We sold 3 personalized items, and we shipped on time, using Amazon shipping.

1. Received message from Amazon's customer service stating a customer had questions about this order. They cited the reason for the customer contact was the item and packaging are damaged. We promptly replied, apologized to hear of the item or items and packaging were damaged. We explained the benefits of the A-to-z guarantee program and how it was designed to protect in a case like this, and explained how to file a claim.

2. Days later, customer messages us three times within a matter of two minutes.

• First message: I'd like to return, it looked different online
• Second message: I'd like a refund, item looks different than what's online.
• Third message: I'd like a refund, item looked different online

This time, since the customer didn't specifically state the item and packaging were damaged, and changed the reason to, it looked different online and I'd like a return / refund, we responded by explaining that in this case, unless there was an error in one or more of the personalization details made on our end, it would not be returnable under Amazon's custom items return policy. We also reiterated that if the item(s) / packaging were received damaged in some way as originally stated, that would be a condition covered by the A-to-z guarantee.

3. A few days later, we received a policy violation for this listing, saying a customer complained about the product being defective or did not function as expected from the description on the detail page.

4. Under Voice of the customer, the customer complained about this order and now stated: item is visibly damaged.

IMO, it seems this may potentially be something potentially malicious, as it seems the customer is well versed in using all the right buzz words to generate a policy violation. It seems a refund was never really the primary motive here, especially if the item(s) were in fact visibly damaged as claimed, and they are covered under the A-to-z program.

So now, we're left with a choice of either acknowledging / accepting the violation or appealing, however, if we appeal, we must provide evidence or documentation to confirm compliance with the policy.

If we contest, the only choices are either:

1. Product usage
2. Customer issue is unrelated to quality

Neither of these options apply in this case. Since the customer stated it was both damaged and it also looked different than online, it's not really a product usage issue, nor is it unrelated to quality.

What would you do? Take the hit and acknowledge the violation, or try an appeal with conditions that don't apply?