[user104658]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

They don't refund straight away, they do give the seller a chance to respond, I'm pretty sure if the seller can prove that the package was delivered they won't refund you

You would think. If a scammer buys a phone from you on ebay, receives and signs for it, takes the phone out, puts in a piece of cardboard in its place, takes a photo and says "this was a scam I only got a piece of cardboard" then ebay/PayPal will side with the buyer no questions asked. If the seller disputes this and says they did send a phone and that the buyer is scamming, they'll be told to report it to the police as a theft (who will do nothing because there's no proof, just one person's word against the other).

They used to be fairer and proof of postage used to be more important, but seller scams were rife (as you could post literally anything to the buyer and get proof of postage... a piece of coal, a tin of beans, whatever) so they started a policy of almost-automatically refunding the buyer. I'm sure if it became a pattern and the same account was doing it constantly then they would flag it up, but otherwise their aim is risk-free buying and the sellers get screwed.

Personally I just wouldn't risk selling on eBay these days.