Sold my Series 1 Apple Watch and buyer complained it’s not working. I asked him to send me a video of the problem before I’ll accept a return. The complaint was about the screen not registering touches. In the video, the watch is beat to hell, and I sent out a pristine condition watch. Either he beat the shit out of it, or it’s a completely different watch.
I don’t even know where to go from here. This was on Swappa, so I have no idea if Paypal is just going to take the money from me anyway. I’ve read horror stories that Paypal usually sides with the buyer 99% of the time.
Maybe I’m done selling my old tech. Maybe I’ll stick to trading in to Apple or Gazelle, even though I’ll miss out on 25-50% of the money I make selling it myself.
Sorry to hear about your experience. I’ve traded in electronics with Amazon and Apple, and sold on ebay (through a relative with an account with a high ebay score) and Craigslist.
Amazon and Apple are incredibly easy and although you’ll get get the least $$ from them, you’ll get the least hassle with them too. With ebay I was always worried my relative would get hit by a scammer, whereupon her main response is to let them get away with it (to preserve her score) if she didn’t have solid evidence to back up her claim. When I sold on Craigslist I got many responses from cheap jerks who’d lowball me on price then insult me for not taking their offers, but once I found a buyer the transactions (I always chose to meet up at a local Starbucks) always went smoothly, thankfully.
For sellers, the main problem with Swappa is the main problem with ebay: PayPal’s customer-orientation means they will freeze or pull your funds if a customer complains until the dispute is ‘resolved,’ which will take time and determination to achieve. Will PayPal require the buyer to send them the Watch so they can corroborate the model/serial number? Unlikely.
Interesting Reddit thread where something similar happened to the seller:
The one saving grace I have with Paypal is that I closed the bank account attached to it (for entirely different reasons) and didn’t get around to adding my new bank account so at the very least, Paypal can’t pull from bank account. Now whether or not they make my Paypal account negative and send me to collections is a whole other issue, in which case I guess I would just pony up the $90 and call it a lesson learned.
You make a good point. The lessened hassle will probably be worth the reduced cash.
Here’s Apple 's ‘Give Back’ program. Since I don’t have a gen1 serial # to enter on the page I don’t know what they’d have offered for your Watch.
Currently, Amazon is not accepting series 1 Watches for trade-in. 
Could you check and see if the serial number is the same? That way at least you’d know if it’s really your watch.
Not sure about the rest in terms of PayPal.
Edit: Sorry, I just re-read this and realised you already thought about the serial number. I hope it works out.