Buyer is claiming damage that was done by him!


Hi group,
I sold a pair of mint Harbeths. I shipped them in original double boxed carton with original bonnets covering them. I just received this EMAIL from the buyer. I know that many ruin these speakers trying to pry  the magnetic grills off incorrectly. What is my recourse with this issue?
Thanks  much for your input!

This is the EMAIL I received from the buyer!

Hi. I picked up the speakers from FedEx yesterday. They arrived with some minor dents around the front top corners near the grille on both speakers. When I opened the outer box, I've noticed that one side of the inner box wasn't sealed on top and as a result the speakers came out of the top foam speaker holder. I guess the damage occurred from speakers bumping against each other. The grill cloth is also ripped near the dents. I've sent an email to Harbeth asking how much replacement grills are going to cost. I could probably live with those dents but grills might be replaced at some point. I'm still waiting on my amp to come back from service, so I have not even plugged the speakers in yet. Hopefully the drivers are ok.    
128x128yogiboy
Get BB King as your all singing the blues.Get it done already its getting OLD!!
Good advice, but the shipper has to initiate the claim, not the  consignee.
Jerrybj is correct.  If you as the seller paid for the shipping, you have the contract with Fedex.  If you did not declare a value, the most Fedex will pay is $100.00 per package.  Was this shipped Fedex express or Fedex ground?   
IMHO Brett went above and beyond in this situation and is an excellent example of the type of seller you can trust and respect, hats off.

Now just to share an experience of mine from past couple of days of somebody exact polar opposite!

I purchased approx. 200 cassette tapes from a buyer in Washington State to be shipped to myself in Florida, yep 3000 miles.
They shipped them within a flimsy cardboard box with zero internal packing of any sort at all.
My USPS driver pointed out the obvious damage to box and did I want to accept it. I decided to accept.
Upon opening and inspection the tapes seemed ok but there were approx. 20 broken cases.
Sent seller a message through Ebay of the situation and that I would be happy just to source some new cases.
Now I searched eBay and found somebody selling 20 empty cases for $8 shipped so I bought them.
Long and short the seller ends up arguing about the $8 refund as not their fault the post office damaged them!
Say what? I sent them pictures of their crabby packing and box and that imho the USPS could hardly be blamed for that.
It should never have gone past one email tbh!
Situations reversed if a buyer had just asked me for $8 to resolve a potential $100 problem ( return and return shipping etc), the refund would have been done before the literal ink was dry on the paper!
This was from a seller of 1575 feedback so should have KNOWN much better .
I could have demanded a return with full refund and/or left negative feedback for their stupidity IF I was an unreasonable person.
But no I took it upon myself to find empty cases, buy them and expect that for $8 it would have been a cut and dry case.

STILL not seen a refund yet.... lol.

Could not care less about $8 but the principle, well that's what stings!