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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?

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

It's been several years since that was orginally posted. Perhaps math has changed since then?  Smiley Very Happy

 

I'm curious: I have also noticed that lately, there have been a lot more countries where you can't get USPS insurance.  Was surprised to see Canada is one of them.  Does anyone have a link or a list that shows which countries do have insurance available, and which countries don't?  I am planning to eliminate more countries from my "will not ship to" list, and think that would be good to also take into consideration.  Prime consideration, of course, is scammers - they seem to come from certain countries more than others.  I've never had a problem with Australia or England, and have shipped quite a bit to China and Japan with no difficulties.  Have run into some scammers in South America, Russia, Canada, and the Arab countries, though.  If you sell a lot, it doesn't seem to matter what you sell or where you sell it, you'll have scammers and bad buyers occasionally.  Probably not much different than a brick-and-mortar store.

 

eBay seems to be doing better lately with seller protection, their customer support has improved dramaticaly in the past couple of years.

Message 226 of 613
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Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

Right there with all of you - sold a drive worth $750.  Tested working before sent, NO RETURNS listed on the auction.  Buyer receives it, it doesn't work (installation error?  Item is 15 years old?).  They knew what they were buying and I know it worked when it left my house.

 

Bottom line, $750 hold on my account that I had intended to use for vacation, and likely a useless/broken drive back to me.  Perfect.

 

Does Ebay not realize that some of us are not professional sellers, we're selling our own used stuff?  If you buy a car from a private party, and they put water in the gas tank the first time they drive it, is it the sellers fault?  They are buying USED STUFF.  Accept the risk of that or don't buy used stuff.

Message 227 of 613
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Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

If you want to rip off a seller, the easy way is to do what happened to me a few years ago; the buyer bought a $100 item. A week later he filed a case saying the item was broken and asked that I refund his money. I asked for a bit more information and photos and at this point the buyer stopped communicating. To me, at that point, he should lose the case but of course, that does not happen. So a few days later I recieved an empty box in the mail from this guy. The postal worker brought a box up to me, asked me to sign. I signed and took it inside and opened it...nothing inside except paper. The buyer then used the receipt that proves an empty box was delivered to me claiming of course that he had returned the item. PayPal took my money...case closed. There was nothing I could say or do. I called PayPal and they told me I could not prove the box was empty. SO...if you want to run scams all you need to do is purchase expensive items that can be broken, claim they are broken, send an empty box and bam...resell the item later under a fake screen name which is what this guy did. eBay facilitates, condones, and promotes this kind of activity.

Message 228 of 613
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Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

I've been buying and selling on ebay on and off for ten years. I was recently taken for $1000 by a scamming buyer. I sold a Gibson les Paul to a guy that strips guitars down and parts them out with a substantial mark up. The buyer submitted a claim that the guitar wasn't received and shipping was taking to long. Shipping was free for the buyer and it was shipped in mid December. Anyway the guitar gets delivered and I escalate the claim to close it out. Unfortunately for me the post office that delivered the package was a different zip code from the buyers address. After calls to ebay they ruled in favor of the buyer because it wasn't delivered to the approved address in paypal and ebay. So I'm looking to see if he sells my guitar on ebay from his ebay store. It really blows my mind how they side with the buyer even without speaking to them. Just make a decision and poof I'm out a guitar and $1000.
Message 229 of 613
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Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

I had been selling on ebay for over 10 years. In 2013 I had two bad transactions. Both customers were liars.  Ebay sided with the buyer in both cases. I closed my account and will never sell on ebay again.

Message 230 of 613
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Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

,Hello, Yes, I understand exactly how you feel. I am very discouraged with Ebays policies as of late. I've had some scammer buyers lie and I did everything right, fair and square from the beginning. I also asked for pictures etc. and nothing was provided ( because of course there was nothing to show)

I sell vintage magazines Betty Page, Marilyn Monroe etc. Some of them can be very pricey and bid up pretty high. So this guy gets this 60 year old magazine in almost Mint condition. I had provided 12, plus extra photos to his email. All close ups showing every detail. Anyway two days after he gets it he says it's not as described and wants his money and shipping costs back. Ha, Well this mag had a big Betty Page centerfold in it......I know this Bozo scanned the picture and then wants to send it back. He also said it was damaged in mail....( I package my things so well that a postal worker would have to make an effort to damage my pkgs.) So I ask this buyer to send photos of the damage. Prove to me. He didn't provide ANYTHING. Because there was NO damage. He changed his story so many times. It was obvious he was being completely dishonest. I was SO disppointed that ebay is willing to allow this sort of conduct.

So .......I should have known from the beginning he was going to be trouble and from now on I have learned a valuable lesson. You can usually tell when someone is going to give you problems. Just dont' sell to them. Trust your gut and move on. ya know?

So Ebay really has NO SELLER PROTECTION. The Scammers know exactly what they can get away with and take it to the limit and it's soooooooo unfair to honest sellers. I had about 3 experiences like this now and they are all very similar in flavor. They reek of scammer mentality. All of my feedback raves about how well I communicate and how great I package my items etc etc.

Does Ebay see it for what it is?? NOOO

And I agree.....NOT FAIR....that sellers cannot have the same right to leave negative feedback and WARN other SELLERS about these weasels out there....

All in all though...Most of the buyers are great...but the snakes are extremely upsetting and more upsetting is Ebay (FeeBay) who is making money off of me and not protecting me.

What I've learned from my bad experiences... is this............SPELL OUT YOUR POLICIES LOUD AND CLEAR IN YOUR AD AND MAKE IT LOOK PROFESSIONAL, FORMATTED ETC. AND DON'T COME OFF TOO EXTREMELY NICE. JUST BUSINESS FRIENDLY AND POLITE BUT FIRM.

I'm pretty sure this was part of where I got caught up.......The scammers I've dealt with were WAY more experienced than me I could see by the number of transactions they've had.....So they could smell an easy target with me because of my home-grown, friendly ad. I am making changes hoping that will eliminate some of these parasites from even considering me for prey.

I know they surf around looking for targets and I do not plan on being one anymore.

 

Message 231 of 613
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Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

Make sure you immediately add bad sellers/buyers to your blocked list http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?bidderblocklogin&hc=1&hm=um.rn77%28%3F21re52  so this can't happen again!

Message 232 of 613
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Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

I would seek legal counsel. They must have proof it was damaged by shipping...take them to small claims court..if we all start doing this the bad apples will get fewer (hopefully). I am game for a class-action suit though.
Message 233 of 613
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Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

If someone would just set something up that rivals ebay with a catchy name and all .. advertises a ton to get it going.. then we can squash ebay.. bingo!

Message 234 of 613
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Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

wow!  I wouldnt be surprised if he did damadge it.

I feel bad for you.

Message 235 of 613
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Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

I have found that Canadian buyers are the worst. I refuse to sell to them.

Message 236 of 613
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Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

I am completely done with selling on Ebay. I spoke with a Robbie (an Ebay lead) and Justin today, respresentatives of Ebay... Ebay does not fight for the rights of sellers but for the rights of buyers. A buyer purchased my jeans, he didn't like them and never returned them. While I on the other hand refunded the buyer, along with Ebay, refunded the buyer the price I listed the jeans as and shipping/handling fees. There needs to be a rule in place for protection of the seller not just a one sided street protection for the buyer. How Ebay can support theives is beyond me. There is no moral compass here... Just don't sell on Ebay... Amongst being lied to by previous representatives, telling me the buyer will send my item back, this has never happened.

Message 237 of 613
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Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

beware of the seller also im sorry for your lost but when ebay allow anybody to sell and buy we all are at risk so farbive been lucky andvhad not gone through ebay bs protections scam
Message 238 of 613
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Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

I have decided to use Pre-paid legal or small claims court if it happens to me.  We have had PPL for years and years.  If we all start fighting back legally maybe ebay will wake the hell up!

Message 239 of 613
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Ripped off by yet another buyer! Ebay's Buyer Wins no matter what policy.

  Sorry to hear about your recent dillema, and don't feel alone.The same scenario just happened to me. I cannot believe Ebay and Paypal have such a neat little racket going on here. Guess what?  On top of the loss of money, the hold on your account, and the neg. feedback, you'll get charged a double fee when the sleezeball buyer get's reimbursed-plus the 10 percent ebay listing cost.  This has got to be stopped. When a seller says NO returns or exchanges, it should mean just that! Why even bother?  This is making Craigslist selling look like wonderland--NO FEES--BIG Beautiful Pictures (24-if you want to post that many,)and a very easy site to navigate. That's where I'll be posting!  Good luck to you sir.

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