Buyer Trying It On!!

[Evenstar]

I sold a vintage brooch bridal bouquet on Ebay at the beginning of December, the buyer didn't leave me any feedback but I sent it Hermes and knew it had been delivered on 14th December. Today I received a message from the buyer claiming that lots of stones were missing from the brooches, the bouquet wasn't put together properly and the fabric was fraying and she didn't like the artificial flowers that I had used to finish the bouquet.

She wanted £10 back from the £30 purchase price. The description she has given me and Ebay bears no resemblance to the lovely handcrafted item that left my home, in a brand new keepsake box and carefully packaged.

She has now become aggressive and unpleasant in the messages she has sent me and said all the "brooches are a pile of pants" and is saying I am being unreasonable in offering her £30 if she pays the £3.90 postage and returns the bouquet to me. This must be a scam because if it was really as bad as she is making out she wouldn't want to keep it.

Any advice, am I able to turn it over to Ebay to deal with as I don't want to communicate with her anymore as she is so illogical and unreasonable.

Thanks in advance

Fact she was abusive means nothing. eBay have done this to me several times and even when people are threatening to come to my house and sort me out ebay have still refunded them. They just pay for it from eBay not from my funds

She has now reduced her demand to £5! She said she would send photos of the "damaged brooches" after New Year, nothing so far.

Then last night, I bought something on Ebay and found I had to pay a debit of £36 on Paypal before I could pay for my purchase. Is this correct? I had an email to say that I had received £36 when she paid for it, and then it had turned into a minus balance. Perhaps I am being a bit dim, but I didn't think it was right that I had to pay another £36 as surely it was her original £36 that was being held? Perhaps I am being dim , can anyone explain?

I am so sick of this wretched woman and I don't think I am going to sell anything on Ebay again

and you refused her kind offer?

yes, paypal have withdrawn the money and put it on hold, when you win the case you will get it back. Or if she does return for a refund they will refund her.

Have you escalated the case yet.

I have refused her offer, another poster said it wasn't the done thing to escalate the case as the seller so haven't done that yet. I thought I should give her a few days to post the pictures. Will it be escalated automatically after a certain amount of time?

did you ask in the case for the buyer to return for a full refund? I would do that now if I were you. Otherwise if not escalated you need to wait 30 days for it to close.

Yes I did offer her a full refund at least twice, but for some reason that is not what she wants, the whole thing is bizarre

and you have done that in the resolution centre - so she only has 7 days to return it or the case closes?

The case is still open in the resolution centre, and I have offered her a refund, she does not want to accept that and is still asking for a partial refund. The case was opened on 28 December so that would mean the 7 days is almost up. I think I have done everything correctly, but I have never been in this position before, I have sold in the past but not for a long time, and the balance seems to have swung very much towards the buyer now.

Thank you so much for your help by the way

well - if you do escalate I would expect ebay to wait for tracking proving she has returned it and only then would they refund her. I don't know about the myth of sellers escalating and then losing cases - well, I have never experienced it anyway. I have escalated cases and won them.

Thanks for all the advice everyone, in the end she dropped the case claiming that because her computer was so old she was unable to upload pictures of the "damage" as evidence I am hoping to sell my other bouquets through a local bridal shop as I feel it will probably be less trouble

Have you tried ETSY? That is for selling vintage items or things that are hand made.