Buyer SCAM, expensive item, buyer claims he received totally different item. What to do?

[wonderpond2008]

I sold a used electronics item with a value of $900. The item was insured and shipped via USPS with signature required. I am not a business, I am an individual who does occasional sales of personal items. The package was delivered and now the buyer claimed he received a totally different item which is worth only a couple of bucks. He sent a picture of this mystery new item and the actual box I sent my item in. He is asking for a return via INAD. He is suggesting someone swapped the item before he got it, which I find utterly fantastical, i.e. he is obviously a scammer. I don't know how to handle this. Ebay CS is telling me to accept the return, but I don't know what I should do. It would be one thing if he is trying to return my item, but this is totally different. Any advice would be really appreciated. Thank you in advance!

[izistar]

Hi

Me as a eBay seller ,whats its happening With you ,happened With me so many Times ,this ia almost a weekly problem for me.

Some scammer buyers they have great imagination ,they always invent something to get things for free.

But my opinion its not like most sellers ,i know that eBay by principle always favour the buyers ,this is the model of their business , the reason eBay its so sucessful ,buyers dont have afraid to buy as they know they are always Protected by eBay Money Back Guarantee.Also everyone knows its easy on eBay to make an claim and be refunded ,even the scammers they know this better them everyone ,so they are using and abusing of eBay Buyer protections .

Just want to tell you ,that me i always fight for justice and for true if i know and i have 100% sure im right .

If i was in your situation ,i will follow With other member told to do and you have done (write that letter ) .That was good that first step .Now before you accept the return , try to contact USPS or the post Office (or normally any post Office ) from where you shipped the item ,and ask an writed report of all details of item shipped (weight ,tracking Number ,postal service used amount payed ,etc ) .Normally this report its given immediately ,they just need to print it .(Im not from USA, at least in my Country i can get this immediately from any post Office ) .

With this report ,you have a proove by the weight and tracking it corresponds to exactly same item as you shipped ,so it prooves you shipped exactly same as described. If the Buyer never told you ,the box have been opened or have signals of any kind of manipulation it means he received exactly what you posted which its same as described ,and hes lying .

If the item was really swapped ,means box have been opened you should be Protected by insurance ,but that the Buyer need to help you on prooving this ,if cannot or refuses to cooperate and help you on prooving this ,it means hes lying.

Can you ask to him how much weight have the item is showing he received ?

Make pression on him ,that for insurance and Police claim ,he needs to proove the item have been swapped ,so he have to cooperate ,or he can be in risk of crime of false declarations and crime of crime simulation ,etc .

Dont forget "anyone" can read this posts ,and thats not good for you too...

[wonderpond2008]

Thank you everyone for your detailed replies.

eBay has done what everyone said they would do, they have de facto ruled in his favor, are now forcing me to pay shipping for the item that he swapped for and then refund him. I called them earlier today, they ensured me oh yes we take this seriously and will be in touch to get further information from you on this case. They said they put the case on hold for 7 days to review further. Just a  few hours later, they sent me an email with their "decision". They collected NO information from me at all about this case. How can you make a decision when you don't actually review any information? Well, it's easy because their default position is to screw over the seller, they clearly didn't actually review anything.

This entire experience leaves a terrible taste in my mouth, and may force me to never sell anything on eBay ever again. This is absolutely a ridiculous policy they have. Be sure I will be telling EVERYONE I know about what happened to me. There are ways that they could improve the system to ensure protection for both buyers and sellers. They are clearly too lazy to do this.

I hope more people read threads like this BEFORE they attempt to sell anything of value on eBay. I will be sticking to local solutions for anything of high value that I sell in the future.

Now I have to pay even more money for him to send me back some bogus item. So I lost the item, lost my insurance fees, and round-trip shipping fees. $1000 bucks down the drain...

[handyhandz4u]

1- Accept the return.

2- Once you receive it, if it is not what you shipped, send a picture to eBay.

3- Call eBay and make them aware of the switcheroo.

4- From my experience they will side with you, and you will not need to give them any refund. for the Reason that this never happens.

5- If they ship it back, make sure they didn't remove parts and tried to rob you this way.

[wonderpond2008]

Hi handyhanz, thank you for responding.  I am not sure if this complicates anything, but the buyer has already sent a picture of the swapped item, has said they video recorded the opening of the item, and has been "cooperative" when I said I am launching a USPS claim. I don't know if this will affect the process and outcome as you have described it above.

Update, I just spoke with eBay and that message that went out to me saying they have ruled in his favor was apparently automated as the time limit to respond was tripped and the case is actually still on hold. I don't expect USPS will rule in my favor at which point I have no choice but to accept the bogus returned item. I hope when that happens I will still be able to fight the claim as per your points listed above?

[wonderpond2008]

I would like to thank everyone who provided guidance here. I am happy to say that via appeal they sided in my favor for this case. It was quite a bit of leg work but the result was favorable. I am still wary of selling high value items and will need to pay extra care of the buyer profile, but this was an encouraging result. Thanks again everyone.

[sin-n-dex]

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@wonderpond2008 wrote:

I would like to thank everyone who provided guidance here. I am happy to say that via appeal they sided in my favor for this case. It was quite a bit of leg work but the result was favorable. I am still wary of selling high value items and will need to pay extra care of the buyer profile, but this was an encouraging result. Thanks again everyone.

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This is wonderful news, thank you for keeping us in the loop.

Be aware, it has happened before when they ruled in the seller's favour that they reversed their decision and the seller ended up having to pay for the refund. If that happens, come back here, and we'll do our best to help you.

C.

[vintagecraze50]

Kraken definately has the righ advice for you in this situation. When you get a scamming no good customer on here you make them sweat by telling them in a matter of fact way that you WILL do everything Kraken advised you to do and send that message to the buyer. Perhaps they might change their toon.

[vintagecraze50]

You can always file a small claims court case which is really easy to do. You may not ever recover the item or the money but you will put these types of folks in a lot of financial trouble will debt collection when they do not show up for the court case and you win the case. 

[vintagecraze50]

Only you know what you sent. Ebay has no idea what you sent. The buyer in this situation could have the tiniest change of getting a tampered with package with something that you did not send. If package was tampered with it should have some signs of that. Do not rely on Ebay to believe you in this situation or to do anything but expect you to give them a shipping label and have them send you back something you did not send to this buyer. If you get a rock back or nothing or something other than what you sent, File all the reports for theft and fraud. Then start a small claims court case, That’s about it.

[kpecaruni]

Hello,

Glad I found this post for preventative measures on such scams. New seller and already had to deal with a refund in which was damaged during shipping, but eBay certainly helped me out on that transaction (~40$ USD). Also glad that they were able to support the seller from this terrible scammer who should be fined/jailed. Awesome job.

To be even more secure about something like this, would anyone recommend bringing the package unsealed to the carrier and taking pictures of the item there, then taping up the package there (for expensive items at least)? Yes it would take longer to process, but it sure would save from a headache like this. Also don’t know if any carriers are able to facilitate something like this, but they sure should offer it.

I started taking pictures before boxing up items, but doubt this would be enough “proof”.

All the best! Except for scammers lol

[soh.maryl]

The original post in this thread is over 5 months old.

There is no point in taking pictures of the item at any point in the selling process because eBay will pay no attention to them.  And, if you think about it, that makes sense.  How does eBay know that the item being  pictured or video'd is actually the same item that's being sent?  

[chippedtoothsmile]

It’s crazy how you can just say the INAD and you get a free item on eBay LOL. Sorry that happen to you, it’s just crazy how eBay doesn’t give one sh*t about the seller and the seller is who they make the money off. 

[beautyproducts4muchless]

Sorry for your loss! I'm currently dealing with a $377 scam and probably a $500 scam. Both are returns and one is positively a scam, the other is most likely and will find out soon for sure. My guy instinct was to cancel the orders, since they BOTH had zero feedback and opened accounts the day of the order. 

Lesson learned!!!

[beautyproducts4muchless]

I feel you on wanting to pay them a "visit"! My girl was just saying we should do just that. It's tempting, but idk. Prob just gonna learn a lesson from all this **bleep**!

[kh-leslie]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.