Ebay refunding buyer without waiting for return of merchandise

Ebays customer service is absolutely ridiculous, the following happend: We sold a pair of jeans, Item number:320475125421 the customer opend a case saying that the item is damaged, he is of course untiteled to a full refund and we will also pay the return shipping if he returns the item. So far so good, he published than the following tracking id L059027480US this one seems to be unvalid, there is no tracking information avaiable and we haven´t recieved any merchandise until now. But ebay decided today to refund the buyer and wants to charge us for reimbursement. It looks like that buyers can just publish a fake tracking id and ebay will refund them after a certain time without checking if they actually returned the item. We as sellers are responsible for all goods until they are delivered to our customers and the same should be valid for buyers who return an item, no matter if it´s damaged or not.|||That appears to be an international customs number ..via USPS paypal removes the funds immediately and holds it in abeyance until final determination .. then they either release it back to you or give it to the buyer. if it hasn't escalated from a dispute to a claim yet, it is still in pending status|||I would certainly contact Ebay and not give up until they agree that they shouldn't have refunded the buyer with your funds.