I may have mentioned it here, but a few months back I bought a Hot Toys Iron Man on ebay (Avengers Mark 7). It's supposed to come with swappable armor so you can have a clean armor look or a battle damaged look. This particular figure had 2 sets of battle damaged and no clean armor. I don't know if it was a factory error, or if the guy had 2 of them and was kitbashing, but either way I got what I paid for.
Fast forward to April. I'm a little hard up for cash, so I'm selling some stuff. I list this Iron Man Mk 7 on ebay. My description specifically says "purchased used on ebay, never displayed by me. Please see pictures to know what you are getting." Then it goes on to item specifics like the model number, it's diecast, etc. Then I finish it with "please make sure you look at the pictures closely, everything you see is what you will get." The figure sits, and sits. A couple bites, but no fish to reel in on it. Last week I got tired of looking at it, so I sent an offer to the "interested buyers" - $80 off. It was listed for $380, I offered it for $300. It literally, no joke, sold in about 2 minutes. I pack it up, communicate with the guy, all is well.
Then, he receives it.
He sends a message - "did you have two of these? Because this is missing parts."
I reply: "No, I only had the one copy. Is something from the pictures missing?"
Him: "Yes, the clean armor is missing."
Me: "There wasn't any clean armor in the pics. Like the description said, "what you see is what you get"."
He sends another message but I ignore it because I'm done.
A couple hours go by and I get the email - buyer requesting to return item. He listed the reason as "item not as described." After I see the back of my brain, I respond to his request to remind him that I don't accept returns (I know that doesn't matter to ebay) and that the description said to look at all of the pictures (of which there were many). He replies that he uploaded pictures to prove his case. The photos he uploaded to the return request show exactly what my photos did - 2 sets of battle damaged armor. So now, I will copy/paste our interaction:
"I understand you don't except returns but its missing pieces because they arent correct."
"From your pictures, it's not missing anything, though. You got exactly what I was selling and what I showed in my pictures."
"It's supposed to have cleen armor parts."
"Did you look at the pictures on my listing before purchasing?"
"I briefly looked at the pictures to see if it looked like everything should be there which it had every slot filled in the box. If I had seen or known it had duplicate pieces I would never of bought the item. you also didt list in the discription anywhere that its duplicats pieces. if your selling something youd think to do the research on it to make sure its correct. not listing the details is also shady tactic."
"Ok, so you admit to looking at the pictures and reading the description before purchasing, thank you. The description was listed as "used", "from an ebay sale where the buyer got it from an estate sale", and "look at all of the pictures because what you see is what you get." I did not assume I needed to specifically say that it came with two sets of battle damaged armor because I figured my customers would read the listing. I don't have 100& positive feedback after 20+ years by "being shady."
"like i said pryor i saw everything looked there. i did not se 2 battle damage armours. i didn't see that in the pictures. You can say what youd like to make yourself feel better. we will not agree on the matter clearly. i will deal with ebay to get my money back have a nice day."
"Make myself feel better? lol ok. Good luck."
This morning I call ebay and talk to a guy, very polite. He keeps me on the line as he reads our interactions, looks at the photos provided by both parties. After a few minutes he says "ok, yes, I see. Do not worry, you did nothing wrong and the buyer is obviously misusing our return policy. You have nothing to worry about, simply ignore this case moving forward and do not interact with him further." Then he gave me instructions on how to report a buyer for misusing ebay policies and misrepresenting himself for a return. He gave me a report number to put in there, which apparently will lead the fraud team to the audio recording of our conversation. And he also filed a report. He said this will remove the buyer protections from this guy to ensure he does not misuse eBay's policies again.
I was pretty shocked at the whole thing. I had a situation a year ago, I posted about it in here, involving someone who claimed a damaged box was my problem. Ebay backed me then, too. So I'm currently 2-0 against people who wish to return an item for no good reason. I asked the guy on the phone if there's any reason to think the investigation team may side against me, and he said no. And that they will have access to the phone recording. So hopefully everything stands, but for now he said to ignore the deadline given for the return and to have a great day.
