I knew I'd get scammed by an eBay customer eventually...

[bobandsherry]

What about taking a money order for an item and thus Ebay has no recourse for charging you back? (Might need to change your credit card number before Ebay can put a charge on it though)

Can't take money order as payment for eBay sales.

 

[bobandsherry]

I sold on ebay for ten years . I had a 14 day return policy . It really kept the scammers at bay because if they decided 30 days after the purchase there was a problem ebay always ruled against them.

Your policy means nothing to eBay. If seller complains about item not as described EBay will side with buyer 99.9% of the time.

 

[bobandsherry]

After 65 items sold and a perfect record, I finally got scammed.

Knock on wood, in over 10 years (thousands of sales) selling on eBay I've been scammed 3 times. One eBay ruled in buyer favor, once in mine and most recently eBay reimbursed the buyer, something I've never seen before but think eBay knew this was scammer and was handling appropriately.

I've also some on Amazon and had just as many scammers but less sales. So if you think Amazon is better, as a seller they are not.

Any business, which we are, has to factor in some losses from fraud. Overall I'm well ahead of the game and just consider these few blips to be a cost of doing business.

I have avoided some sales which I was sure were scams as well so common sense also needs to be considered when selling. Sounds like you just had one bad apple, file a claim with UPS and then see if seller complies with their request or if you give them enough scare to drop the issue with eBay.

 

[John Galt III]

Not sure if this would occur today, but I was scammed on Ebay by a seller about 7 or 8 years ago. I sent her a check for something which never showed up. Ebay said there was nothing they could do but make a note of it, and that I could call the cops if I wanted to. It was a low amount of money, but still.... Of course I gave her a bad review (do they still have that feature?) but I'm sure she just opened another scammer account. I won't use Ebay now. Just too much hassle. I have had much better results, and less stress, (knock on wood) with local Craigslist, at least as a seller.

 

[mystang52]

Sorry for this unwarranted hassle. If I were you I would simply pay up to avoid the stress of fighting it.

I've bought and sold a lot of items on eBay for over 15 years, but I decided to quit last year. Partly because of this sort of thing, and partly because I hate PayPal so much (owned by eBay). Saving a few bucks on a purchase or making a few bucks on something I no longer need just isn't worth it any more.

+1.5 I was never comfortable buying from EBay individuals (vs. real companies that sell via EBay) and would never sell on EBay.

I have sold a few things via a local "Garage Sale" page on Facebook. The buyers/sellers here are locals only, and the transaction takes place at a public store parking lot. I'm sure these Garage Sale pages are in Facebook for most locales.

 

[travelover]

Any good alternatives to eBay? It seems like they get the most value for shippable items, though I agree with the hassle factor for sellers.

 

[Midpack]

UPDATE

I got another auto nasty gram from eBay about the return. So I called them again, and the first tier cust serv rep escalated the case. When the escalated case rep came on the line she was leaning in favor of the buyer until I pointed out, and she confirmed, the buyer waited 45 days to request a return (he claimed he didn't open the package for 45 days ). The rep then immediately said since it's well past the Buyer Protection 30 days - she said the case is decided in my favor, case closed, they will notify the buyer. And if the buyer tries to leave bad feedback, it will be removed (see below) - so my rating remains 100% after 63 transactions.

I'm [-]shocked[/-] pleasantly surprised frankly.

If the UPS claim pays anything (highly unlikely) I will give it to the buyer. Otherwise I may not refund any of his money, whereas I would have if he's spoken up within a few days of receiving the item. The ball is in the buyers court now...

This item isn't eligible for eBay Buyer Protection. You don't need to do anything else. Because this claim doesn't apply, this case, any feedback left, and all detailed seller ratings left, will not affect your seller performance. In addition, any feedback left for this transaction will be removed. Note: It may take up to 24 hours for these updates to reflect in your Seller Dashboard.

 

[MBAustin]

Great news, Midpack! Glad it looks like it all worked out OK for you.

 

[travelover]

Awesome news. I think justice was served.

 

[almost_there]

Ebay giveth and Ebay taketh away.........
I have a friend who brought a used impact wrench for a really good price on ebay that turned out to be DOA. It was from a guy that (as he found out later) buys stuff from estate sales and resells them (often without testing the items in any way) on ebay. The seller was quite pleasant and immediately issued a refund. The kicker was that the deal was so good the seller told him to just toss the impact wrench since it was not worth the cost of shipping back. As my friend was about to toss it he noticed that it was a "husky" brand. So before tossing it he did some research and found out that husky tools had a lifetime warranty. Anyway he walks into his local big box (forget which one... maybe Home Depot??) and gives them the DOA one and he walks out with a brand new one. Essentially he got a brand new impact wrench for free! Glad it worked out in the end for you Midpack!

 

[travelover]

New eBay Problem

I have a new eBay issue, so I thought I'd tack it onto this thread.

I placed a very heavy cast iron pump on eBay for sale with local pickup only. Some guy in Louisiana (I'm in MI) bought it and paid. I've sent two messages via eBay to him asking how he plans to pick it up, but he has gone silent on me. If I simply issue a refund, I'll get dinged for a refund charge, though the dollar amounts are small. I'm tempted to issue a refund less the refund charges.

Anyone else ever have this issue?

 

[braumeister]

I have a new eBay issue, so I thought I'd tack it onto this thread.

I placed a very heavy cast iron pump on eBay for sale with local pickup only. Some guy in Louisiana (I'm in MI) bought it and paid. I've sent two messages via eBay to him asking how he plans to pick it up, but he has gone silent on me. If I simply issue a refund, I'll get dinged for a refund charge, though the dollar amounts are small. I'm tempted to issue a refund less the refund charges.

Anyone else ever have this issue?

You might be surprised. I once sold a very large and heavy elliptical trainer on eBay for local pickup only. The buyer lived nearly 200 miles away, but had relatives in my area he visited occasionally. Showed up at the house with his pickup and took it away happy. Granted, your buyer is at a much greater distance, but you never know ...

 

[Looking4Ward]

From the perspective of an eBay customer who would never try to scam anyone:

A couple of months ago I ordered a new 9500lb winch for my Jeep. Cost was $230 with free shipping of the 90lb package.

When it arrived, UPS had dropped the package and a plastic control box that contains the winch solenoids was cracked and damaged.

I sent a picture of the damage to the seller. Their first response was that they would give me a $25 refund. I replied that the winch itself was useless without that control box and that trying to source a control box alone was impossible, so how did they want to arrange for a replacement?

The next message I got from them was that they were issuing a full refund and there was no need to ship the item back. When I found that shipping was going to cost almost $100 I figured they had decided it just wasn't worth it.

I've still got the winch, not really sure if it was also damaged since I can't test it so I ordered a plastic box for $14 that I think might work but I'll have to transfer all the contents over and fab the box myself.

 

[pb4uski]

You might be surprised. I once sold a very large and heavy elliptical trainer on eBay for local pickup only. The buyer lived nearly 200 miles away, but had relatives in my area he visited occasionally. Showed up at the house with his pickup and took it away happy. Granted, your buyer is at a much greater distance, but you never know ...

That reminds me of my first sale on EBay. I listed a computer monitor and the buyer was to pay for shipping. Some guy from the west coast made the winning bid of $25 which I was fine with. He emailed me and asked me what it weighed and what the shipping cost would be. I weighed it and it weighed 45# and was going to cost $50 to ship. I emailed him with that information and that it was something that I had never thought of and if he wanted to bow out of the transaction that I would understand or if he wanted to move forward that was ok too.

 

[travelover]

You might be surprised. I once sold a very large and heavy elliptical trainer on eBay for local pickup only. The buyer lived nearly 200 miles away, but had relatives in my area he visited occasionally. Showed up at the house with his pickup and took it away happy. Granted, your buyer is at a much greater distance, but you never know ...

This is / was my hope, too. So far the buyer has just gone dark on me.

 

[sengsational]

A positive story as a seller...years ago I sold something big and heavy on eBay. Ok, it was a kid's "spring horse". Instead of weighing it, I looked at what other auctions charged for shipping, and put that in the auction. When it came time to ship it, I realized the auction I used to price shipping was for localish shipping, and my buyer was across the country. I messaged the buyer and said I was going to be taking a bath on the whole thing, and she said "just send the horse, not the base and springs".

It turned-out she was a buyer for the Friday's restaurant chain, something I'd never have found out if I'd priced shipping properly. Now I know that my kids' "Trigger" is hanging in a "Friday's" somewhere

 

[treeofpain]

If the buyer pays with PayPal, they have 180 days (yes, about 6 months) to make an "item not as described" claim. This is with eBay or any other purchases. And the buyer wins the dispute 99% of the time, even if the seller has "sold as-is" or "no returns" in their ad.

 

[misshathaway]

You might be surprised. I once sold a very large and heavy elliptical trainer on eBay for local pickup only. The buyer lived nearly 200 miles away, but had relatives in my area he visited occasionally. Showed up at the house with his pickup and took it away happy. Granted, your buyer is at a much greater distance, but you never know ...

I sold an old sewing machine built in to a cabinet on eBay, pickup only, and a collector from 2 states away drove to my house to get it.

 

[misshathaway]

I have a 100% rating on eBay so far b/c I've only been doing it for 4 months. I dread the first incident. I've already had some near-misses like 2 packages destroyed in transit. ( Media mail? Possibly not worth it. ) But both of those were resolved without changing the rating. It's only a matter of time however ...

 

[treeofpain]

Yes, if you are a regular seller, you have to build the occasional blip into your business model.

 

[Midpack]

Round Three (I thought this was over)

UPS denied the buyers claim, as did eBay, so I thought it was over.

A few days ago I get an email that the Buyer has filed a claim with PayPal - 'triple jeopardy.' After a few days, they say they've decided the case in favor of the buyer and refunded his full $231 eBay amount - case closed, with almost no discussion. WTH?

I called today and they said they had little choice since the buyer returned the item (even though I asked him not to twice before he returned it, based on the pictures he sent, it was clearly broken). I told PP the buyer never communicated anything before, during or after the eBay transaction, and then 45 days later said it arrived broken. PP's policy is 180 days (eBay is 30 days)...

PP Supv reviewed their notes and refunded my shipping costs, eBay fee & PayPal fee - about $85.

But the PP Supv said they frown on customers who file appeals with PP after eBay has told them no. Evidently they don't know. And this might impact the buyers future use of PP.

Then I explained the evidence that the item was very likely out of the box when it was dropped and broken. PP Supv then filed an appeal on my behalf. He said I would have to have an industry third party attest to the claim the item was not in the box when it was dropped to prevail.

This is all really unfortunate, and I would have worked with the buyer had he a) notified me within a few days of receiving the item (vs 45 days later), or b) been willing to work with me to arrive at a fair settlement (he insisted on a full refund - period and subtly accused me of sending it to him broken).

Not about the money, hasn't been for a while...

If you made it this far, I apologize. [/rant]