Buyer claiming item defective - eBay

Tacitus said:
At the start of November I sold a second hand camera on eBay, in full working order to the best of my knowledge.
[...]
I would prefer not to refund or accept the return as I don't believe I sent a broken item (he could have damaged it in the last month and a half), and he really ought to have checked it when he received it.
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True, though are those statements above because you also didn't check it before sending it?

I think you're covered though, obvs there are some limits here and you can't just have some unlimited liability whereby at any point in time a chargeback can be made, ebay does set this to 30 days under the money back guarantee for "not as described" items (which includes broken items).

I guess the main question then is how sure are you really that it was working/what is the buyer complaining about specifically? If it was a Christmas present then that's quite a plausible reason for them not finding out until now and if they did want to scam you then surely they'd have done so in the 30 day period. I wouldn't personally want to have sent someone a faulty camera and you accepting the return just puts you in the same position you were before.
 
casper_uk said:
I hope you have the serial number of the camera you sent. Odds are you will get a different, broken camera returned.
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I don't think it matters

Ebay don't really care from what I've seen.


Best you can do is politely accept and hope it's not a scam
 
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Tacitus said:
Thanks everyone for your input

Getting some conflicting views though - is the 30 day period applicable even if they claim the item is broken?

I had set it as no returns accepted. Apparently that doesn't mean much though...
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I doubt they even care about the 30 day thing. It's eBay they hate sellers. I'd call them directly instead of refusing first to see what they say.
 
dowie said:
I think you're covered though, obvs there are some limits here and you can't just have some unlimited liability whereby at any point in time a chargeback can be made, ebay does set this to 30 days under the money back guarantee for "not as described" items (which includes broken items).

I guess the main question then is how sure are you really that it was working/what is the buyer complaining about specifically? If it was a Christmas present then that's quite a plausible reason for them not finding out until now and if they did want to scam you then surely they'd have done so in the 30 day period. I wouldn't personally want to have sent someone a faulty camera and you accepting the return just puts you in the same position you were before.
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Agree with you to a point, and if it was a new item then fair enough, but there's no way I'd buy a 2nd hand complex electronic item and not check it was fully working straight away, especially before gifting it to someone!
 
SpellowHouse said:
Tell him to get lost.

You say he has had it for a month and a half, then he is outside the standard ebay warranty period.
The window to return it has elapsed
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exactly - did he provide details of what he says isn't working, and is it obscure -
if not, no way - don't you have the money in your pocket now anyway
 
dowie said:
True, though are those statements above because you also didn't check it before sending it?

I think you're covered though, obvs there are some limits here and you can't just have some unlimited liability whereby at any point in time a chargeback can be made, ebay does set this to 30 days under the money back guarantee for "not as described" items (which includes broken items).

I guess the main question then is how sure are you really that it was working/what is the buyer complaining about specifically? If it was a Christmas present then that's quite a plausible reason for them not finding out until now and if they did want to scam you then surely they'd have done so in the 30 day period. I wouldn't personally want to have sent someone a faulty camera and you accepting the return just puts you in the same position you were before.
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It's a camera I used to use without any issues, but not for a while now. I charged it up and checked it still had basic functionality, but I didn't do a thorough test of it.

I don't want to be selling broken goods, but at the same time, the passage of time makes me a bit suspicious and I don't want to be the one taking the hit if he's damaged it.
 
Tacitus said:
Thanks everyone for your input

Getting some conflicting views though - is the 30 day period applicable even if they claim the item is broken?

I had set it as no returns accepted. Apparently that doesn't mean much though...
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The no returns basically means the buyer cannot return the item if they simply don't want it as a change of mind. If, however, the item is not as described, broken or damaged then you have to accept the return. This is only for 30 days after the delivery date. After this you do not have to accept a return and ebay will not enforce this.

30 days is ample time for the buyer to check an item and imo too long as it gives the issue of the buyer using the item like a rental service and just saying it now doesn't work, or actually just breaking the item within the 30 days and claiming that is how it arrived.
 
If it was used, the buyer should have checked it within 30 days and the Christmas excuse doesn't make much sense. Presumably there was no seal or packaging to break or anything.

If they wanted the protection of being able to return a Christmas present, he should have bought something from a proper retail store as they almost all will have extended Christmas return periods for exactly this reason.
 
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Based on not trusting eBay or the type of buyers you might find there, i'd guess he's broken it shortly after the 30 days window, so left it until just after Christmas to give eBay an 'I couldn't check it' sob story in the hope they'll ignore the 30 day thing.
 
Haggisman said:
Agree with you to a point, and if it was a new item then fair enough, but there's no way I'd buy a 2nd hand complex electronic item and not check it was fully working straight away, especially before gifting it to someone!
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I wouldn't either I agreed with the OP that the buyer should have checked, I'm just of the opinion that (in general) sellers ought to check too. Seems in this case he has done some basic checks before selling so I'd err toward rejecting the return.

Tacitus said:
It's a camera I used to use without any issues, but not for a while now. I charged it up and checked it still had basic functionality, but I didn't do a thorough test of it.

I don't want to be selling broken goods, but at the same time, the passage of time makes me a bit suspicious and I don't want to be the one taking the hit if he's damaged it.
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So what's his actual claim then? Like is he claiming something specific is faulty that you hadn't checked? Or has he just given a vague "doesn't work" claim?

Surely if he's claiming that basic functionality doesn't work and you know you checked that before sending then there isn't much uncertainty here, you *know* that when you press the button to take a picture on that thing the shutter functions etc..

However, if he was more specific and was like "camera will take pictures but the flash is broken" or "... autofocus doesn't focus I can only use it in manual" and you hadn't checked that then maybe he is being genuine.
 
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Cameras are pretty tough so it could be

-genuinely damaged in transit
-the old "send back thiers broken one to get free gear"
-they could have broken it between delivery and now
-best case: they are a real lemon and can't work it and you get your camera back and it's fine.
 
Surely they would have tested this before it arrived if it was a Christmas present!

I bet they are saying its faulty as got something better for Christmas or they have swapped it but if they had done this why wait a month and a half before raising the issue.

This is why I do not bother with Ebay anymore for anything, I cannot be bothered with people pulling stuff like this and ebay just going with the seller regardless of proof etc

I hope you do not get screwed over by this or if you do get the camera back its the same 1 you sent and its working fine ( I have seen this before where items are fine when received back)
 
Tephnos said:
Never been bent over on eBay selling expensive stuff.

I always record that I take pictures of serials/details etc. it seems to weed out the chancers looking for an easy grift.
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Taking serials down is an absolute minimum these days, a fairly large youtuber "randomgaminginHD" sold a laptop and someone swapped the SSDs over. Made a lot of peope wise to it in both ways. I see some people even film themselves packing it now.

I sold one item for ~£50, was working perfectly, packaged OTT. Buyer claimed it did not work an eBay refunded him after a couple of days of me asking for proof and buyer not responding...
I then followed the process and sent a label for it to be returned and it was not.. Had to escalate that for along time and eventually got the payment back. The buyer just flat out ignored everything after opening the case and almost got the item and his money back.
 
413x said:
I don't think it matters

Ebay don't really care from what I've seen.


Best you can do is politely accept and hope it's not a scam
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It definitely matters if you can prove that it is a different serial number. It's not going to cover everything, for example they could still replace internal parts and send the 'same' item back. But it tends to be good enough cover for the vast majority of low level scammers.
 
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