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They normally back the buyer.
I've bought/sold infrequently on Ebay without problem for nearly two decades and have finally come up against an ebay lowlife! It's not that expensive, but irritating nonetheless. Wondered if anyone had any similar experiences and what the outcome of this kind of thing normally was.
I sold some BT Wifi discs that I had owned since new which included original box, purchase receipt etc, all of which I took photos of prior to listing. Someone bought it and confirmed receipt pretty much straight away. After about three weeks I had a request for a refund for the item not working. Together with the request for refund, the buyer sent me a photo of the item with a red light...except the photo provided is clearly not the item sent out (they were BT wifi discs and the item he wants to return is a different BT model).
I politely reminded him that I will issue a refund only if I receive the same items back that were sent to him. I pointed out that the item photographed is obviously not the same in the listing. He replied saying he sent them to a friend and must check with the friend. He has now sent me some more photos of the clearly different model and a completely different box...claiming that his friend says this is definitely the item I sent out/he received.
Looking into this chap further, his feedback is 100% positive but he's got repeated comments from sellers (who can only give positive feedback) saying "Scammer", "Timewaster" and "Avoid this buyer"!! His seller profile consists of...guess what...wifi routers and he also set up a company on companies house which I believe was previously used for Amazon marketplace to sell routers!
Being my old routers, I still have the default factory SSID/passwords for them.
Ebay have basically said, issue a returns label and then dispute at that point. My question is that even having all my proof, and that fact that he didn't initially make a report of item described not received...no matter how unlikely against the evidence, he could just say..."no, that's what I received" and it's one word against another.
At the end of the day, it's more an irritation that this scumbag still thinks he is smarter and I guess it will come down to eBay. What do they normally do in this situation?
Last edited by Christian; 14th December 2023 at 13:05.
They normally back the buyer.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Unfortunately not a lot you can do eBay pretty much always sides with the buyer, had a similar experience with a expensive watch before they started doing the authenticity process which would have protected me , ended up losing the watch and £2000Originally Posted by Christian
That's why I rarely sell on Ebay - too much opportunity for the buyer to scam me.
They always back the buyer it’s a disgrace.
I had eBay rule in the buyers favour before even when I provided video on the items package and items posted in one continuous video.
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Thanks. As I suspected...eBay is an utterly unsafe place to sell despite their 'seller protection' against 'abusive buyers'. I guess the moral of the story is not to sell anything you wouldn't mind losing as anyone could just claim they received a box of stones in place of the item.
Even worse, it appears eBay gives people like this the ability to repeatedly scam others from the same account without recourse!
This platform is full of pitfalls,not worth the bother imho.
That's not correct, I've had eBay rule twice in my favour as a seller.
R
Last edited by ralphy; 14th December 2023 at 13:43.
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
I've just received a return on eBay after 9 months when I sold a very expensive hoodie (£400).
It came back with stains and marks all over it. It was sold new with tags. eBay is a joke.
I never sell anything for more than about £20 these days as there seem to be loads of scammers but it goes both ways I was scammed with 2 fake coats and a fake iwc watch strap non of the sellers would give a refund all lying through their back teeth about the crap being real but ended up getting my money back through ebay
Do you think eBay would rule in your favour? I'd hope so. They've had 9-months to come back with item not as described, if thats what they are claiming?!
There is a time limit and I'm pretty sure 9 months is well past it.
I would speak to someone at eBay on the phone. I've always found that to be the best way to resolve anything. Talking to a human being beats relying on automated 'computer says no' responses every time.
Explain what's happened, mention the serial/model numbers, mention the buyer's feedback as an obvious scammer, mention that it's obviously another scam and maybe point out that they do have a seller protection policy as well as a buyer protection policy.
Good luck.
Who was the buyer so we can all avoid?
Not always, if you talk to eBay, you often get sensible humans should see these scams every day.
You either lost the watch or £2000, not both.
Thanks. I'll do my best to try and stop him getting away with it and mention everything you said when it comes to bringing it to eBay's attention. Googling, the buyer is called "buy it quick" and seems to be an early-20's chap dealing in a small assortment of wifi routers, electric toothbrush and a blood pressure monitor...he's not a prolific seller so hopefully nobody would end up with the misfortune of dealing with him!
I was trying to work out what he does...I'm assuming buy routers and sell them on and is now using me as an opportunity to offload a dodgy set he's previously bought/sold.
Last edited by Christian; 14th December 2023 at 14:55.
Possibly both if the scammer returned a different (fake?) watch and ebay still sided with him.You either lost the watch or £2000, not both.
Not possible if the watch sold for £2k?
Seller started with a watch and ended up with nothing; in the interim £2k came in and £2k went out, therefore net zero.
If the seller had originally bought the watch for around £2k, he is now without that money and the watch. But I see what you mean, he hasn't lost twice over, but he has still lost the lot. Just semantics really.
The money had already been spent and converted to a £2k asset, he hasn’t lost the money at all. The way he phrased it gives the impression that he has lost twice over though. I was merely pointing out that he hadn’t.
Whatever, he is down to the value of £2k which is a bad situation.
EBay have probably millions of transactions daily, there will always be a few issues. Overall though, I’ve always found them to be pretty good at correctly dealing with problems. I say that from both a buyers and a seller’s perspective.
Last edited by Dave+63; 14th December 2023 at 15:16.
Yes, it did read that way, and indeed, a very bad situation.
I broadly agree regarding EBay, I sell quite a bit on there (average 8 to 12 items a week for the last couple of decades) and have bought a fair bit also, and very very few transactions have gone south.
However while they will sometimes side with the seller the buyer generally has the rub of the green. But the problems are not remotely as acute as some on this thread make out, and I've been lucky I haven't had any expensive stings aimed my way.
How did they initiate a return after all this time, there is a time limit on returns, and it's not 9 months.
If it were me, I would simply state the facts with photo evidence and leave it there, eBay will see straight through this, good luck.
Indeed, I believe its 30 days from date of receipt on ebay, and 180 days if PayPal was used. Both well under 9 months.
When I had an issue as a seller I called eBay and spoke to a very nice lady. She was most helpful and advised that they don’t automatically side with the buyer, they will investigate the buyer and seller.
She did advise me to follow the process and refund the buyer if requested and then take it from there.
In the end it worked out for me and I wasn’t left out of pocket.
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Purely a guess - but perhaps they reported that they'd just found out that the item was a fake. Not that I'm suggesting the OP did sell a fake.
I would never sell anything of real value on there. Which is a shame as the majority of buyers are decent people. However, there is a significant number of scumbags so I stick to forums or facebook (cash on collection, or payment via BT).
Last edited by catflem; 14th December 2023 at 16:56.
The OP's first post states they requested a refund because the item was not working.
I sold a set of bicycle cranks to a buyer in the US. He claimed there was undisclosed damage (they were almost 30 years old) so I agreed to a refund and that's where the fun started...
I asked for a quote to return them and then sent it via Paypal goods and services, but this wasn't good enough for the buyer as the payment would only clear once it was posted and he was already down £650, so he refunded the postage payment and said I'd wasted enough of his time and demanded I send him a returns label when no option for that exists. I contacted Ebay who agreed I'd done all I could to facilitate the return and advised me to let the process run, which resulted in the buyer getting to keep the cranks and me being down £650. I contacted them again and threatened the small claims court and going full Karen on the socials but they weren't interested and kept thanking me for my understanding, so in the interest of preserving my sanity I contacted my bank, explained what had happened and asked to do a charge back and the funds were back in my account within minutes. Never heard anything from Ebay about it either.
99% of the time it's a great selling platform, but the 1% is when you find out what an absolute shitehouse of a company they are.
Yeah your correct, felt like I’d loss both, watch gone then money gone but I guess the money wasn’t mine in the first place ,in then out
How can a hoodie not work?
I’ve given up with eBay. Used to use it a lot but no longer.
I had a couple of unsatisfactory sales and that was the end.
No fairness and an obvious rogue buyer but they still sided with him.
I suspect the platform is in decline.
[QUOTE=Kingstepper;6320408]How can a hoodie not work?
Got me posts mixed up.
Last edited by Ruggertech; 14th December 2023 at 18:56.
No biggy.
Bought a pair of shure se535 headphones . When they arrived they were obviously fake . I had a real pair to compare them with. Asked the seller if they had anything to prove they were real , they said No . I iffered to send them to Shure for verification as I have a good business relationship with them . Seller said return and they would refund . I did , they claimed I’d sent them fakes back ! Ebay refunded me.
Sold about £80k of IT equipment on ebay last year , had a few timewasters (maybe 3/100) , people buying kit then claiming it didn’t work . Everything was tested before sending out so I knew they were either scammers or second thoughters ( quite expensive items £300-£1800 a pop) .
On each sale on payment I would immediately send the buyer photos of the item and accessories clearly showing serial numbers and identifying marks via ebay messaging . In some cases I sent video of the item working with it being identifiable.
I suspect this was enough to stop scammers doing anything more than claiming an item wasn’t working and returning the actual unit rather than a different dud so they could get a refund and get away somewhat clean ( ebay will take note of buyers who claim multiple refunds though).
And its always the “high maintenance” buyers who are trouble , you know the ones , asking lots of questions despite all the answers being on the advert . Asking for your “lowest price”. Giving you a sob story ( Its for my son and I can only afford a used one as I’ve been ill). I don’t mind giving a bit of helpful tech support but there is a limit .
Saying that I’ve never been ripped off on ebay in 20 years but a bit of extra effort and common sense can make it less easy and worthwhile fir the scammers.
Agree with talking to someone at ebay they are usually sympathetic and you can argue your points with them, and if you are lucky they can take direct action.
Just to update this thread, this is exactly what I did. Buyer returned a completely different product. Instead of doing things using the ebay online form, I phoned them up to speak to someone. They just settled it in both our favours, no questions asked and no requirement for proof either way. I guess it helped it was relatively low value item. I reported the guy so it will be interesting to see if he remains active on eBay.
It will make me think twice about selling on eBay again though. I get the impression they still side with buyers but write some bad transactions off depending on a sellers feedback, how long they've been on eBay, how many transactions they make etc.
Last edited by Christian; 22nd December 2023 at 12:16.
Good result.
I had a similar situation with Credit Card chargeback. If you phone them up after sending all evidence, and talk them through it - they see your situation much clearer.
You've got to way up the pros versus the cons.
I've been buying / selling on ebay for nearly 20 years and I've had one bad experience which cost me almost £900. I didn't fully read eBay's terms and conditions though, and had left myself open to a charge back.
If I'd choosen never to sell on ebay again I'd have lost more than that. Ebay gives access to millions of potential buyers.
If it's a low value item I'd recommend to suck it up and move on. It's highly annoying of course but there will always be some scumbags in the world and it's not worth spending the time and energy on.
Choosing not to sell on ebay in the future will probably cost you more from missed sales / lower selling prices in the long run.
Check the feedback of any one who bids on your auctions and cancel bids / block accounts of any buyers with dodgy feedback. If you want more control sell through buy it now / best offer and again check all buyers who send offers. Make sure you tick the option that buyers must pay straight away if they click buy it now.
State in your listing that low feedback buyers should contact you before bidding or you'll cancel their bids. It's against eBay policies but I've never been pulled up on it.
Also set buyer requirements settings to the highest levels.
Send through tracked postage and always keep your proof of postage receipts indefinitely, even if the buyer leaves positive feedback.
Edit: I've just seen it worked out ok in the end, pleased to hear that.
Last edited by watchcollector1; 22nd December 2023 at 15:39.
^^^ Good advice. I agree, even if it hadn’t worked out for me I suspect I’d be losing in the long run if I chose not to use eBay again. I think it’s a good reminder to do your diligence as a seller as much as when you are a buyer.
Same here, and it is in decline by quite some margin....
Sorry if it's already been said, but have you called eBay, and spoken to them on the phone? If you call during regular hours, you generally get through to an Irish team who are exceptionally helpful in most cases.
I've had a few people try things on in the past, but they've really helped me out as both a buyer and seller.
Yes, this is what I did. They were very helpful.
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