Start with one question: is this a fault, or a change of mind? Everything follows from that, and the answer is usually obvious from what they wrote.
If it is a fault
Not as described, arrived damaged, wrong item sent, parts missing, does not work.
It comes back whatever your returns policy says. A faulty, damaged, wrong or misdescribed item is returnable for 7 days, whatever your returns policy — No returns does not cover it, and no wording you write disclaims it.
So the decision is not whether, but how. Three options, and the middle one is underused:
- Full refund, item returned. Clean.
- Partial refund, buyer keeps it. Right for a real but small flaw on something expensive to post. You keep most of the sale, nobody pays postage twice, and the buyer usually stays a buyer. Can I get a partial refund?
- Replacement, if you have another.
Return postage is yours on a fault. Asking the buyer to pay it is the thing that turns a resolvable return into a dispute.
If it is a change of mind
Then your policy decides: No returns, 7-day returns or 14-day returns, with whatever you wrote in Return conditions.
And four things override a change-of-mind return regardless: an item marked final sale, a hygiene item, a made-to-order piece, and an item or category that does not accept them. How to set your return policy.
If your policy says no and you want to say yes anyway, you can. A refund you did not owe, given quickly, buys more than it costs — but it is your call, not an obligation.
The clock
You have 48 hours to answer before the buyer can ask Metzee to step in.
That is the number that decides how this goes. A return answered in two hours is a conversation. One left for three days is a dispute, decided on the record, without your side of it.
What to write
Short, specific, and with a proposal in it. "Sorry about that — that mark isn't in my photos and shouldn't have been missed. I can refund ₹300 and you keep it, or send it back and I'll refund in full. Whichever you prefer."
That message ends most of these. What does not end them: "all items are sold as seen".
What it costs you
A refund after shipping counts toward your Order defect rate, one of six measured standards. A pattern of them is what damages a store; one is not.
But note what counts worse: a dispute decided against you. Resolving it yourself is cheaper than having it decided for you.
If you think they are wrong
Say so with evidence rather than adjectives — your listing text, your photos, the packing photograph. Then propose Reject the claim and let it be decided. That is a legitimate outcome and it is what the evidence is for. How to respond to a dispute.
The upstream fix
Almost every refund request traces to a flaw not named or a photo that flattered. Those are both free to fix. How to describe condition honestly.
More: how returns work, how to refund a buyer, disputes from the seller side.