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Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

esell-resell
Thrill-Seeker

Has this happenned to anyone else?



I sold a Computer Server to a buyer on Ebay, this guy phoned me, we discussed everything about the server and shipping. Now this guy was cheap I could tell just by him whinning about how much the shipping would be and how long it would take.



So me being a nice person and I know what it is like to have to wait and wait for my package, I told him to send me $90 and I would express ship it out to him and he would have it in 3 - 4 days. He agreed and sent me the extra $90 plus I gave him a deal on the server $169.99 , when I could have easily got $200. The server weighs 70lbs and is 26"longX19"highX9"wide and has to be shipped in it's proper sitting place so I had to label it with THIS SIDE UP stickers and also HEAVY stickers (70lbs) and alot of FRAGILE AND HANDLE WITH CARE stickers. It cost me $280.00 to ship it to him (no lie I have the receipt from UPS on my account) and only charged him $90. When I packaged the server I did it at the UPS office that I go to all the time and the UPS agent helped me actually. I wrapped it in packing cardboard and used a bubble packing envelope for extra cushion on the back of the tower server so that none of the conections would be broken. It was then triple wrapped with cardboard boxes customly made top fit tight around the server and several layers of red Tuck Tape were used to seal it all up.



The buyer received it I believe 6 days later because some of the paperwork for the border ( Canada to USA) were not proper so it took a few more days. When his even NORMAL shipping, like the cheapest from Winnipeg Manitoba Canada to New York USA would have been $133.00 and would have taken 2 - 3 weeks to get there. Remember he only paid $90?



Anyway 3 days after he received the server he sends me a message that it was damaged during shipping because it was not packaged properly and he wants all his money back and also the shipping money. In my listing I had listed no returns or exchanges. I want all of you to know that I have sold many of these units and I always, ALWAYS run a system check on them before shipping them out and I have never had a problem. So I replied to him that I most certainly did package it properly and I asked him to send me pictures please and I also asked him why he would accept a package that was damaged. He would not respond or nor did he send any pictures.



Yesterday I received a buyer complaint thing from Ebay and Paypal puts a $179.99 hold on my account. I responded to the complaint and explained everything in detail and informed the buyer that I would be contacting Ebay and UPS this morning.



This morning I woke up a little later than usual 11am and noticed that the buyer had already escalated the complaint with Ebay at 6am. I immediately phoned Ebay and spoke to someone in the Ebay Buyer Protection department and I explained everything to the rep and also that I packed it in front of the UPS agent who helped me and that the buyer would not send me any pictures, and I expressed to the rep that I think what the buyer did was buy a different server locally because I noticed on his account that a few days after he bought my server, he was buying Tape drives for a completely different server, and after speaking with him on the phone he had said that he was in need of a server badly because they did not have one.



So here is what the Ebay rep did during the phone call I had with him. He ruled in the buyers favor and now the buyer can take 7 - 14 days to ship it to me and he can send it anyway he wants, so I will be waiting for 4- 6 weeks at the very least to get back a BROKEN server that has now cost me 280.00$ in shipping and is probably now worth nothing because here is what I believe happenned the buyer found a server locally and then read the buyer protection policy and then damaged the server ON PURPOSE then filed the claim. I know I cannot prove it 100% but I know that is what happenned.



So now I am out over $550.00 and apparently there is nothing I can do about it. I am sooo tired of getting ripped off on Ebay by buyers that LIE and Ebay rules in there favor all the time. I have 2 kids and this is christmas time and this extra money is for gifts for them, I am so UPSET right now with Ebay that I am about ready to quit selling on here completely.



I go out of my way to ENSURE that items are packed EXTRA well so that damage does not happen, and now I get ripped off by some goon that uses the policy to get away with it.




BEWARE SELLERS this can happen to you.



I think Ebay needs to wake up and change some of this NON-SENSE policy loop holes that these scammers use to scam you out of money. Oh and get this that buyer can now leave me NEGATIVE feedback but I cannot do the same to him, I can either leave positive or no feedback!



UNBELIEVABLE!!!!



Has anyone else had this happen to them?

Message 1 of 613
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612 REPLIES 612

Re: Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

I got ripped off today too, if you see buyer trying to buy from you don't sell to her. She's not honest. I called customer support because when I responded to the buyer the mail came back undelerirable 1week later so I didn't even know she wasn't getting my responses retarded customer service says yeah and then says I'll have a decision on the case she opened today. You can guess what that decision was. He didn't even bother to back and read her emails to me. I am tired of getting ripped off, hundreds of dollars in fees and this is how I get treated. I took all my stuff off ebay. Won't be back as a seller or buyer.

Message 316 of 613
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Re: Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

Let me see if I understood your post. You bought a used handbag and you think you got ripped off because it smelled of smoke? Did the seller claim it came from a smoke free enviornment? If they did then you have a legitimate complaint. If they didn't claim it came from a smoke free enviornment why would you assume it would without asking. I want to know where in ebay it ay's the buyer is guaranteed an item will smell a certain way.
Message 317 of 613
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Re: Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

It's not only sellors losing money.
I baught a 3d blu ray home theater system on ebay.
I received a used dvd player. When I complained
Response I got was what's the difference their the same thing aren't they.
I can't even get a response from ebay paypal or the seller since opening a case. So me as a buyer has no rights either.
Message 318 of 613
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Re: Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

You do have rights. If the item was not as described you can open a case which it sounds like you have. The buyer should get back to you and offer the item to be returned for a refund. The problem is from what I hear is that even when sellers ask to have the item returned, Ebay is still giving the buyer a refund regardless whether the item comes back or not. I agree that there are some bad sellers as well as buyers but it looks like the people that get the short end of the stick are the honest sellers. I think the whole money back guarantee policy has some flaws. In your case, you will most likely get a refund through Ebay regardless. The seller sounds like they didn't describe the item properly and you should get the opportunity to send it back and get a refund, however some buyers need to ask questions and confirm the information on certain items to avoid these kind of situations. I don't know if you did or not but if you did and the seller confirmed that it was what you were exactly asking then the seller made the mistake and should be held responsible. Having said that, when the buyer makes a mistake or makes a false claim or whatever, the seller in the majority of cases seems to get the loss in situations that should favour the seller.

Message 319 of 613
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Re: Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

Everybody in the open market will divulge if something was in the house of a smoker, a cat or a dog.  This is standard practice.Allergens are affecting more and more people these days annd can be triggered by even a small exposure.

Message 320 of 613
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Re: Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

The buyer gets ripped off too  I have been over charged shipping 3 times so I'm done .  If sellers can lie in thier Ads I will take my money and leave

Message 321 of 613
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Re: Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

I am a seller and I just got ripped off by a shady buyer.

EBay always sides with the buyer, this one in particular said the iPad shut off, which I test all my devices the same and have video footage of the iPad working before I sent it. I told eBay that this was a scam that I probably wouldn't get my item back, and they still sided with the buyer and gave him his money as soon as he provided a tracking number. I received a box that had coasters in it, glass coasters that made it way similar to the amount of an iPad


I am only out $150, it could've been worse and eBay let this type of behavior exist all the time

Message 322 of 613
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Re: Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

I also got ripped off sending 2 very expensive antique jade bracelets to Japan. The lady emailed that she hasn't received the bracelets, when only close to a month  had passed since mailing it. I bought small pieces of jewelry from Japan that had taken 2 months to come in. The lady said she was tired of waiting for delivery so paypal gave her all of the money back plus shipping. So now she has her money and the 2 antique bracelets. What a scam.

Message 323 of 613
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Re: Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

I think thats what all of us should do is file a fraud case against paypal-ebay and the so called buyer. I lost this time almost 600.00

Message 324 of 613
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Re: Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

I am speachless yet again.  I just had a buyer with 0 feedback buy an item. Somehow I get an email from Ebay that the buyer isn't happy and "Ebay will handle it" without a case opened and without me even knowing why. The item was refunded to the buyer. The buyer gets to just keep the item.  How can this be?? How can this go on?? Since it is obviously ok to do then maybe I should open another Ebay account and just start getting free merchandise!!  (I'm not a scumbag and wouldn't but the problem is I very easily could!!!)

We need to get together and fight this somehow. 

For what it's worth and for the ones reading this,

 

Another problem that fuels this in an indirect way is that many big sellers just automatically give these people good feedback as soon as they check out. Makes others believe that they are legit. This guy now has 1 good feedback that says "Great Ebayer"!!! lol

 

 

Message 325 of 613
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Re: Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

This is why I have a special paragraph in every single auction I put up on Ebay.

 

Goes like this -

 

.............Ebay has aggressive policies to protect buyers which is fine. However, these policies make it extremely difficult for sellers 

to ship pricey items overseas and still maintain sellers’ protection rights. The stumbling block is that items that sell for $250 

and above must be signed for by the buyer or there is NO buyers’ protection. Well, I’m just a guy trying to sell my stuff I’ve 

accumulated over a lifetime and raise a few dollars to send my youngest to school. I can’t afford to take big chances. 

 

For this reason, there are many cases where I just can’t find a reasonable way to ship overseas. For this I am truly sorry. 

Sometimes there is a way to find a solution around this, but every situation has to be handled on an individual basis...............

 

Although, to be honest, I have closed off bidding from ALL countries other than the US.  In addition, we all have the right to set up paypal so that we do not accept funds from financial institutions outside the US.  It's not enough to check the box for 'no international shipping.'  You have to go through and specifially forbid bidding from all other continents and countries.

 

To get around this, there is a new industry in the US called 'reshipping.'  Many overseas bidders will register as if they are US, then wilrl bid on US items.  Then they have us ship the item to locations in California, Seattle, or Florida and maybe other places.   These purchases are easy to spot because they usually have special instructions to include some odd code in the shipping address. 

 

The only bright spot in this is that Paypal does NOT provide buyer protection once the item has been delivered successfuly if it is then reshipped to another location.

 

I got out of a scrape because of that last year when the buyer pretended to live in the US but really was in Vietnam.  They bought a soprano sax that I had paid $50 to put in great playing condition.  Took about three weeks after I shipped it to hear back from the buyer.  They apologized for taking so long but had been 'traveling.'  Actually it was the sax that had been traveling.  Anyway, they weren't happy with it because it 'wasn't as described' and they couldn't get the bottom notes.

 

They kept hinting around that they should get a partial refund.  I asked them for photos.

 

When I got the photos I figured out that it had gotten really messed up somehow.   Most likely by the customs inspectors who are pretty aggressive looking for drugs and such.  When they don't find drugs, they don't carefully repackage things to make sure there is no damage for the final leg of the journey.  Instead, they throw it back together any old way and use paperclips and scotch tape to hold it together..... sort of.    In addition to the messed up key, I saw that someone had been 'polishing' the vintage silver-plated surface of the sax using something abrasive.  

 

So then I let him have it.  I told him I wasn't responsible for sax after they had damaged it through the use of incompetent techs and reshipping.  At that point they realized they wouldn't get money from me and the jig was up and started making threats of bad feedback. I made it clear that they weren't going to extort money from me.

 

In short order, I got negative feedback.  I complained to ebay.  Ebay let the negative stand, which is TOTALLY unfair, but also TOTALLY expected.   But I got to keep my money.  And of course, I immediately blocked that buyer from ever bidding again on my auctions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Message 326 of 613
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Re: Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

 

What are you talking about?   All you have to do is go to ebay or maybe it's paypal and tell them the item is not as described.  You have already contacted the seller.

 

You will automatically get all your money back.  You can leave negative feedback, and the worst thing they can do to you is leave you positive feedback.

 

There is no reason for any buyer to be out money when the seller has not described things right, with the possible exception of the cost of shipping it back..

Message 327 of 613
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Re: Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

I have fallen prey to this scam, also. The last two came from buyers with "PMB" mailbox (private mailbox service) in Calexico, CA. I got another purchase from this same set-up and I canceled the order and blocked the bidder. Not sure if its the same person, but when they return the "merchandise" (just packing material), it comes from Riverside, CA. So the scammers must work in cahoots with other scammers. We sellers are like fish in a barrel.

Message 328 of 613
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Re: Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

I am sick and tired of buyers taking advantage of sellers more than ever now. I had a 100% positive feedback and a member since 1999 until this buyer decided to give me my first negative. I looked at the person that did this and I diccovered that this person has been a member less than a year and has given 27.7% negatives in the 80 transactions.. Ebay can't see the issue here. I remember when Kmart was the king of retail until Wal-mart came in and destroyed them. EBay can't figure out that in the world of on-line business that the next big deal may put them out of business,

Message 329 of 613
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Re: Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

I am with you. Let me know and I will help.

Message 330 of 613
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