Fraudulent eBay Buyer

[amayasattic]

Can a fraudulent eBay Buyer be prosecuted for grand theft?

[kitschy*loot]

Anyone can sue anyone from what I know, but the chances of winning in a case like you described is very low.... and I don't understand how they were able to text you during the offer process. 

You allowed yourself to be pushed and rushed and you made the choice to accept low offers. If you sent them items that weren't even in the listing that would fall on you, and how did they pay for it if it wasn't in the listing? 

You should never agree to something based on a promise you would never be able to enforce. If the person opens a not as described case you will lose and have to pay return shipping, and if this person is a thief of course they will ship back things that aren't what you sent them.

If you don't respond to the case if they open one officially; they will keep everything (which they might anyway if they are truly a thief) because eBay will say a non response is you saying you don't want anything back. If you don't put the refund through and force eBay to do it you'll lose your final value fees and get a defect on your account.

I don't think you'll win in court because you willingly sent them extra things, and a buyer has the MBG so they can open a not as described case. Only certain sellers with certain policies can deduct anything from the refund. 

You said you have witnesses to what was shipped, but there is no way you can prove what was shipped. Videos won't prove anything other than what you packaged on camera... 

[kensgiftshop]

Right now all you can do is wait to see if they return the items or not.

If they do return, hopefully they'll return everything. Even if they don't, you'll still have to refund the buyer.

When a buyer files an INAD, the seller doesn't have many options.

[amayasattic]

That is not the transaction we are talking about. The guy that bought the lighters is definitely not happy that his lighters have not arrived yet, but we are pretty sure he didn't leave negative feedback intending to hurt us. He is expressing his frustration with USPS. We requested that eBay remove the negative feedback since it was clearly not our fault. The package has supposedly left another distribution center this morning, now 13 days after we mailed the package.

But again, that is NOT who we are talking about in this thread.

[amayasattic]

Thank you, but again, this is NOT the transaction we are talking about. The one we are talking about is roughly 15 times that amount prior to taxes.

[ebooksdiva]

Oh my bad you weren't specific in your original post. 

[zoda99]

This isn't about lighters E-booksDiva. Good grief.

[mtgraves7984]

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@amayasattic wrote:

Thank you, but again, this is NOT the transaction we are talking about. The one we are talking about is roughly 15 times that amount prior to taxes.

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@amayasattic 

I'm guessing that it's a buyer of (some/all) the jewelry lots on 3/28 (and/or 3/29), no? If they've opened claims on all of the lots, approve them and get your items back before refunding. I mean, so far, there's been no theft...

[ebooksdiva]

I'm aware .... OP already cleared that up. Thanks 

[12345jamesstamps]

As you are somewhat being new to selling...us old timers(not old) but around...we have experienced a bad sell every now and then.

A bad sale will stay with a seller for a rather long time.

This is like business like retail.

I had a few bad returns. Funny now...but at that time it made me so mad. I sell stamps.

Imagine getting a dark plastic bag with tracking with something gooey in it where I had to pick it up at the post office because the mailman wouldn't touch it. I refused...and I contested...I got charged another 20 bucks for that...

I also remember getting a girlie post card returned instead of my stamps.

And I got a buyer do a dispute with a credit card after "260 days".

I just moved on. It's a part of selling.

Every day brings sometimes a new "you name it"....but as Churchill would say "never give up"...or something like that. Just let it go and keep selling!

[house*of*paws]

Hi @amayasattic 

You’d have to ask an attorney.  I think most lawsuits involving online sales are CIVIL … rather than criminal.

[amayasattic]

Is it possible to accept the return and have them pay the postage. At this point, we are almost 100% convinced that this whole thing was planned out. And we do actually feel like eBay might even be trying to protect us because of some other "coincidences"

Is it possible that eBay would allow the return and force them to pay for return shipping?

[mtgraves7984]

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@amayasattic wrote:

Is it possible to accept the return and have them pay the postage. At this point, we are almost 100% convinced that this whole thing was planned out. And we do actually feel like eBay might even be trying to protect us because of some other "coincidences"

Is it possible that eBay would allow the return and force them to pay for return shipping?

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@amayasattic 

I do not think it's possible, even in light of any other "coincidences". I'm sorry I don't have better news...

[candd205]

Yes, plenty of court TV shows, Judge Judy, People's Court, Judge Mathis, although I think they all might have changed names recently. I think there are a lot of newer TV court shows too, that I just haven't started watching yet. Just Google it. I'm sure you can contact the shows directly to appear on the show. I think you make money whether you win or lose, the winner just makes more money. Good luck.

[1786davycrockett]

@amayasattic 

If the buyer whom you wish to sue for "grand theft" resides in New Jersey, you would need to sue that buyer in a New Jersey court -- and the standards for grand theft in New Jersey are probably different from those that you have quoted for Florida.

Can you afford to pay upfront all the costs necessary to sue an individual who lives in another state, such as attorney's fees, transportation, accommodations, food, etc?  Those are upfront fees, and not contingent upon who wins and who loses.

Regarding those TV court trials -- they are contingent upon the cooperation of BOTH parties involved; therefore, if the buyer refuses to participate, the TV trial does not happen.

Finally, were ANY of the items that were sold to this buyer items that had NOT been listed on eBay?  You had stated:  "she wanted EVERYTHING, even stuff we hadn't listed yet."  If you had included items in the transaction that had NOT been previously listed on eBay, it is possible that eBay may temporarily suspend your account, since eBay forbids the use of the eBay site for sales of items not listed on eBay.

In addition, eBay will not protect sellers who have sold items that were not listed on eBay.

We need some additional clarification.

[amayasattic]

Stuff not listed YET. Once she was adamant about wanting everything, we created an additional listing for her. We would never try to do anything outside of eBay.