Customer bought wrong car mats, cut them to fit, now claims damaged on arrival how would you handle this?

Hi everyone,

Looking for advice on a tricky situation.

We sell custom-fit car mats. A customer ordered via Amazon and claimed the item arrived “damaged” and the box had been opened.

However:

• Item was packed and dispatched in good condition
• The customer previously ordered from our website (pre-order), don’t wanna wait and cancelled, then purchased on Amazon
• In this Amazon order, they bought mats for an older model (won’t fit his car), but based on the photos, they appear to have trimmed/cut the mats to fit their newer car. The areas that have been cut also closely match the differences between the older and newer model designs.

Now they are claiming:

• “someone opened the box”
• Damaged Product Received
• requesting a refund

There’s no courier POD (only signature), so we can’t fully prove delivery condition, but there’s also no clear evidence of tampering.

Our policy states modified items aren’t eligible for return, but Amazon cases can be tricky.

Questions:

• Would you deny the return in this case?
• How do you handle situations where the customer claims damage but evidence suggests post-delivery modification?

Appreciate any advice