Buyer says he didnt recieve item. I lost case

[Sonny91]

Looking for some advice here. Recently sold a phone through guntree. Buyer contacted me and asked if i could post to which i replied i was happy to at his expense. He asked to pay with paypal and send to his parents address as he was staying there over the christmas period. I was happy with that as ive used paypal the last 9 years so recieved the payment and sent the phone the next day by royal mail special delivery. Checked tracking the next day and seen the item was delivered sat 8am so i text him to see if he recieved ok to which he replied the screens f**ked, after a few messages back and forth he then sayed the phones water damaged to finally saying there is some dust behind the screen. So the screen wasnt f**ked or water damaged. I told the buyer i have photos of the phone before i posted it and there was no damage before i sent it but if he was unhappy he could send it back for a refund aslong as i recieve it in the condition i sent it. The buyer was insiting i gave him a partial refund to cover the damage but i told the buyer there was no damage when i sent the phone so im not giving a partial refund, in happy for him to send the phone back. Eventually he said he would send the phone back on monday. I recieved a email on sunday saying the buyer opened a case to say he never recieved the phone and i have never been intouch, i called straight away and spoke to an advisor told her that i had been messaging the buyer and he has recieved it and posting it back monday but she needed proof of postage to close the case so i gave her the tracking number to which she checked and sayed that all checks out but because it dosent have the address on it i would need to send the postage reciept with the address matching the address they have on there system. This was a problem because the address i sent it to wasnt the same address they had and i was told that the only way to prove he recieved it was to have this address match the reciept which i couldnt. So she gave me 48 hours to give them the reciept. I spoke to the buyer again on monday to see if he was sending the phone and he told me he was going to send it tuesday so i replied thanks can you also cancel the paypal case and reopen one for a refund so we can start processing it But no reply. Tuesday night came and i had messaged him twice asking if he had posted it but he didnt reply and i only had a few hours before the case was closed as i couldnt provide proof of postage to the address paypal hold so i did something stupid. My friend edited the reciept and i sent it to pay pal who then checked it and cancelled the case. I done this because it was my last option. I know it was wrong of me to do so but i wasnt trying to con anyone i knew 100% the guy had the phone. I recieved a email today from paypal saying they reviewed the closed case and refunded the buyer so i called again and the advisor told me they belived the postage reciept was edited so i held my hands up, apologised to them and explained why i did it. The advisor told me because they can take text messages as evidence and i cant provide postage for the address they have i would need to speak to citizens advice and look at the small claims court. This is so frustrating because i know he has the phone and i am now £500 out of pocket, there must be something oaypal can do ? They just seem to protect the buyer never the seller. The guy has told me he recieved the phone and spoke to ne the last 5 days about it and paypal cant use that as evidence 😡

[kernowlass]

@Sonny91

In the event of an item not received dispute the ONLY evidence paypal accept is tracking number that shows delivery of the item to the paypal registered address of the buyer.

You lost ALL your seller protection the minute you agreed to it being sent to another address.

So as you don't have any paypal seller protection you would need to take the buyer to the small claims court yourself to see if you can resolve things.

[Sonny91]

Thanks for your reply. Something i didnt know as i dont tend to sell much theough paypal. More of a buyer but i suppose it is a learning curve. Thanks