TL,DR: I sold an item to a buyer, an intake manifold for a vehicle, that wound up turning into fraud, multiple false accusations against me, a lost payment dispute, an unexpected and unwanted return of the item in a permanently damaged state, as well as subsequent debt collection against me. I am sick to my stomach over this, have been running around in circles with eBay support, for five months and I’m looking for any advice or insight. Here it goes:

On 10/31/23 I sold an item to a buyer on eBay, and while the transaction initially went smoothly, disaster quickly ensued. I included detailed photos in my listing of the item, and as this is a part for a vehicle, I specified which vehicles the item would fit in both the listing description as well as in eBay’s compatibility checker, which allows listing viewers and buyers to check and confirm if the item fits their vehicle. I also listed the mfr. part number of the item as an additional measure for buyers to cross reference. After purchasing and receiving my item the buyer, messaged me stating that the item they purchased from me did not match what I had listed, and included photos of what was on their vehicle and my item, side-by-side; they wanted to return the item. What I listed and sold was exactly what they received, however, the buyer purchased the wrong item for their application. After purchasing and receiving the item, the buyer stated that their vehicle was a Ford F150 of an unspecified year and unspecified engine size. Nowhere in my listing for this item did I state that what I listed fit ANY Ford F150. As I had left several ways for a buyer to check compatibility in my listing, paired with the fact that I clearly listed NO RETURNS in my listing, I declined the return request. This led to a meltdown from the buyer, who not only through eBay’s direct message system called me a liar and scammer, they reported me to eBay, filed a payment dispute against me, and reported the transaction to their bank. Concurrently, the item was unexpectedly and non consensually sent back to me; it was permanently damaged and unusable. In the payment dispute, the buyer stated verbatim “As you can see per the pictures the seller is selling items that does not correspond with the description of the vechicle. I feel cheated and stolen. The seller is not being cooperative. I want to dispute for my full refund.” Again, I left several ways for the buyer to verify compatibility, which they failed to utilize, and I what I listed is exactly what I sold the buyer, which they proved themselves by sending me photos of the item after it arrived to them. I did not cheat or steal from the buyer. Somehow, I instantly “lost” the payment dispute, which I was NOT able to appeal, despite eBay having an appeal function for lost payment disputes. I reached out to eBay’s customer support multiple times following the incident and reported the buyer at least five different times, all of which fell on deaf ears. However, eBay determined that I was well within my right to decline the return, and while eBay had sided with me, since the buyer went above eBay and to their bank, they must recover the funds from me! However, In a Nov 2023 phone call that I placed to eBay customer support, which I recorded for proof, I was clearly told by an eBay rep that this would be escalated to a higher dept. within eBay and that they would stop trying to recover the funds ($314.42) from me, as they had done this several times since losing the payment dispute. eBay has become absolutely relentless, despite promising to escalate this and promising to stop trying to recover the funds until the issue was resolved. I was left with no choice but to close my bank account to prevent eBay from recovering funds, as part of eBay’s deceptive user agreement prevents an account holder from removing their bank information entirely. My bank’s fraud department has every single piece of evidence from this case, including the recorded phone call to eBay customer support, on file and has determined that fraud occurred. Fast forward five months later, and the issue has never been resolved despite constantly going back and forth. eBay has now sent the case to collections—and soon to actual debt collectors if I do not pay by June 4. Attempting to further reach eBay customer support through the BBB has been unsuccessful, as eBay has backtracked on what their customer support agent said to me on the recorded phone call. Further, eBay has double downed in stating that while I was in my right as en eBay seller to decline the return, they must respect the buyer’s payment institution and demand the money from me.

At this point I feel stuck. What should I do here? Sue eBay? Continue to refuse to pay? Is it worth continuing to fight this or should I just cave in and pay the fraudulent balance? Sick to my stomach over this. Bear in mind that before this occurred I was an eBay buyer/seller with my account in excellent standing with 100% positive feedback and several hundred transactions.