Just can't win here anymore.

[numisnorway]

I'm beyond anger at this point. Just having a feeling of being weighed down..

I've accepted the reality of doing business here..

Even if you decide to only sell cheaper stuff in order to lessen the risk you will still encounter lots of bad buyers. This is mostly due to the entitlement mentality that so many buyers have these days...

The buyer knows that he has all the power. Return frauds, fishing for refunds for whatever minor issue like a scuffed outer box that has nothing do with the product etc.. just so much nonsense.

Lately i managed to find a certain hot item which i flipped for a profit here on ebay, a product mind you that i don't usually sell, something outside of what i usually deal with. I packaged the item in an unorthodox fashion because i don't have the supplies to do it the common way, but i still did it in an overkill manner as to prevent damage during shipping and whaddaya know.. now i am dealing somebody complaining about the fact even though i used the exact same method for 2 other buyers with no complaints whatsoever. There is in my opinion no way that the item got damaged during shipping since there is no way for the item to get moved around or even crushed.

So now i have a buyer claiming damage and sent me a picture of the item where there is apparently nothing wrong with it where he wants "a substantial refund". To add insult to injury he can't even point out where the damage is, just that it could have been. It's just so fatiguing to try and reason with these people.. what exactly can i tell them apart from "return for refund" which opens up a whole new can of worms where they can do things out of spite, send back another item etc.

This is a buyer i researched beforehand as well.. someone doing a holding service for collectors of said items where he holds them until his international clients have a certain amount to be shipped together in order to save on taxes and fees before getting shipped to their nation. Everything checked out as well.. forum posts with happy buyers, a seemingly legitimate business profile etc.

[billscountry716]

Tell the buyer you'll issue a full refund once you have the item again.

[numisnorway]

Yes, that is the way things will progress, but i fear that he might damage it out of spite.

[jysales]

Here is the best solution I have found. You know you are going to have to accept returns once in a while that is part of the selling game so why fight the inevitable. I am not going to be one of those sellers that says you are SOL because you are not. What you have to do imo and what works for me is to only sell items where you do not have much to lose. What I mean is instead of selling an expensive iphone or whatever it might be for $550 and you paid $450 for it for example, you only sell items where the loss potential is much lower and you don't have your own money invested. If you sell an item that you got in a group bundle (Say an expensive item from a storage auction bundle) and the total cost you paid for all of those items is $500, then  you are less likely to lose any money if any, because the total VALUE for all of those items equal much more than $500 in total from what you paid. Say you sell those 10 items in the storage bundle for a total of $2000 and somebody returns something for $500. You still will NET $1000 in profit and the only bummer will be that you did not make the extra $500 in profit because of the 1 return. Then the buyers aren't "Getting one over on you," so to speak. I have found this strategy works the best. Even if I get "BURNED" by 1 dishonest buyer I can make up for it by using this strategy. This way you don't have to worry about every single transaction going badly. You can only worry  when it turns into a profit loss over time. This is more of a big picture answer and not your specific situation, but I think if you implement this strategy it will work for you and many other sellers in a business sense. This approach will take little to NO money out of your own pocket. Do not post anything that you cannot afford to lose, and make sure your PROFIT MARGIN is way higher than your potential to lose any type of money you have invested. This is how people stay successful in business. 

[jysales]

(Don't have a lot of your  own money invested I mean, obviously you will have to invest some.)

[numisnorway]

The buyer is throwing his weight around trying to tell me what an upstanding citizen of the community he is asking for my twitter handle so he can show his stupid clients what a great guy he is and how unacceptable my shipping method was etc. Just another clown that is full of himself. Turns out that he hasn't even seen the card himself, just that the photo was taken from somebody handling his PO box.

Yeah, i guess if you want to do business on ebay you either have to be another large corporation with added benefits or a thrift-store reseller or buy substantial amounts of items in bulk.

Just told him to return for refund. No point dealing with these rear-ends. Both him and ebay can suck a lemon.

Something tells me that this is not the first time he has done this.

[sandi7766]

Write out a hateful message to him, really unload. Then delete it. It actually makes you feel better sometimes.

[numisnorway]

---

@sandi7766 wrote:

Write out a hateful message to him, really unload. Then delete it. It actually makes you feel better sometimes.

---

The sad thing about it is that if he really got to see such messages then maybe he would reflect upon what an asshat he is and maybe correct his behavior, but the thing is that he knows he has all the tools while i have none.  I've encountered quite a few people that lack humbling experiences in their lives so to speak, but in todays world everybody feel like they have the right to be shielded from any form of negativity which only increases their delusions of grandeour.

What triggers me is the way it is conducted. He could have just opened an INAD instead, but the fact that he did not and instead wants a "substantial refund" while not even having viewed the item makes me certain that this guy is a product of ebay and paypals generous policies which he for sure has exploited many times before and how these characters are now commonly encountered. Back in the day we would have only showed them the door.

Maybe i should clarify a little about the item in question. It was a soccer card which i placed inside a penny sleeve, inside a harder more rigid plastic envelope, placed inside a paper envlope placed inside a hard plastic container with some bubble wrap on top in order for the envelope to not move around. This was again placed inside a cardboard box that was taped generously. I did this with 2 other clients for the same product with no complaints.. in fact i have received positive feedback already. Furthermore the other cards were of a lesser grade, but still sold for good money, more so than what i would end up with if i were to give a "substantial refund".

It is crazy really how paypal and ebay almost encourages this type of behavior. I sell some stuff on a craigslist type site where i only accept wire transfer and usually send the items without tracking info and i never encounter such issues because all in all people are for the most part honest, but ebay and paypal nurtures and encourages the bad and dishonest ones.

What this really is all about is the buyer not being satisfied with the shipping method, gambling on my inexperience and getting a freebie. I just wonder what type of **bleep** we don't hear about going on on this site.

[chapeau-noir]

Honestly, I wouldn't try to get inside this **bleep**'ers head - maybe he wants to increase his profit margin so he's trying to bully you, but he doesn't have much to work with so he's obviously scrambling.  I would also ask him to simply return for refund and repeat like a broken record.  Don't engage. 

"Everybody" is not like this, but a prize backside like this takes up so much space and energy that it probably feels like it.

ETA: I CANNOT believe the very mild word this forum bleeped!  Good grief.

[m60driver]

Oh you can still win here, but selling high priced fragile items is not the path to victory.  I stress out just shipping out a $15 coffee mug.

[numisnorway]

Yeah i just did the "return for full refund" schtick.

Won't engage in any discourse with this fellow.

It's a new low having to encouter somebody wanting a substantial refund for something that he can't even point out what is wrong with other than that the shipping method being unorthodox could have lead to damage that means a loss of value under unfortunate theoretical circumstances even though he didn't even handle the package or have seen the card other than through a cellphone photograph where the card is pictured inside its pennysleeve with light reflections etc.. this from somebody who tries to portray themselves as "serious".

[chapeau-noir]

He's reaching, that's for sure.   I hope this works out for you.

[postingid7659]

The best way to handle these blowhards is calm and to the point.   "I don't see the issue you're upset over however if you are unhappy with the item you can return for a refund.   Note you are responsible for the item returning in the condition it's currently in; anything else constitutes fraud." 

[numisnorway]

I guarantee there are many shady buyers that run a business model based on getting refunds alone on this site.

I have encountered a few already. One thing they often have in common is that they are often sellers themselves or sending items of for grading.

My suggestion is that as soon as somebody wants to buy a raw item in order to have it graded, just block them because odds are they will nitpick on something minor to get money back because they realise that their unrealistic expectations of instant large profits will not come to fruition.

Funny thing is that i even blocked another buyer beforehand because judging by his messages he was gonna be problematic.. talking about cost of grading, average pricing of similar items sold (in worse grades) giving me a lower offer than my starting price etc and when i told him i will accept his offer if i don't get any bids he acted with indigination.

It could be that trading cards in particular are affected more by this type of behavior.. i wouldn't know as i havent sold that much in this segment.

Whatever the case is ebay is going downhill fast and they will not be able to save their reputation from being known as a scammer friendly high risk site.

You know those browser warnings that pop up if you venture into a fake scam site where it says "Are you sure you want to proceed" and then given the option to ignore the warning? i feel like ebay is close to being at that point.

[numisnorway]

Just canceled my store subscription.