I’ve been a semi-active ebay member for over 11 years now, maintaining a 100% feedback record with little effort, just by being fair. I’ve had a few minor issues, but all were eventually resolved. One time I bought a coin that wasn’t what was shown. The seller said it was the only one of its kind in his inventory so there was no other possibility. It was a stalemate until the last few days that I could leave feedback. I sent a message asking if the other coin had been found. By some miracle, it appeared in the back of a drawer! He let me keep the first coin, though it wasn’t worth anything over the 50 cents of the coin itself. One other time I got an item that wasn’t as described. The seller didn’t reply to a number of ebay messages or emails over a couple weeks. Finally, I left him a “neutral”. Within hours, they sent me an angry email. Funny how stuff like that works. Some time later, I noted that the member’s ebay account had been closed. Go figure.
Well, here’s a new one for you. I bought a computer game at retail and never had a chance to open it during the return period. I just haven’t had time or interest for games lately. It was new in a sealed box, so I put it up for sale on ebay. It sold, for somewhat less than the retail amount I paid. It was a limited edition that hadn’t been available at retail for some time and mine sold for one of the lowest recent prices on ebay. I offered USPS Priority flat rate and UPS shipping. The buyer opted for the cheaper one, of course, even though the auction clearly said USPS was, “at your own risk”. I also stated “no returns” in the auction rules. I shipped it next day and it arrived a couple days later.
The buyer claimed the outer product box was damaged (but not the contents). He said that as a collector, “this detracts from the value of the item imo.” He also said it was, “very imporperly packed.” I politely replied that the item was packed exactly as stated, using the medium flat rate box specified in the auction and I even included extra cardboard lining the priority mail box for protection. For a collector, I wondered why they hadn’t opted for the insured shipping option.
Well, as a seller on ebay, it turns out that you don’t have much protection at all. Ebay protects the buyer, even if you put in “no returns”, “at your own risk”, like I did. So, I immediately offered the buyer what eBay advises in such cases that go to their resolution center: “Buyers are expected to return an item if they want a full refund. We’ll ask the buyer to ship the item to you—with tracking information—within 7 days. eBay requires buyers to pay the cost of return shipping, unless you and the buyer have come to a different agreement.” I though that was pretty reasonable for a first offer. I did request a photo of the damage, though hypothetically, the buyer could have damaged the box himself if he was really only interested in the contents (which comprised all of the real value).
The buyer didn’t think it was so reasonable. It became clear that he wanted only one thing; to keep the perfectly good contents and also get a further discount in the form of a partial refund. In fact, he stated that he had apparently requested and received this type of refund from other sellers! In his words, “In the past if I’ve had such a problem with a product, in most cases the seller would issue a small refund in order not to deal with all the hassel of restocking the item and so on.” That threw up a red flag as a potential scam. Well, as I guessed, there was no willingness to negotiate and in fact, they never bothered to reply to my offer at all. No photo or tracking info was sent. So, I eventually sent a polite reminder and asked that the buyer file an official dispute in the resolution center if he hadn’t shipped it yet. I said I would offer a full refund through the resolution center, provided the contents were returned new and unused. I even suggested that the return shipping cost was negotiable. I finally got a reply. He said, “I don’t want to take the time, energy, and money to ship it back to you and find a replacement. I will simply be unhappy with the condition of this item and use it.” I mean, seriously. The USPS delivers Priority boxes to your door if you can’t make it to a post office. You print out a shipping label online or through ebay/paypal and put it in your mailbox or request a pickup by your mail carrier. It wouldn’t have cost him a cent, had he been willing to work with me, and maybe taken 5-10 minutes of time like it did for me to ship it to him in the first place.
I don’t sell much on eBay. I had no idea that buyers would do this. Maybe the buyer really was a collector of computer games and the box damage was important to them, even though I never did get a photo. Maybe they really didn’t know how to easily ship it back via the post office and then somehow justified that it was fair to request a post-auction discount on a pefectly good item. Or maybe it was a routine scam to keep the contents of value and extort a partial refund, too. In any case, it demonstrates a perfect way to dishonestly work the ebay system as a buyer with no possibility of being caught. If it was a scam, the only reason it didn’t work this time is because I could care less about the box, even if it was damaged. While I couldn’t resell the item as new, I’d just keep it for myself or my son to play eventually, especially since I didn’t even get what I originally paid. As for the buyer, he got a good deal and apparently wanted a better deal. As they implied in their message, I guess previous sellers always refunded some money to them, rather than pay for a restocking fee or risk negative feedback. Of course, now I no longer have a 100% feedback rating. He dropped it to 80%. The irony was in his negative feedback, where he said that *I* was stubborn for not giving him a discount, even though he refused to discuss it at all. I guess he hadn’t encountered a seller who called the bluff, requested a photo, allowed a full refund for returns and didn’t care much about negative feedback. In that regard, perhaps I was almost as stubborn as he was and thus I earned my negative feedback the honest way.
Sadly, eBay no longer even allows sellers to leave feedback to unscrupulous buyers who know how to work the system. There is now simply no way to know if a buyer is a scammer. The only recourse I had was to use the ebay feedback reconsideration tool. This allows me to “officially” ask the person to retract their feedback. As my son would say, “Roffel.” I was very polite in my request. Of course, the buyer ignored the request. I also contacted ebay customer support, in that I had followed all their posted recommendations on how to handle this type of situation. Of course, they sided with the buyer and did nothing but tell me how great their system was. Apparently, they simply don’t realize how their great system can be systematically abused by buyers. Fortunately, they were helpful in telling me how to close my seller’s account. Given the very high fees you pay as a seller and what little you get in return in terms of protection, I don’t think I will be selling on eBay again, so I closed it as they instructed. I guess that makes the negative feedback mostly irrelevant. Problem solved!
For anyone who does sell on ebay, be sure to take photos of the item and serial numbers as shipped and always offer only insured, trackable shipping. Even that isn’t a guarantee, as I was told that ebay apparently doesn’t require that buyers actually make insurance claims anyway. It gets worse. That new carseat you sold? The buyer can return a used or broken one, or really just an empty box or a brick. As long as they have proof of shipping, there’s a good chance that ebay sides with the buyer and can even take money from your Paypal account. Craigslist seems like the way to go as a seller (or even Carseat Swap). You get no protection on Craigslist or Swap, either, but at least there are no listing or final transaction fees and if you use cash or money order, then eBay/Paypal can’t freeze your money if a buyer files a complaint. Usually, the saying goes, “Let the buyer beware.” If you even consider selling on ebay after reading this, do a Google search for all the scams buyers can pull and how many sellers get ripped off, either with no help from ebay or perhaps with ebay policies actually aiding the buyer scam. There are plenty of seller scams, too, but without negative buyer feedback on eBay, it’s clearly, “Let the seller beware.”
Anyway, buyer, if you’re out there reading, and you probably are because you are so unhappy that I allowed you to return the item, I can only say this. Happy trails. For others reading, please feel free to share your experiences with questionable ebay buyers and sellers.
I sell and buy on eBay a lot. I always send 2nd class signed and keep proof of postage. I also always make sure I am stating anything even “irrelevant” in my listing at the bottom.
So far, apart from a few times of none payment which results in an open case and a mark on their profile then a re-list from me, I haven’t had any issues. 🙂
This has happened to me twice now. It was so blatant it was untrue – and I had no recourse, so I just won’t sell on ebay anymore.
I just got scammed by an eBayer that goes by the name of babypookielove. Her real name is K***** Lovell and she resides in Barbodos, but her eBay account shows Maryland. However, she had me send to an address in Miami, Florida that belongs to a Janice Sterling. This all should have been a red flag.
This eBayer recently made a claim with eBay that a brand new dress of mine reeked of smoke, which isn’t true at all since I don’t smoke and don’t have a smoker in the household. She dramatically claimed (on November 24th) that my dress triggered her asthma and that she had to be nebulized 6 times. She even said this caused her to GAIN WEIGHT. I immediately sent this dress after she made payment.
She started making these claims on November 24th, way after she ordered the dress and received it. This gave her enough time to wear the dress and demand half of her money back by making false accusations. On December 11th, she issued a partial refund to have it professionally dry cleaned, yet she wants to KEEP the dress. I was selling this dress at a good price, and she basically wants an expensive dress next to nothing. I believe this buyer wore this dress for it to smell like sweat and smoke (or she’s simply lying all the way around), because I know I’ve never worn this dress since it was too long for my petite height. Plus, I’m no longer the size 12 when I bought the dress (size 10). Otherwise, she wouldn’t ask for a partial refund. She would simply send the dress back.
I thought something was fishy when she wanted it sent to an US address instead of the non-US address that she is located.
This the address of a “friend” that she provided:
J***** Sterling
**** SW ***th **
Miami FL 33196-5844
United States
Needless to say, her story doesn’t add up at all. Either she or her friend smokes. Or, one of them has been around a smoker. Then, they want to make an outlandish claim at the last minute after they’ve had plenty of time to wear the dress. After doing further research, I’ve realized that the partial refund scam is quite popular on eBay.
Yes, the partial refund scam is apparently fairly prevalent from what I’ve read. Since they removed negative buyer feedback, there is no way even to alert sellers. I haven’t sold an item on ebay since becoming a victim of this scam. I am also wary of selling anything via Paypal, where they can retract the funds from your account if there is a problem.
I got scammed from a buyer who returned an empty box to me and then won the ebay claim. I found your blog on google to see if the same guy had done this to anyone else and happened to follow your ebay profile link to see who it was. Turns out it was someone else but the same guy dennies.own asked me for a discount because of a shipment problem a while back! I didn’t even think twice because it sounded true at the time. i probably got scammed then too. sucks that ebay doesnt alow sellers to leave feedback so there is no way warn someone else.
Coincidentally or not, I notice the buyer who dinged me hasn’t sold an item in four years. Before that he appeared to sell frequently. I wonder if he knows something?
Wow. I have been on the fence re: selling on eBay- you just convinced me it’s not worth it. I also have a 100% feedback that I would hate to lose based on one nut-job scammer. I used to sell quite a bit, now I’m happy just being the buyer.
Yeah, but just like anything I buy, when I look at ratings, I always look at the negative ratings first–they’re the ones that really tell me who I’m dealing with or what I’m buying. But I suppose there are a lot of people who look and see a negative rating and it’s an instant turnoff regardless. It’s obvious from the feedback left by both parties that the transaction was a blip on your record and one of those “you can’t please everyone” kind of situations.
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That’s interesting that Amazon does transactions like that, Jools. I didn’t know that. Hmmmmm.
I bought a pair of kids’ Keen sandals on e-bay last summer. The listing said that they had been worn for only one season and were in excellent condition. The shoes I received were extremely and unevenly worn. I have kids’ Crocs that have been worn for two years that are less worn than the Keens were. The original wearer was in serious need of an orthopedist/podiatrist.
The seller would only refund my full purchase price if I paid return shipping. I had already paid shipping twice due to a SNAFU with Paypal, so paying a third time would have brought my shipping total to $27. Three dollars less than the purchase price of the shoes. I tossed the shoes in the trash, left negative feedback, got retaliatory feedback and haven’t bought anything on ebay since.
You could have just opened a dispute case in the ebay resolution center saying the product was not as described. Ebay would have made the seller pay return shipping.
Don’t know about RodentRanger, but I filed a dispute and also an appeal for the feedback, and had various followups with ebay “support” about the scam. I had everything well documented through the resolution center communications, too, so it was blatantly obvious. Ebay doesn’t always side with facts, even though I offered to pay return shipping with a full refund. In my case, they supported the buyers right to leave any feedback they wish, however inappropriate or unfair, even though sellers could not leave feedback. I note the buyer, dennies.own, hasn’t been active on ebay for 5 years. I closed my sellers account shortly after ebay gave tacit approval to this scam. I’ve bought a few things on ebay, but they lost some business. Until the Google acquisition rumours, their stock was actually lower than it was 5 years ago. No surprise to me.
Whoa, I’m not liking how that reputation is tallied now! I’ve had better luck selling on Amazon, I think I’ll stick with them from now on.
Thanks! We thought it was a little distracting so we moved it farther down. There are a lot of ads now, but that’s how we pay the bills lol. Hopefully some of them are of value! Unfortunately, a couple recommended seats in our list are not sold on Amazon so not all of them appear.
Gah, I hate Ebay now. I was an addict with 100% rating but got SO sick of the fees and scams.
BTW – I love the new recommended car seats widget that’s scrolling on the right 😉
I think ebay is a reasonable place to sell items, but they should not give any impression that there is any seller protection whatsoever. Sellers should go into it knowing the high fees are being paid only to be connected to a large audience of potential buyers. For some people, that alone makes it worthwhile. Just beware of how much more it can cost you to sell there if you do get a dishonest buyer!
I haven’t ebayed since the recession started. I will have to keep this in mind, if/when I start again. I sure hope things look up, I have stuff to sell!