Court ruling despite clear evidence in favor of the buyer – need advice urgently | Seller Lounge

vfo-parts · 2025-12-08T13:29:39.165000Z

Hello everyone,I hope someone here might be able to help me, because I no longer know how to proceed in my current case.The sequence of events:A buyer purchased an engine for a Mercedes on 28.10.2025 shortly after midnight for a four-figure amount. Shipping via freight forwarder took place on the same day, with delivery on 31.10.2025 to the workshop address provided by the buyer.On 16.11.2025, the buyer suddenly opened a return with the reason “ordered by mistake”. After that, nothing happened until 01.12.2025. On 01.12., the buyer then wrote that the engine had allegedly been inspected and was “defective.” When asked how it had been inspected, only very vague and hard-to-understand accusations were made. The reason for the return therefore has absolutely nothing to do with the originally stated reason.On 03.12.2025, the return arrived at our place via freight forwarder. Immediate finding: The returned engine was not the one we had delivered. The buyer was informed directly – no response, except for even more accusations. In addition, he sent a photo of his engine bay, clearly showing that our engine is installed in his vehicle.We then opened a case via eBay that same day. The case was put on hold for five days and we were sent a statement that we were supposed to sign and send back. We did that on 03.12.2025 immediately – including a detailed description and photo documentation.On 05.12.2025 the case was decided in the buyer's favor with the reasoning:“We did not receive a response to our request for further information.”But there was no further request apart from the document we submitted in full on the same day.By phone, we were first told that our statement had never arrived. After being forwarded to a supervisor, a completely new reason was given:The statement had indeed arrived, but could not be taken into account because we had “a similar case this year” (the item value here was in the low double digits) – and therefore the decision would now be in the buyer's favor. When I asked to receive this statement in writing, the call was ended without a word.On 05.12.2025, I filed an appeal against the decision by phone, with no response. I tried again on 08.12.2025 –this was rejected with the note that the original decision had been “correct.” There was again no substantive review of the evidence we submitted.Since then, all messages from us have only been answered with empty standard phrases. No response to the content, no solution, no review .My questions for the community:Does anyone have an idea how I can still get justice despite the decision?Is there a department at eBay that can be contacted in such cases when regular support is blocking us?Has anyone already had experience with obviously false returns where the buyer wants to keep the part they installed?Is it worth taking legal action (report / lawyer), or is that usually pointless with eBay?The eBay employee's suggestion that I should “ask the buyer to send back the correct engine” is, in my view, an outrageous cheek – I did it anyway, just for the sake of form. Of course, no response.I would be grateful for any advice, because at the moment it is impossible to communicate with eBay in any factual way at all. Best regardsBen

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Court ruling despite clear evidence in favor of the buyer – need advice urgently | Seller Lounge | eBay Germany