My worst eBay 'incidents' were a guy who ordered an iPhone 5/5S case from me, and the listing actually carries a line explaining that the cases won't fit on a 5C as it's an entirely different size. In the personalisation message (I allow them to enter their own gamertag) he selected the colour option, told me what he wanted as the personalisation and that was it done. I made the case for him sent it off same day as I usually do, and then next morning I get a message from him full of exclamation marks claiming that the case is faulty as it doesn't even come close to fitting his phone. I ask him to make sure it's definitely an iPhone 5 that he owns and not an iPhone 4, and he replies back saying "Yeah, it's an iPhone 5C so it should fit!!!!!!11!!!". That's when I tell him that the listing even says that it won't fit on an iPhone 5C and, rather than back down and admit error, he asks me why I didn't check with him first that it was definitely an iPhone 5/5S that he owned, so it was therefore MY fault that he now has a phone case that doesn't fit his phone.
After maybe six or seven back and forth messages, with me trying to explain to him how it's really not my responsibility to message everyone who buys from me to make sure they actually read the listing properly, he wouldn't back down and threatened to leave scathing feedback unless I replaced his phone case with a 5C. That's the thing I hate about eBay... they can say whatever they want about us but we can't say anything negative about them because, in eBay's eyes, the fact that they actually paid means that they qualify for positive feedback as their part of the transaction is merely to pay. Nonsense. Regardless, I explained to the guy that the only way I'd be able to do that would be to track down someone who sold a 5C heating jig, buy in a couple of cases, and that this would likely cost me over £30 between the jig and the shipping. He wasn't happy. He said that I had a responsibility to provide the customer with what they'd bought... and that's when I explained ONCE AGAIN that I did... he bought an iPhone 5/5S case and that's what he got.
In the end, he sent the case back (even though I can't resell it as it was personalised) by 1st Class Signed For and I bought two 'flatbed' sublimation cases for the 5C and had them delivered next day, then charged him again to get both new cases sent out. It never ended up costing me any money as he paid for everything himself and never filed a claim with eBay, but I lost hours of valuable time dealing with the guy. Even after agreeing to buy the other cases and sending back the original case, even after being over the moon with his new cases, he still maintains that I should have checked with him that it was definitely not a 5C that he owned. Absolutely ridiculous.
Then there was the woman who bought a hooded sweatshirt from me in size 'large'. Turned up, then I get a message from her saying that it's the wrong size, and could she possibly send it back in exchange for a larger size. I checked her order and it wasn't a customised item so I said that she could, as long as she sent it back by 1st Class Signed For like I used when I sent it to her. I expected it next day but it arrived a week later with NO documentation whatsoever so if it wasn't for the fact that I rarely got returns, and that very few people had ever bought that particular design in sweatshirt form, I wouldn't have known who'd sent it back. She didn't even include the size that she wanted it to be replaced with so I messaged her and that we had one sent back, assumed it was from her, and asked her what size she wanted the 'large' replaced with. She replied saying that it was a little tight, and could she have the XXXL instead. I literally sat there with my mouth hanging open and wide eyes thinking "you thought you were a LARGE and yet you're replacing it with an XXXL???". Someone's been lying to themselves!
Then there was the woman in Virginia who ordered two t-shirts for her twin boys' birthday, personalising it so that the 'target' read with their name on each shirt rather than the default text. I did them, sent them off by Airsure (£14) and two days later she was chasing me that they hadn't been delivered yet, even though my notification said that it was a 4-5 day delivery period. I got the usual "That's not good enough" nonsense from her and then they actually arrived with her on the fourth day, so she shut up all of a sudden. She didn't even say that they'd been delivered but (as always) I'd set up a USPS email notification so I knew everything that was happening. Then, with only TWO DAYS to go before the birthday, she emailed me back angrily saying that the shirts were too big and that she wanted me to replace them with 'small'... even though she'd bought 'XL' the first time. She then ranted to me saying that ten year old boys would never fit into 'XL' like it was me that picked the size! With it only being two days before the birthday she DEMANDED that I get two replacements made up that day and couriered to her, so I said that's fine... and it would cost her $70 for the two-day international delivery. That's when she told me that it was my responsibility to replace them at my expense or she'd put in a claim with eBay that I'd sold her the wrong thing. I told her I'd get back to her.
I called eBay in Ireland, told them what this woman had said, gave them permission to read my messages from her and they told me that the only thing they could do was get me to ask her to file the claim, then they'd immediately escalate it and close it in my favour. So I did. She was so pissed off that she immediately left me scathing feedback... so I called eBay again and the next guy I spoke to deleted the feedback right there and then. She then started threatening me that she'd ruin me, so I told her to go ahead but I'd set up a website with her name and address details, include all of her emails and threats along with her eBay username, and make sure nobody ever sold to her for the rest of her life. She hasn't been in contact since.
My most recent one was on Etsy where a woman ordered a shirt from me and immediately messaged to say that she'd ordered small but wanted it changed to medium, which I did. Sent it off next day, gave her the Airsure tracking ID and sent my usual message as a back-up which explained how long it would take to get there, provided the tracking ID and even included a full tracking URL... I do this with all my customers as I don't like the generic eBay notifications. Anyway, that was on May 6th and I assumed that everything was fine with it until I got a message from her on May 13th which read:
I have not received any notifications on if the fallout shirt I ordered a little while ago has shipped or not. I was wondering if you could tell me.
And I naturally assumed it had got lost in the mail. Even though I send all my international packages by Airsure/International Tracked or International Signed For, I do still get the odd one here and there where they go missing (like the one still in Algerian customs after three months, despite being only a single t-shirt) so I went through to her order page, saw the tracking link in glorious blue shiny Etsy-link text, clicked on it, and their popup API showed that it had not only reached the USA successfully, but had actually been delivered THE DAY BEFORE. I wrote back to her, included screenshots of her original notification, original message from me with all the details, and the API popup with all the points of the shirt's journey. I told her that someone DID sign for it and that I was calling Royal Mail the next morning to get the GPS coordinates of where it was delivered and that she should speak with her neighbours to see if someone took it in. Next morning she messaged back to say that it had just arrived. Whatever. Why are people so dishonest?