I want to reiterate to you that you DO NOT WANT TO ASK EBAY TO ESCALATE THE CASE - unless you can be sure that the case will immediately close in your favour.

If the case is escalated, it is almost always in the buyer's favour.

For the same reason, you want to avoid having the buyer escalate.

In order to avoid the dispute going in the buyer's favour, you will need to keep on contacting eBay CS reps via chat with all of the information, politely explaining the situation in point form, and politely asking that the case be closed in your favour.

You will want a CS rep who will follow your argument and accept the points that you are making, rather than one who just reads from a cue card and quotes the usual procedure or pieces of policy.

I believe that you can ask to speak to a supervisor or claims specialist; however, I can't verify this as I've never had to do so.

The explanation/request should proceed in a way similar to this:

• The buyer is claiming that the shoes are not authentic, apparently on the basis of "a friend" who says it's not authentic.(This friend is not a Nike representative or official.)
• Please look at the message in which the buyer states this. I received this message The message was sent xx-Aug-20 at 15:07 (or whatever the time/date was).
• This sort of hearsay is not one of the accepted/approved ways in which a buyer is supposed to be able to demonstrate that an item is not authentic. Under eBay's Money Back Guarantee policy , the buyer should provide strong evidence that the item is a counterfeit, such as third-party authentication.
• Because the buyer's reason as shown in that message is based upon such lack of evidence, there is no valid reason to accept the buyer's claim.
• I have a receipt from the authorised Australian seller from whom I bought these. Please provide me with an email address to which I can email the scanned copy of the receipt.
• I have a signed Statutory Declaration in which I assert that the shoes were indeed original. I will upload this / email this as required. Please let me know how to provide this to you now.
• I have "no returns" on my listing. On the basis of the buyer's flimsy excuse for claiming that the shoes are not authentic, and the evidence that I provide showing that the shoes are authentic, it is my belief that the buyer is attempting to return these authentic shoes for a refund via a SNAD claim only because he/she cannot return these items for a "change of mind" reason.
• The buyer may have discovered that these shoes are currently available (from the seller from whom I purchased them) at a considerably lower price, and I believe that this may have precipitated the buyer's desire for a refund.
• It is therefore my view that the buyer is "claiming an item was not as described in order to return the item when the seller did not offer free returns", which is a breach of the Abusive buyer policy .
• On the basis of these points, I ask that you intervene manually and close the case because the buyer is making a false claim.

It's really important to go through these points in a consistent way, getting the CS rep's agreement to the points made. Wait for agreement on one or two points before you go to the next point, if that's possible.

Keep it simple, straightforward, and logical. Keep emotion out of it. Point out the facts, and point out eBay's own policy.