My rights as a seller. Non existent!!!

[Sellermum]

I recently sold an item on Ebay (Ride on Carry on travel chair).

My description was very clear and i included as many photographs as i could think of.

I sold the item to a buyer, packaged it very carefully and dispatched it with CollectPlus.

The seller contacted me that she got the item but she doesn't think it is as described and she claims there are holes on the chair seat. I referred her to the photos on my item which show clearly no holes. But she claimed i was being defensive.

She raised a claim with Paypal and within mintues, Paypal concluded the case to be to her favour and proceeded with deducting the amount from my paypal account. All within 10 minues. As a seller, i didn't seem to have any rights to say anything or do anything!!! How is this possible? I have tried to appeal the claim, but i don't seem to have the ability to Appeal on the case resolution centre. The case is closed.

Reaching out to my fellow sellers: have you had a similar situation, where you sold an item in good faith and the buyer claims it is damaged. You don't get your item back and your money is automatically refunded to the buyer.

What are my rights as a seller?

[kernowlass]

@Sellermum

To be fair with disputes for item received but not as described it is always one persons word against anothers.

So paypal "tend" to find in favour of the buyer BUT normally the buyer has to return the item to the seller at their own expense before you have to refund.

So we get 2 points of view on here >>

1. A buyer saying she got an item that did not live up to the aution description and is annoyed she has to send it back at her own expense before getting a refund and

2. A seller saying that the buyer is lying and she has to accept an item back that was accurately described.

[circuitsurgeon]

For what it's worth, I had a similar experience:

Sold an item to a buyer in the States and duly posted by standard airmail. After less than a week and with no attempt to communicate with me the buyer raised a non-receipt dispute and imediately escalated to a claim. Once the process is escalated to a claim, there is no way for a seller to respond other than by refunding. This was so unbelievably obvious a fraud/theft, but within 24 hours Paypal had refunded and closed the case and I had no say in the matter whatsoever.

I run a small business selling things worldwide and know full well that when an item takes a long time to reach its destination (1 week to the States is no time at all!) customers will invariably contact me first.

Paypal's "dispute resolution" process makes theft incredibly easy; in fact I'd go as far as saying that it's aiding and abetting criminality.

[kernowlass]

@circuitsurgeon

In the event of an "item not received dispute", you will always lose if you don't supply a tracking number.

You don't "have" to send trackable but if you don't then its at your own risk.

If paypal could see a tracking number they would also have seen the item was on its way + international and given the dispute longer to allow time for it to arrive.

But as you did not supply a tracking number at all then it would have made no difference waiting.

You may be lucky and when the buyer gets the item they may re-pay you.