Buyer didn't return item. Buyer returned junk metal and not the item purchase

[faison912]

I sold an item on my website as a pre order in November. When I shipped the item out to the customer in January the first thing he did was open a claim as item not describe. He stated the item will not power on. I excepted the return under the impression that PayPal seller protection stating that he must return the item in the same condition as he received it. This customer returned me a box of junk metal literally junk metal. I added the pictures of me opening the box showing what the customer sent me and composed the all in a PDF and added this to the case. Believe it or not he actually won this dispute. This is a joke I have no idea how he could win such an argument this easy when PayPal has evidence what he sent me was nothing like the item he was sent and the agreement for seller protection was that he needed to send the item in the same condition. I have filed an appeal and will see how that goes even if I do win this is just bad practice on PayPal part because this encourages people to take advantage of this seller protection. FYI when I looked at his transaction for the sale on my website I noticed he did make an attempt to purchase with Amazon Pay and got denied. So they may have better protection for sellers. I think I will use them only in the future because this incident is not work the risk of losing thousands of dollars for not reason.  

[kernowlass]

@faison912

In the event of an item received but not as described dispute it is always one persons word against the other.

For eg.

You may have sent that 'junk' in the first place and that is why the buyer returned it. (not saying you did of course but thats how it 'could' happen).

The buyer have sent the correct item but you made it look other than that on opening it.

The buyer may have done exactly what you said.

But as i said there is no way paypal would know who was telling the truth. They tend of course to favour the buyer. We all get the odd pain in the butt buyer every now and then, its the risk of online selling.

However because paypal rules against you (and may change it on appeal) it does not stop your legal rights. You can still take the buyer to the small claims court and present all your proof there and you may well win. Sometimes just the threat of doing that will make the buyer send back the real item.