Awhile ago in this thread I mentioned selling my wife's older Macbook and having the buyer claim it was defective, with a "horrible" display, and wanting to return it. I protested to eBay, explaining that there was nothing wrong with the machine and that the auction was clearly marked "no returns." eBay sided with the buyer, charged me with the refund and authorized the return at my expense.
The box arrived yesterday. The laptop was in it, but the charger (an $80 Apple charger) wasn't. Although the buyer managed somehow to hose the OS -- it took me a couple of hours to reformat the disk and reinstall and then update it the OS -- the machine was in otherwise good used condition. Once again I filed a protest with eBay, and they responded with a request that I wet-sign, scan and return a declaration as to the facts in the case. I did, returning the declaration within about 15 minutes. An hour or so later eBay responded back saying that they had reversed their initial decision and restored my funds. There was no mention of disposition of the laptop, they appear to be letting me keep it.
I don't know if they have a way of clawing back the refund from the buyer, it may be that they just decided to eat the $200 and put the matter to bed. But in any case it looks like I've been made not just whole, but whole with a used Macbook.
Color me surprised!
