Warning to Sellers: Fraudulent Buyers on eBay, and Cannot Trust Buyers' Positive Feedback numbers

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I have been an eBay Seller (and buyer) for 10+ years, and never had issues with fraudulent buyers on eBay until recently.  For two items I sold and shipped, I was ultimately not paid.

Case #1: Buyer made a temporary payment via Paypal, I shipped, then the Buyer cancelled Paypal payment.  Buyer has not replied to any messages or invoices sent.  Buyer has 2 "positive feedback" ratings in past 12 months, but I had no idea these were in fact both extremely negative (reading the feedback text) - see further point below , "100% positive feedback"

Case #2: Buyer won, I shipped in a hurry due to time constraints, and Buyer never ended up paying.  No response to any messages or invoices sent.  Buyer has a 87 positive ratings for past 12 months, 100% POSITIVE, but once again, several are actually very negative in the text, "Lost tracking my word against theirs. Now I'm out a preamp and money." or "Had to cancel the order twice. This buyer simply would not make payment".

"100% positive feedback"

Every part of this has been extremely frustrating.  I'm out $300 and spent all this time trying to contact buyers, and then eBay.  eBay "Trust" department has been notified, but based on my phone calls with them, I have little faith that anything will be resolved - I won't get paid, other sellers won't know that this buyer is fraudulent.  It was also very annoying to have to search outside the eBay website to get an actual number to call 

Also very concerning: I cannot leave negative feedback on the Buyer's account.  According to eBay, the reason for this is that they don't want buyers to be afraid of getting negative feedback when making a purchase.  I believe the real reason is that eBay is just concerned about the bottom line, making more money from more sales.  The result - buyers with "Positive Feedback" ratings which could in reality be extremely negative, and worse, fraudulent buyers

SELLERS, BE WARNED!

EBAY, ARE YOU LISTENING?

[the_fancy_fox]

First, never ever ship anything until you see the payment in your payment account.

Two, All Buyers have 100% feedback. Sellers can not leave negatives.

Three, buy your label through Ebay and your tracking will be uploaded and you dont have to worry about it.

Four, Soon as a mod sees this post they are going to pull it. Posting another users name is against policy.

[emerald40]

Unfortunately you are not going to be getting any meaningful help because this thread will soon disappear.

If you have been here 10 years you know you cannot name and shame.

As to your first problem.  Buyers cannot cancel their payment once it has been made.

Are you sure it was ever in there to begin with?  Was it an echeck that ended up being a problem?

Was it an unauthorized account?

Did you get an OK to ship from paypal before you sent it?

[emerald40]

Case #2: Buyer won, I shipped in a hurry due to time constraints, and Buyer never ended up paying.  No response to any messages or invoices sent.  Buyer has a 87 positive ratings for past 12 months, 100% POSITIVE, but once again, several are actually very negative in the text, "Lost tracking my word against theirs. Now I'm out a preamp and money." or "Had to cancel the order twice. This buyer simply would not make payment".

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Seller for 10 years should know better than to send out anything before the buyer pays and you get the OK to ship.

[bremontoy0]

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@emerald40 wrote:

Unfortunately you are not going to be getting any meaningful help because this thread will soon disappear.

If you have been here 10 years you know you cannot name and shame.

As to your first problem.  Buyers cannot cancel their payment once it has been made.

Are you sure it was ever in there to begin with?  Was it an echeck that ended up being a problem?

Was it an unauthorized account?

Did you get an OK to ship from paypal before you sent it?

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Where have you been? Buyers have canceled echecks for MONTHS now

[phcd1]

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@bremontoy0 wrote:

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@emerald40 wrote:

Unfortunately you are not going to be getting any meaningful help because this thread will soon disappear.

If you have been here 10 years you know you cannot name and shame.

As to your first problem.  Buyers cannot cancel their payment once it has been made.

Are you sure it was ever in there to begin with?  Was it an echeck that ended up being a problem?

Was it an unauthorized account?

Did you get an OK to ship from paypal before you sent it?

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Where have you been? Buyers have canceled echecks for MONTHS now

---

If it was an eCheck, the seller should wait the 3-5 days for it to clear, just like any other check. That's not an eBay issue, that's a seller issue. Second, no seller should ever ship until they are 100% sure the money is in their Paypal account. Third, it's against policy to name and shame so this thread is going bye bye fast. Forth, the OP should know after 10 years on eBay that buyers can only receive positive feedback.

[missjen831]

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@bremontoy0 wrote:

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@emerald40 wrote:

Unfortunately you are not going to be getting any meaningful help because this thread will soon disappear.

If you have been here 10 years you know you cannot name and shame.

As to your first problem.  Buyers cannot cancel their payment once it has been made.

Are you sure it was ever in there to begin with?  Was it an echeck that ended up being a problem?

Was it an unauthorized account?

Did you get an OK to ship from paypal before you sent it?

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Where have you been? Buyers have canceled echecks for MONTHS now

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They can cancel e-checks but what most are doing now is NOT cancelling the e-check. They are letting paypal take care of that when the check bounces multiple times. Its paypal canceling the payment. 

[slippinjimmy]

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@bremontoy0 wrote:

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@emerald40 wrote:

Unfortunately you are not going to be getting any meaningful help because this thread will soon disappear.

If you have been here 10 years you know you cannot name and shame.

As to your first problem.  Buyers cannot cancel their payment once it has been made.

Are you sure it was ever in there to begin with?  Was it an echeck that ended up being a problem?

Was it an unauthorized account?

Did you get an OK to ship from paypal before you sent it?

---

Where have you been? Buyers have canceled echecks for MONTHS now

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And sellers continue to ignore the clearly stated instructions NOT to ship until the eCheck clears.

This isn't a new problem, it happened years ago as well but it's has become much more common as eBay has closed other doors that scammers used.

[yuzuha]

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@bremontoy0 wrote:

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@emerald40 wrote:

Unfortunately you are not going to be getting any meaningful help because this thread will soon disappear.

If you have been here 10 years you know you cannot name and shame.

As to your first problem.  Buyers cannot cancel their payment once it has been made.

Are you sure it was ever in there to begin with?  Was it an echeck that ended up being a problem?

Was it an unauthorized account?

Did you get an OK to ship from paypal before you sent it?

---

Where have you been? Buyers have canceled echecks for MONTHS now

---

Buyers can only cancel eChecks that are pending and haven't cleared.  Once they've cleared, there's no canceling them.  The only way a seller can be out money due to a canceled eCheck is by shipping before the eCheck has cleared, which is something they shouldn't be doing anyway, like slippinjimmy said.

[emerald40]

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@bremontoy0 wrote:

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@emerald40 wrote:

Unfortunately you are not going to be getting any meaningful help because this thread will soon disappear.

If you have been here 10 years you know you cannot name and shame.

As to your first problem.  Buyers cannot cancel their payment once it has been made.

Are you sure it was ever in there to begin with?  Was it an echeck that ended up being a problem?

Was it an unauthorized account?

Did you get an OK to ship from paypal before you sent it?

---

Where have you been? Buyers have canceled echecks for MONTHS now

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As you can see by the 3 subsequent posts, echecks cannot be cancelled once they clear.

[myboardid]

OP, both times the errors were yours and not the buyers'.  You shipped before receiving payment.  There is no way at all to force the buyers to pay, and this is between you and the buyers, eBay is not involved or responsible.  You need to take responsiblity for your own actions.

But I'm sure you have learned to watch your payments for all future sales. 

One other suggestion - use Fixed Price listings with Immediate Payment Required.  You'll never have a payment problem again.