New buyer claims item broken.

[justcruising49]

Just had a buyer with 0 feedback get an item delivered and put a claim in for item not new and not as pictured which I have never had before,  and received a photo of the item broken in 3 which is a first for me and claiming refund.  Anything I can do as this seems suspect to me as never had anything broken before. I sent an email as reply  "Hi Kate, this was most certainly a new item and was not damaged in any way. In all my years on ebay never ever had something like this happen. The photos are of the actual item sent. Swarovski pack themselves the item in fitted foam for the item itself, and then I bubble wrap the whole thing and posted in an extra box with newspaper to protect even further. Any chance you damaged this yourself please? And please be honest regarding this. I am not a store but a private individual and I will loose so much if you or someone you know damaged this, money I certainly cannot afford to loose. Is the box damaged in anyway, as it does have $100 insurance if Australia post damaged the box, so if that is the case please send photos of the box with packing and keep the box for insurance purposes. This item cost me a lot, and was bought direct from Swarovski and I checked before posting as I always do, and I am a reputable seller. I have appointments tomorrow, and Dr's Friday morning but can contact ebay later Friday, best regards Gemma 

[justcruising49]

Thank you for your suggestion re APost and it was safe dropped and I did get them to check the photo. They said the photo did not show any damage, but the photos do not show up clearly and more to show where it was placed. Great idea anyway and was worth a try.

[justcruising49]

I am suspecting she had another and tried to reglue it maybe, before buying mine. I have sent a return label and will see on its return. I may never know tho if it was mine that was broken either accidently or in the post, or another one in their possession.  

[davewil1964]

Re packaging.

Did you wrap the item, in the first instance in bubblewrap? Tightly? Bubblewrap expands with heat and can exercise significant forces when applied tightly to objects. The inside of an AP van can be high

[gutterpunkz05]

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@justcruising49 wrote:

I am suspecting she had another and tried to reglue it maybe, before buying mine. I have sent a return label and will see on its return. I may never know tho if it was mine that was broken either accidently or in the post, or another one in their possession.  

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That is a whole lot of assumption on your part.    So they break an item try to glue it but fail, then locate and purchase an identical item wait for it to be delivered, and all the while the tube of glue just happens to be sitting on the table.

I can think of 100 other reasons for a tube of glue to be sitting on a table.

[siddieswans]

Remember that most Swarovski figurines are composed of different elements glued together. There was a very large collection of Swarovski that went to auction several years ago. Even though it most of the pieces had been kept in their boxes by the collector, there were several that were in pieces inside their boxes, because the glue had failed. A piece would not have to be "broken" to be in pieces. When I have sold Swarovski I did exactly as you do; put the piece in the original foam padded box, and protect the outside of the box.