Got Scammed, PayPal sided with them

[Matt4938]

So I’ve officially been scammed on this sale, so I’m trying to figure out if there’s anyway to protect myself going forward. Here’s some background below

Sold the iPhone 13 pro max 256gb
Customer claimed he received it broken and provided pictures
Paypal requested he send the device back
Upon my receiving the iPhone, I investigate and find the serial number completely different than what I had sent.
Went to the apple store and they provided me with a name of the person that activated the activation lock and that it was ATT (mine was tmobile)
The ATT store confirmed it was purchased near the same city the seller lives in.
Provided all of this evidence, and PayPal sided with the buyer since he claimed he received it damaged.

So my question is, is there any seller protection, or what could I have done differently? From my understanding, basically if the buyer says its received damaged, he can send back anything he wants.

[kernowlass]

@Matt4938 

In the event of an item received but not as described claim its always one persons word against anothers.

As paypal is the middleman between buyer and seller protection then they have to make a judgement call as they never see the item in question.

So as buyer and seller protection is not a guarantee then sometimes the seller feel aggrieved at losing and sometimes the buyer. Paypal can't please both at the same time. 

Sadly this time you missed out but if the buyer is in the same country as you then you may have enough evidence to make a small claims court claim against him if you have something like that in your country? Even if you tell him that you are going to go down that route may make him pay you again.

[Matt4938]

@kernowlass 

I understand Paypal must take a side, but my question is, as the seller, how can I protect myself? I feel like I provided substantial evidence to support my claim, while all the buyer had to do was say "item arrived broken". I went as far as to get in contact with the person who's iphone this is by using the apple activation lock email and still lose, they live in the same city as this guy.

Using the "item arrived broken" excuse, I feel like you could easily scam anyone out of the item.

[Medalist90]

PayPal is not a customer supporting..I just received expired salad crème in the mail…disputed and PayPal backed the vendor….

[PayPalMichelleW]

Hello @Medalist90,

We're sorry to hear that you had a negative experience with a dispute. That's certainly not something we what to have happened. Here's an article from our Help Center on how to appeal PayPal's decision on a case. If you have additional questions we would like to see if we can help. Please reach out to our Customer Support team to provide additional details. You can contact us here. 

Thanks!

MichelleW