I have had people buy things clearly listed as FOR PARTS and BROKEN/NOT WORKING on eBay and had people open claims that "it doesn't work" and I have no choice but to accept a return. The claim will go into arbitration because the buyer and me the seller cannot come to an agreement and eBay will always side with the buyer. As a seller I am forced to pay return shipping.

I sold a laptop some time ago where I had removed the battery to save on shipping costs from weight because it was internal and was also dead. The buyer opened a claim saying "it doesn't charge" and I had no choice but to accept the return. If I did not provide a return label they would be automatically refunded and keep the item.

Another laptop I sold as FOR PARTS with photos of the inside missing things like the hard drive and memory. The guy got it and opened a case because it didn't turn on and then getting upset because there was no memory in it. Guess who had to accept a return?

Don't ever believe that the seller can refuse a return on eBay. The buyer ALWAYS wins.

It was an opposite scam that ran ~15 years ago that made the rules this way. What was happening then was, item listed with fake pic, low price, sells, seller ships junk, might not even be the same part, usually some very trashed stuff they got for near nothing, couldn't possibly be item in picture. At checkout buyer is paying item cost $10 maybe but also finds a $20 handling fee on top of shipping... So, buyer gets crap, complains, eBay forces seller to refund only item cost when item is returned, so that's $10 if you bother to send it back, paying $10-15 shipping again. Seller makes a minimum of $20 a time on the handling fee, doesn't care about the $60 hole burned in your pocket to do so. This would be used in conjunction with the feedback blackmail system, i.e. give us a glowing review or we shit all over your feedback.