How my item was stolen by an international buyer using eBay

[yme_omg]

Here is how my item was stolen using eBay.

Step 1

An international buyer will purchase your item.  Once they receive the item they will immediately start a claim against you stating the item is not as described.

Step 2

You must respond to the dispute by offering a full refund once the item is returned or eBay will immediately refund the buyer anyway. Once you respond that you will refund the buyer once the item is returned eBay will prompt you to provide a return shipping label. Unfortunately if you are an american seller there is no way you can create a return shipping label for a buyer in New Zealand or any other country outside of the united states. The buyer who is stealing your item knows this. So from this point the clock is ticking for 4 or 5 days until the case is escalated.

Step 3

The buyer escalates the case after the 4 or 5 day eBay grace period expires where they are expecting you the seller to send the buyer a return shipping label that you have no way of creating, because the buyer is in some other country. After the case is escalated eBay immediately takes the money out of your seller PayPal account and gives it back to the buyer. They have the money back and they keep your item.

Facts that you should also know.

The Global Shipping Program does not protect the seller. There is no way for the seller to even contact anyone in the Global Shipping Program.

When you call eBay support before the case is escalated they will do the following.

1 Tell you they are sorry.

2 Say anything to get you to hang up the phone

3 Say anything to get you to wait until the case is escalated.

When you call eBay support after the case has been escalated they will do the following.

1 Tell you they are sorry.

2 Say you should have provided a return shipping label that you could never provide.

3 They will say anything to get you to hang up the phone.

4 They will not do anything useful to help get your money back.

When you try to appeal the case with the resolution center.

1 Tell you they are sorry.

2 They will deny your appeal.

3 They will say anything to get you to hang up.

4 They will never transfer your call to an american support representative.

Just face it. eBay does not protect sellers. Your item has been stolen and they will tell you it is the cost of doing business on eBay.

Calling PayPal will not get your money back either. After 3 days of calling eBay I have yet to get thru to an american support representative. It is as if there are none anymore.

[smileytown18]

I believe the GSP does provide return labels in such cases if they were involved in shipping it. I remember hearing about it

[lilbama911]

Ebay dropped the ball on this one in their New User agreement.   A lot of blah, blah, blah and  nothing about handling International sales returns ie, who pays return shipping, under what conditions, method used, etc, etc, etc.

As you stated in your comments, Ebay isn't set up to print labels for International return requests.  Yet you are required to send the International buyer a return label.  Are you a magician?

In my opinion, Ebay should, as a courtesy, refund your money for this transaction, and do so in a hurry.

Jeers to Ebay on this one!

[castlemagicmemories]

You might want to check this out~but I believe you can send the buyer funds through Paypal to return the item, and if they don't, Paypal will reimburse you for those funds since they were not used to return the item.  

Hopefully someone else will confirm or deny this as I am unsure.

[bubbleman2010]

To send the buyer return shipping funds you first have to know the amount needed to return the item,buyers never respond with a dollar amount because they don't need the headaches so they never respond and you still lose....

[siamdao]

Yes, we have processed international refunds.  What we have done is viewed the original paypal transaction and refunded a portion of the purchase commensurate with the amount of return shipping.  Prior to that we go to the buyer's country post office website to see what the cost would be for the eaxct service the item was delivered (we send international registered air small packet).  We then take screenshots of both the estimated cost and the conformation  of the refunded amount for postage and upload them both to the return page.  

[sam9876]

eBay requires that the seller Send money to pay for return shipping on an international transaction. 

[1786davycrockett]

Since USPS shipment to many international countries does not include tracking, it is just as easy for the international buyer to simply open up an "item Not Received" case against the seller, right after the buyer has received the item.  This involves much less paperwork for the buyer, and eBay reimburses the buyer very quickly.

And that's the major reason I no longer offer to sell anything over $10.00 to buyers outside the United States:  fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

[bubbleman2010]

Items shipped through ebays GSP program are cover against INRs the loophole being used now is SNAD they know you can't do anything to win that dispute....

[ittybitnot]

I believe the GSP does provide return labels in such cases if they were involved in shipping it. I remember hearing about it

That would be incorrect.  When the GSP is used, the seller is not responsible for items not delivered or items broken in transit.  If the international buyer should claim SNAD (not as described), the US seller is still on the hook for providing the funds for return shipping from the international destination.  Otherwise, they can refund the buyer and let them keep the merchandise.

[ten_o_nine]

Yet here in the U.S, if we receive NAD item from China, we are responsible to ship it back to the seller.

[touchdownarkansas]

That is why I do not sell internationally and I never sell anything that I am not willing to give away for free if it comes to that. Life is too short.

[yme_omg]

I would also like to note that the international buyer that stole my item has (0) Feed Back and my item was the only item this new user has purchased.  I was ripped off and after calling eBay support 34 times today alone I was not able to get thru to anyone in the united states. 

[parkersparrow]

I had to accept a return from the UK once. What I did ws go online to their postal system Royal Mail. Bought and emailed the label to the buyer.

[greganthonyb]

This exact thing just happened to me!

I sold a PC for $400 to a guy in Canada.  He stated that it didn't work (and refused to take it to a PC Store to prove, to me, that is was not working).  Claim started by buyer.  I could not issue a return lable.  eBay tells the buyer he can keep the PC and refunds him the $400.  I'm out a PC & $400.  No where in their policy dioes it state that they will take the money from us if we do not pay. 

Worst of all, the guy emails me weekly to tell me how fun it is playing on his PC that he received for free from me.  I even tried to show eBay this, and all I get is the "I'm sorry..." and "We understand your frustration..."

What happened to the days where they would hold the money in escrow so this kind of nonsense can't happen?