My eBay/PayPal saga, pt. 2
Read more about my issues here. But, long story short …
The buyer of my 1st gen 4GB iPhone filed a claim with PayPal stating the iPhone I sold “was not as described.” His two points were that a) the bottom half of the iPhone screen didn’t work (not allowing you to swipe to unlock the iPhone) and b) that the iPhone wasn’t Unlocked for other carriers as I said it was in the auction. I responded to the claim by stating that I had no way to test the iPhone on other networks as I use AT&T (as I stated in the auction) and was selling the iPhone “as-is” and in “used” condition. PayPal sided with the buyer, pulled the $265 out of my bank account to hold until the buyer returned the iPhone to me. I called to try to appeal the decision, with no luck. Once PayPal makes up their mind, there’s nothing you can do.
I finally received the iPhone today.
First thing I noticed is that two of the three iPhone cases I included in the auction weren’t returned to me. Neither were the headphones I included in the auction.
Next thing I noticed is that the bottom half of the screen works just fine. I was able to swipe to unlock the iPhone.
Last thing I noticed is some scrape damage around the SIM card, as if he had difficulty putting a paperclip into the hole to release the tray.
I immediately called PayPal to protest, yet again. However, my protests fell on deaf ears. They released the funds to the buyer even though my return wasn’t complete. I escalated the case and the case-worker determined that I’d “thrown in the cases to ‘sweeten the pot’ and help sell the iPhone.” I told her that I was selling everything included because I wanted to get as much for the iPhone as possible. She sent my case to “appeals”, but told me flat-out that she didn’t think there was enough evidence to get anything done.
So here I am, back where I started, but with a damaged iPhone and less accessories than I started with. My only option is to relist the iPhone as-is and see how much I can get for it. I previously got $265 with all the accessories. Looking on eBay, I see similar items going for about $200 without the cases. So that’s what I hope for!
If there were an option other than eBay, I would flock to it. Any thoughts?
My only consolation is that the guy who originally bought it is going to have Karma bite him in the ass. He has not been fair throughout this ordeal and that’s going to haunt him. *sigh*
