Can a ebay buyer get their money back if item was not as described if seller never recieves it back? -

I sold a mint condition iphone to a buyer that first refused to pick it up at the post office and filed a claim thru paypal saying he never recieved it. I shipped it out to him twice because the first time he never went to the post office to pick it up. The second time took a while also. I contacted paypal and informed them and spoke to an agent that called the buyer of the phone and kinda tricked him into picking up the phone. He finally picked it up and since then he has filed an item not as decribed claim against me. Which the phone was perfect mint condition. He told paypal it was not as decribed that it had over 10 scratches and the chrome around it was damaged and that he could email them pics. Well this guy buys a lot of iphones thru ebay so it is obvious that he emailed pics of a different phone or he tore it up. So he now has to ship it back to me with a tracking number. But since the phone is over 250 he has to get signature confirmation. My question is can he get his money back thru paypal if I never get the phone back in my possession? Thanks in advance.

I have dealt with paypal and ebay for years. I have also dealt with not as described items also. Once your customer provides paypal with the tracking # they are going to refund him. They are not going to wait until it is delivered, they are just going to verified that it was shipped. I have learned that with paypal almost 99% of the time they side with the customer and not with the seller. If you are going to sell large ticket items, by no means use paypal to collect your payment. Require a money order. Most likely he is probably going to keep your phone and send a different one back to you. What you need to do at this point is to check the tracking number to make sure that the item is being returned to you and if not notify paypal. They are going to refund the customer.