buyer (or at least someone) had worn them! I received the jeans smelling disgusting and a hand towel was stuffed in the back pocket.

I filed an appeal to try to get my money back since the buyer obviously didn't mind the condition of the jeans. I received a decision from PayPal saying, "Once PayPal has made a decision regarding whether an item is 'significantly not as described,' that decision is final and cannot be appealed."

I find this to be extremely unfair and a complete waste of my time! It seems that this buyer's intentions were simply to wear the jeans for a day and return them for a full refund, filing the "not as described" claim as an excuse and getting away with it scot-free.

The most I can do at this point is block the buyer from future listings, but this is something that I am not satisfied with. Any thoughts on my situation? Am I in the wrong here? Any feedback is appreciated.

[worldlightinc]

same thing happened to me to the tune of $400!!!  the buyer had the course for over 2 months, then once they had used it, reported it as 'damaged' to paypal.  they found in her favor.  when i appealed as the return did not include 1 of the workbooks, the notebook had writing in it, 3 CDs were missing, and the software CD was missing; paypal found in her favor again.  Meaning she kept the pieces of the course she could use, then returned the rest for a full refund from paypal!!!  LOOK OUT FOR EBAY SCAMMERS NAMED KIRSTIN FORSYTH!!!!

[saturn5]

You can file a report with paypal and ebay's fraud departments, but little, if anything will come of this.  

As a buyer, I am very comfortable with using paypal.  Their return/refund policy is very fair to honest buyers.  The trouble is that it is also more than fair to dishonest buyers.  

I would never use paypal as a seller unless I knew the person purchasing the given item, or knew someone who could vouch for their integrity.  It matters less if you are selling in high enough volume that a few bad eggs don't affect overall profits, but in general with Paypal -

caveat...vendor.  

[dkid2000]

"I find this to be extremely unfair and a complete waste of my time! It seems that this buyer's intentions were simply to wear the jeans for a day and return them for a full refund, filing the "not as described" claim as an excuse and getting away with it scot-free."

.

The flaw in that thinking is that the buyer didn't get away "scot-free". They may have recieved a full refund of what they paid you but they still had to pay return shipping of a pair of jeans to a different country than they live in. Not to mention the time to repack and ship.

.

Seems like quite a bit of time and money to wear a pair of jeans for a couple of days.

[theexploited]

Clearly unjust.

EVntually the word will spread.  If paypal had cometetion this would not happen.  it is a monopoly, and we as sellers have no protection regardless.  Who knows of lawyers who specialize in dealing with paypal ?

[fffrrr]

Hello everyone, and thanks for all your input.

In my original post I forgot to mention that this buyer left Negative Feedback against me before attempting to contact me for a resolution.

We messaged back and forth after the negative feedback was left, and the buyer decided to reverse the feedback after the refund. Almost a month later and the negative feedback is still there...

I'm currently trying to contact the buyer as well as ebay to try and get this removed. I've been a seller on ebay for a very long time and have maintained a 100% feedback rating until this happened.