We sold a phone, brand new, to a customer, they open a return and send back a phone with their credentials logged in. The phone is pretty much now a brick.

I was waiting for the order to get automatically refunded so I could file the Safe-T. Auto refund never happened so I went to hit them with a 50% restocking fee. A day passes and I notice the refund never goes through so I submitted the 50% once again. Again the refund doesn't go through.

Open a support case which took a few days but I get the response "An investigating team has responded that this has been denied by the ARI as they have determined that this customer should not receive the refund."

So per Amazon's instructions I don't refund the customer.

Then an A-Z claim comes through, I reply with the case number and the quote from the ARI team stating this customer should not be refunded. Customer gets the full refund. Go back to support asking for advice they tell me to provide the case number in the appeal.

I provide the case number in the appeal and the quote. Provide images of the locked device. Lose the appeal.

I have tried to reach back out to the A-Z team through a support case but that was on the 31st of Dec and still no answer or explanation as to why I was unable to refund this customer, that the ARI team said the customer should not get a refund but then the A-Z team hits my account with a ding and grants them the full refund. And now I have a brick of a phone

Hoping a mod can help me out