I just won an eBay case against a seller that sold a laptop that was said to be fully working but was sold AS-IS in the for parts or broken listing category.
Reason is that it arrived severely damaged from insufficient packaging as well as pretty bad damage to the box it was shipped in and the seller's attitude was basically, screw you, you received the item and you have to put in the claim with the carrier or you can ship back to us at your expense, we will put in the claim, and if we get insurance reimbursement we will refund you.
And they were whining about how they were losing so much money on the sale in the first place even without refunding me.
They were also playing dumb.. or maybe they really were so dumb that they couldn't figure out/refused to put in a claim online and also pretty much ignored everything I was saying and just kept coming back with responses that pretty much flat out accused me of trying to scam them despite all the pictures I took and attached to the eBay case.. even ones that they specifically requested.
They did offer a partial refund in the $5 range.. idiots.
Those type of people should have their eBay accounts canceled for life.
I've received damaged and DOA things sold as used before and never had an issue with at least getting a partial refund that was acceptable to me.
I've even received a few damaged items that were not packaged properly, such as the industrial rack mount computer I purchased a while back.
I didn't even ask for anything back from that seller because I got a really, really good deal on it in the first place and the only thing that got messed up was the front panel on the case and the plastic button for the power switch. Took me about 15 minutes to straighten out the front panel and a few more to epoxy the power switch button.
I did contact the seller and let them know what happened so they could take measures to make sure their shipping department would package stuff better in the future.
From my experience, most sellers on eBay are pretty good, but there are some really, really bad ones as well.
And as a seller who packages stuff really well, I have not had any issues with buyers except one time where I ended up giving a partial refund to somebody who bought a camera lens and apparently didn't look at the pictures or read the description to find out that the 40+ year old lens was not in perfect shape. Wasn't worth my time to try and fight it and in the end be forced to give a full refund.
I've only listed a few things in the for parts or broken listing category, so I am not sure how it seems like some people have a lot of problems with the used category.
I do make sure to take really good pictures with a good DSLR and good glass, so that may be part of it.
I also put in really detailed information in my listings as well. I am sure that has something to do with it as well.