Buyer received item. Item not working? (Australia)

[treau68]

Hi everyone. 

I know there are tons of threads just like this one, but I couldn't find one for this particular situation which I will share and hopefully get some advice/opinions 🙂

About two weeks ago I sold a Portable/External Hard Drive to a buyer, well I should say they won it as it was an auction but anyway. I did not have the original box or receipt for the HDD but did mention this on my listing. I packaged the item very securly and safe. I wrapped bubble wrap around the hard drive and USB cable with lots of tape (the bubble wrap itself is a thicker one then usual for extra padding) and had the said items inside a safe padded parcel. Nothing could move and it could definitely take a hit or two and still be fine.

I also tested the hard drive on more than a couple devices to make sure it was 100% working which it indeed was. So I took it to Australia Post and away it went and they provided me with a tracking number.

So come to recently, the tracking number said the item arrived last Friday. But I get a message from the buyer the following Wednesday stating they have not yet received the item. So I aksed them to let me know which was their local Post Office as I'm more than happy to contact them to find out. I got no reply.

The following night, the package all of a sudden came so ok. Fair enough. But now the buyer claims the item is not working. There appears to be no physical damage to the hard drive, but the buyer claims it does not work. I have been back and forth with them messaging solutions and offering troubleshooting links which I have used in the pass. Whether or not they did this I don't know as all they replied back was "I want a refund as it's not working. I will send the item back to you AFTER you refund me."

So this is where I ask for your opinions/advice. What are my choices?

As I have said above, the item was 100% working. There does not seem to be any physical damage, the item was well secured and packaged very well. It was tracked through Australia Post. And now they want a refund before they return the item.

This particular buyer also has a few negative feedback with not being able to pay for items and also not returning items.

Any help is most appreciated guys 🙂

Many thanks!

- T

PS. Might be obvious but this isn't my main account. 

[designers*n*more]

I recently returned an item that was completely different to what was ordered. (Not an eBay purchase)

Lodged a dispute with Paypal. Escalated the claim. Was given the address to return the item to.

Paypal offer up to 8 returns where they reimburse the return postage costs.

i took a photo of the postage receipt and sent it to PayPal. They then asked for a photo of the parcel with the address that was supplied for the return. Sent that photo.

i was then refunded the return postage!

[padi*0409]

designers, you started your post talking about eBay policy, the MBG clearly states the seller has to reimburse postage to the buyer before return.

You  then started talking about the Paypal return process which is a totally different process to eBay's, and by the way you as a seller do not have the right to tell a buyer to use the Paypal process and not the MBG.

I will however state that I believe the MBG is an ill-thought out process and does not work in the way it was intended, it is unecessarily complex and long-winded but unfortunately it's in place now and it's very unlikey that eBay will withdraw it.

                 

[1688store]

With electronics or parts it's best to record the serial number on paper and take a photo of it. So this way buyers can't easily swap your HDD out.

If the item returned back is faulty and then you can check if the HDD serial number has been tampered or not according to your original photo taken before.