False Claim made by an International Buyer - Any Experience Against this? Help!

[cocoalliance]

We just got an " item received damaged" case open by a Canada buyer.

She purchased an enagement box from store ( very cheap compare to the oversea shipping cost), we handled it very carefully and kept some pics of the actual product we sent to her, and also plus a Signature Request On Delivery. The lady contacted us on the other day after she received it. She messaged us with a picture in dim light to demand a refund or at least partial refund for she saw some spots on the barcode label sticker.  We took the photo of the other box of same style in hands straight away to explain they were not marks or stain, they were just the glitter spots patters on the box, because some were covered by the barcode label and that's why there were some dark silouette of the spots pattern shown on the label. We also brightened and zoomed in the pic she upload to us to examine it, no stain no black mark, just the patten's silhouette. We also suggested her to peal it off, as it could be pealed off very easily. But the lady rejected, she claim hers looked different to the pic we sent, and she thought the box would be damaged or ruined if she try to peal it. Basically, only the refund will make her happy.  Did any seller handle such doggy buyer before? Just like searching bone in an egg and claim item faulty or damage on ebay?  We contact the Seller Help, they suggest to refund and request the buyer to return the product, but the point is the international shipping cost are much more than the item. This is so sick! Should we let the case open until ebay step in and we appeal ? We are going to close the Selling to Oversea after this, the economy enviroment is very bad, there will be more and more fishy buyer trying to gain freeby, international sales just make seller more vulnerable.

[gutterpunkz05]

You are best to cut your losses, rather than add to them.  If you can get away with a partial refund, jump at it.   Otherwise start organizing return  post.  Have fun with canada post.

If your buyer truly is a scammer, they are likely to be 2 steps ahead of you

[cocoalliance]

The box itself doesn’t worth much. But maybe it’s a little bit hard to find in shops or even online. We guess the Canadian buyer bought it from us and when she got it she regretted to paid that much to buy from overseas, then tried to find excuses to blackmail us to cut down the cost to make it as cheap as their domestic market price for similar item. 
I don’t know how many times she have done to the other sellers to gain a decent discount… wordless about these people.

 

[cocoalliance]

 

We forgot to upload some pictures 

 

[sugar249]

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@cocoalliance wrote:

The box itself doesn’t worth much. But maybe it’s a little bit hard to find in shops or even online. We guess the Canadian buyer bought it from us and when she got it she regretted to paid that much to buy from overseas, then tried to find excuses to blackmail us to cut down the cost to make it as cheap as their domestic market price for similar item. 
I don’t know how many times she have done to the other sellers to gain a decent discount… wordless about these people.

 

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Stop with the calling them scammers and blackmailers, and accusing them of possibly doing it to others.  You have no proof, your picture clearly shows it was falsely advertised, and that it has a shocking barcode detracting from the quality of what already looks like a cheap item.

Live up to the fact that you have done the wrong thing.

Take it as a learning lesson

[sugar249]

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@cocoalliance wrote:

We are not experienced enough eBay, but maybe we were so lucky in the pass, no dodgy come to track us, that’s why I need some valuable experience or ideas from you guys.

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Really!!!!!! you have sold near to 4,000 items and you are claiming you are not experienced.  Really

[springyzone]

Yes, several years ago we struck a dodgy buyer from overseas who supplied us with an impossibly dark photo that showed nothing & wanted a partial refund. We think it was because she had objected to paying international postage as it was dearer than the domestic postage rate in our ad. She had written and said we should be able to do it for the same price.

So we faced the same problem as you. A buyer we believed was dodgy. And what to do.

On the one hand, you don't want them to get away with it & you could pay for return postage. This would leave you with quite a financial loss though & there's another thing you need to think of. If you do that, the buyer might deliberately damage that box a little bit before returning it. Roughly tear off the bar code or mark it in some way so it really does look damaged.

And you wouldn't be able to prove a thing as they had already claimed it was faulty and damaged.

In our case, we decided that our cheapest way out was a partial refund. I think you should do that too.

Give them a partial refund and block them and maybe, for cheaper items, don't offer international sales as the return postage costs if you run into trouble with a sale make it just not worthwhile.

You need to do what is best for you, what will leave you with losing the least amount of money possible.

[etb321]

Have the buyer follow ebay procedures and open a case. When you look at the options you can respond with a partial refund offer. Be generous. When the case is closed add the buyer to your blocked list.  Then logon to ebay Canada and find report this buyer.  Keep your report short and to the point. Include the overview photo which clearly shows the barcode and the box not the close up.

[sugar249]

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@etb321 wrote:

Then logon to ebay Canada and find report this buyer.  Keep your report short and to the point. Include the overview photo which clearly shows the barcode and the box not the close up.

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Not sure what you are going to report the buyer for,   lodging a complaint for an obviously dodgy item,  maybe the seller should be reported.

[etb321]

The objective is to build up a track record of the buyer making partial refund claims.

[domino-710]

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@sugar249 wrote:

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@etb321 wrote:

Then logon to ebay Canada and find report this buyer.  Keep your report short and to the point. Include the overview photo which clearly shows the barcode and the box not the close up.

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Not sure what you are going to report the buyer for,   lodging a complaint for an obviously dodgy item,  maybe the seller should be reported.

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Why is this an ' obviously dodgy item ' ??