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.

[everything-from-trinkets-to-treasures]

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@yme_omg wrote:

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.

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The Global shipping program never offered protection for items not as described. Only for items lost or damaged in the mail...this has always been

You are required to accept the return and make the refund for items not as described...this was part of the buyer protection policy and now the money back guarantee. ...so again nothing new

You also were alway required to pay the return shipping for items not as described....so really not much new there either.

[yme_omg]

Additoinal Update,

I was able to finally speak to an eBay representative in the united states.

They indicated that I was suppose to have googled the buyers country postal service and forward the amount of postage required for them to return the item back via PayPal.  This information was not provided before the case was closed in the buyers favor.  As an eBay seller I was suppose to have known this on my own without ever having to deal with a situation like this.

eBay support actually assited in the buyer keeping the item and getting an automatic refund because they instructed me to wait for the case to be escalated before taking action.

Then once the case was escalated eBay representatives then stated because I did not send money to the buyer via paypal for return shipping from their country that there is nothing I can do to sppeal the case.

But A very good PayPal representative who is also a seller on eBay did provide me with a solution to get my money back and it appears to have worked.  She explained that I was scammed and recommends not selling internationally due to the fact that seller are not protected at all.  Many thanks to this kind woman.

[aks809]

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@siamdao wrote:

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.  

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How does that reimbuse the buyer for return shipping? You refund $20 of the $100 the buyer originally paid, for example. The buyer buys return shipping.

When you get the item back, you refund the remaining $80. So the buyer has the $100 back. But the buyer still wasn't reimbursed for the return shipping?

[sly_kitten2018]

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@ten_o_nine wrote:

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

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No you aren't.

[ittybitnot]

No you aren't.

For a while there items shipped from China were indeed exempt from the "seller paid" snad scenario.  ebay was called out on it, and after some months changed the plan.  Since "sending money to the unhappy buyer" is many times more expensive that the item and shipping were in the first place, the buyer is simply refunded.  On the other hand if money is provided, and the buyer ships back, the item is typically never picked up and a 'return delivery' isn't visible online to complete the refund. 

[aks809]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

No you aren't.

For a while there items shipped from China were indeed exempt from the "seller paid" snad scenario.  ebay was called out on it, and after some months changed the plan.  Since "sending money to the unhappy buyer" is many times more expensive that the item and shipping were in the first place, the buyer is simply refunded.  On the other hand if money is provided, and the buyer ships back, the item is typically never picked up and a 'return delivery' isn't visible online to complete the refund. 

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eBay considers a return Delivered when tracking says:

Unclaimed

No such number

Unable to deliver

Out for delivery

Insufficient address

etc.