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*eBay Sellers Beware*

10 replies

ShazzyLouise · 13/02/2016 09:00

eBay Sellers Beware - This Scam Happened to me
The eBay Buyers Protection Policy is allowing dishonest buyers to get a refund on your item without returning it. Always insist on 'cash on collection' for large items that are 'buyer collect only'.

The Scam.......Your buyer pays by PayPal for a large item which they collect. At anytime up to 30 days after receipt they can request to return the item for the reason 'it is not as described'.

Their aim is not to actually return the item but to have the item and to have their payment too. Once they have requested to return the item your PayPal payment will be frozen and will eventually be refunded to the buyer (if you have already withdrawn the PayPal payment it will be debited from your affiliated bank account, or if you have no affiliated bank account, eBay will refund the buyer and the amount will sit as a debt on your PayPal account).

EBay will then give you a period of time to resolve the buyers problem, but at no time will they expect the buyer to produce any evidence of their issue and if there has been no progress regarding the return request by the end of the period they will arbitrarily rule in the buyers favour regardless of how unreasonable it may be. As eBay have found in the buyers favour they will insist that the cost of the return must be born by you, the seller.

At the time of the Returns Request the buyer will have ticked a box requesting 'Courier Collection only' (even if it was sold as a buyer collect only item), making the collection so prohibitively expensive that most sellers will 'write off the item' meaning that the buyer will get the item and a refund.

If you decide to 'suck up' the cost of collecting the item, it will need to be done within a time frame stipulated by eBay and if it is not collected in that time, the refund is issued by eBay automatically to the buyer and they have no obligation to return the item. So, buyers planning on getting the item for free will just obstruct any collection attempts by the seller. Ebay are not interested in how hard you have worked to try to collect the item or how obstructive the buyer has been. When the collection time frame has expired it is 'game over'. You have no money and no returned item. To add insult to injury, eBay will slap you with an eBay charge because the buyer has used the eBay resolution centre to enforce this scam.

Please pass this on to any potential eBay sellers!

OP posts:
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MangoBiscuit · 13/02/2016 09:02

This is why it's recommended that you only ever accept cash for collections. Sorry you got scammed.

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ByThePrickingOfMyThumbs · 13/02/2016 09:08

I'm sorry this happened to you but the advice on here is always always insist on cash for buyer collect items. Otherwise a dishonest buyer can pay by PayPal, collect the item and then open an 'item not received' case. Since you have no proof of postage, eBay will refund them their money. Your experience is just a more convoluted version of that well known scam I'm afraid. It's sucks but it's seller beware in cases like these.

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abcell · 27/10/2016 20:46

I been buying and selling on ebay for several years and always having a great experience until this week. I had an ebay store contracted for one year back on June, my intention was to stay with the store for no less than 12 months. Everything was running smoothly until last week with lots of sales and great people to trade with. it happened that i sold a 1930-s Standing Liberty Quarter to a client who submitted a bid for the item, so i shipped the item and a weeklater, the client contacts ebay and uses their automatic return service with the note that the item he received was "cleaned" and that a coin in that condition looses value to a collector so he would return the item for a refund. I accepted the return because i have 2 weeks no question asks return policy.


so finally the item arrived and to my surprised when i opened the envelope i found that the customer with over 2 thousand positive feedback and 100% feedback, return a regular $.25 cents quarter instead of the $30+ dollars coin i first sent him to Warren Ohio. So i inmediately contacted ebay and their appeals department where i lay out exactly the situation and they advice that i should wait for a response from client before going forward with a claim. So i waited for a response from the client but he didn't reply back to 2 of my initial emails.

So then i call back again their customer service department to say that i had not received the original item and the customer was avoiding to response to my emails. So the day to five refund came and with still no response i opened a case so that they can intervene and resolve this matter because it was the first time ever a similiar situation had occured. So the same day in a matter of hours the email came back saying they their final decision had been to refund full payment to customer + original shipping, i was perplex, not even beleiving my eyes, that without any regard to the pictures, the emails, the calls, and their assurances not to worry, they sided with buyer and declined any further action on the matter.

After much deliberation and with all the pain of my heart I decided to close down the store and my account because if buyer can easily scam a seller by using and abusing ebay's return policies then it means this website it not a safe place to sell. So i loggin into my account and saw a charge for $160USD for ending short the agreement to sell in their website for the whole 12th months. I called them to explained that i didn't want to stay as a seller on the portal and that i wanted to close down my account because i felt Ebay wasn't a safe place for our products, and once again cero help from their customer service department, so what is the only one thing left to do, is arbitration. which im starting today, because i think we have no other recourse. If the fee is not remove we won't pay the last 2 invoicesuntil that "Store premium early termination fee" is remove. because not only are we out the original $32USD, but now Ebay is hitting us with a fee for leaving early, after all who in their sane mind would want to keep on selling on a platform with high comissions and after such abusive policies?

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MikeUniformMike · 10/11/2016 09:26

I sold something really nice on eBay and it went for a bit less than I would like. Buyer said it's fake. Yeah as if posh company sells fakes from it's own shop. eBay says I should give a refund. I am pist off. Any suggestions?

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abbsismyhero · 10/11/2016 09:35

Do you have proof of purchase?

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MikeUniformMike · 10/11/2016 10:07

No. I bought it about 20 years ago. It was so nice I never used it. It might have been 'seconds'. It's quite an expensive make but I think buyer thought that as he got it for about £22 it must be fake, which it absolutely wasn't. I am pist off cos it was nice, it wasn't fake and I lose out on the postage. and if I resell it this could happen again. Assuming that the seller doesn't send back something different.

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MikeUniformMike · 10/11/2016 10:09

I meant buyer not seller.

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nuttelladreams · 10/11/2016 20:20

Mike what item is it?

I once sold a second hand ergo baby carrier which was genuine but had no proof of purchase. Buyer put in a claim saying unless I showed a receipt she had no proof it was genuine and so wanted a refund.

After much time wasted (I called eBay myself and opened a case against her for abusing her buyer rights) they filed in my favour - so it can happen. Her negative feedback was deleted and she kept the item.

It was funny that a couple of weeks after she was advertising it for more money she had paid, and as a genuine item. It didn't sell. Shame eh?

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MikeUniformMike · 10/11/2016 20:50

It was a leather wallet from a well known handbag company. Ebay ruled in buyer's favour. I think that maybe buyer didn't read the description properly and then said it was fake. he's been ok in e-mails and said he'd get it checked in local to him HandbagCompanyName shop. I asked for what they said and he's not forthcoming. Ebay said I should give a refund.
If I order something and it's not right - like pair of shoes or jeans too big or bag not quite as nice as I hoped, I just relist it and maybe make a little loss or profit.
I've had one or two bad experiences but that's another story. Should I just give the refund as ebay say and hope I get the original back?

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MikeUniformMike · 10/11/2016 21:00

Most buyers who collect are really nice and it's a bit sweet when something you'd thought might get £50 - £60 goes for 99p and the buyer is so embarrassed. I always point out that it's just how it works. I got something lovely for 50p after bidding when I was a bit worse for wear.
The bad experiences. The buyer who is just a little bit too friendly. The buyer who turns up with the right change and goes to the shop to get some but never comes back. And the guy who turned up to buy a dining table and 4 chairs in a tiny hatchback with his wife and kid in it with no idea how to put the seats back. He was very nosy and critical about my living room (Think Steptoe and Son meets The Addams Family).

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