eBay

shiraikimiaki · ‎05-20-2021

On April 20th, I received a message from eBay about a sale I made on December 29th:

"BUYER has filed a payment dispute outside of eBay about an order that was placed on Dec 29, 2020. This means the buyer has disputed a charge directly with their payment provider. They are requesting $149.99 back and the reason for this dispute is that the buyer did not recognize the transaction.

Please respond to this dispute by Apr 25, 2021."

So I immediately responded the only way eBay would allow me, which was inputting the tracking number for the package (which was delivered a few days after the sale via USPS Priority).

Problem is, it's been a month since I've done this, and absolutely nothing has happened. The dispute is still ongoing, in the "Awaiting Decision" stage:

"We've sent your rebuttal to the buyer's payment institution and they are currently reviewing it. We'll let you know when they've made a decision. "

According to eBay, there's nothing else I can do. I've heard horror stories of people who legitimately shipped their items and still lost the disputes, and any payments associated. To make matters worse, the tracking # is so old that it no longer shows up on USPS tracking searches.

Has anyone went through this recently, or is currently going through this? This has actually happened to me before, but with PayPal, it would always be wrapped up (rightfully) in my favor in a few days. It seems to me the Managed Payment system is dropping the ball hard when it comes to these disputes.

pikabo-icu · ‎05-20-2021

I can't advise on the bulk of your issue other than to say; I am really sorry you're going through this. That said; if it were me, I would be visiting the USPS and requesting a copy of the tracking details.. I would hope they can access older records that aren't available to us online.. There must be a method to accessing the tracking even though it's been 5-6 months.. **Fingers Crossed**

What a hot mess.. I hope you get a resolution in your favor.

~Pika~
People in life that are the happiest don't have the most,, they make the most of what they have...

jastan8620 · ‎05-20-2021

I had one on PayPal that took 6 months before I finally called PayPal and had them close it.

dariudaudery_0 · ‎05-20-2021

I had 1 just like this. 6 months after the purchase buyer opens paypal dispute and then it took between 3-4 months till it was closed in my favour.

Item was going to Canada (Canada's tracking is as good as no tracking) and buyer did not recognize the transaction. I did upload all info and called paypal twice since it was taking too long. Even have contacted the buyer (using his email) and he was kind enough to let me know that he will refund me the money because it was his fault. Even thought it would have been much faster to just accept money from him but i did decline as case was still open at the time and i did not want to get double refund while hurting that fella in the proccess.

Since that time i no longer ship to Canada.

Anonymous · ‎05-20-2021

Get one thing straight about ebay: THEY ALWAYS side with the buyer. I have been selling on here since 2007 and we just made the decision to leave this platform. Their increased unsupportive seller policies and managed payments have had a negative impact on our sales, and buyers who have received their packages as our tracking and signature confirmation have confirmed delivery? If the buyer complains and lies? Ebay sides with them anyway. The first time we lost $2,300.00 We just had this happen again - and it cost us over a $4000.00 loss. Both packages required signature delivery and there was nothing wrong on our part, far as shipping and delivery. Good riddens Ebay.

normzsales · ‎05-20-2021

Take a picture or screenshot of the tracking number. You can also go to USPS website and get proof of delivery via mail.

Ebay always side with the buyer. I got scammed twice in two months. Buyer claimed they received an empty box even if tracking information shows it was not empty. They provide a Police report to ebay and that overrides the tracking information. They both got their refunds.

Good Luck!

nono-8172 · ‎05-20-2021

@Anonymous wrote:
Get one thing straight about ebay: THEY ALWAYS side with the buyer.

Their increased unsupportive seller policies and managed payments have had a negative impact on our sales

Good riddens Ebay.

This is a payment dispute, filed outside of eBay, so eBay cannot make a decision to side with the buyer. This is why eBay can only offer limited protection to the seller, sometimes covering the charge themselves (using the fees all of us collectively pay eBay).

In a payment dispute,

- eBay is the payee because Managed Payments collected that payment from the buyer,

- the decision is made by the buyer's payment provider likely favoring the buyer,

- then eBay turns around and gives the news to the seller.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎05-20-2021

Unfortunately, it's not unusual for these credit card cases to take a long time. I don't think there's anything you can do to speed it along. If the buyer claimed they never received the item, as long as you uploaded tracking showing delivery ebay would cover you, so that if you lose the case, ebay would pay out of its pocket, not yours. But this is an "unauthorized transaction case" which probably means the buyer acknowledges delivery but claims he didn't authorize the charge (someone stole his credit card info, for example, and ordered the item without his knowledge). I don't believe ebay will cover you if you lose the case in that situation. Maybe, but if I were you I'd be assuming you will be refunding. Card companies often side with their buyers, but if this buyer has made too many of these claims, they might not. So there's still a chance you could come out OK. But the odds , frankly, aren't good.

popblox · ‎05-20-2021

I had one of these this week - transaction from January, tracking showed delivered. Within minutes of challenging the dispute by confirming the tracking number, I received an email from eBay stating the dispute was found in the buyer's favor and they'd be recovering the purchase amount, plus a $20 fee from me.

It's been my experience that if these payment disputes (not SNAD/INAD - those are a different story) are made within 90 days of the transaction date, you can just confirm the tracking and be covered by seller protection. Outside of that, you'll have to do a righteous amount of (polite) kicking and screaming to coerce any member of eBay customer service to recognize the fact that, according to the MP policy, you've fulfilled your obligation and should be covered by seller protection.

On my 3rd and final appeal, I was finally granted a "courtesy coupon". I wasn't thrilled, but sometimes you just gotta take what you can get and move on to the next one.

nono-8172 · ‎05-20-2021

@popblox wrote:
I had one of these this week - transaction from January, tracking showed delivered.

Within minutes of challenging the dispute by confirming the tracking number, I received an email from eBay stating the dispute was found in the buyer's favor and they'd be recovering the purchase amount, plus a $20 fee from me.

Within minutes @popblox when eBay checked online, now in May, that tracking number you reconfirmed to challenge the payment dispute, it no longer showed delivered.

Unfortunately, since there was no way now that eBay could prevail against the buyer's payment provider by submitting a defunct tracking number, eBay threw in the towel and fined you both the buyer's full payment and their $20 dispute fee.

popblox · ‎05-21-2021

@nono-8172 wrote:
@popblox wrote:
I had one of these this week - transaction from January, tracking showed delivered.

Within minutes of challenging the dispute by confirming the tracking number, I received an email from eBay stating the dispute was found in the buyer's favor and they'd be recovering the purchase amount, plus a $20 fee from me.
Within minutes @popblox when eBay checked online, now in May, that tracking number you reconfirmed to challenge the payment dispute, it no longer showed delivered.

Unfortunately, since there was no way now that eBay could prevail against the buyer's payment provider by submitting a defunct tracking number, eBay threw in the towel and fined you both the buyer's full payment and their $20 dispute fee.

If by "defunct" you mean completely valid tracking number that shows the item was delivered in January, then, yes, that's correct. Seeing how there was/is definitely a way to prove the item was delivered, as recent as 5 seconds ago (see below), your post is wholly irrelevant and void of fact.

And I don't understand why you put the words May and January in bold, like they're supposed to mean something special? Very confusing, but thanks for the feedback.

nono-8172 · ‎05-21-2021

@popblox wrote:
And I don't understand why you put the words May and January in bold, like they're supposed to mean something special? Very confusing, but thanks for the feedback.

You will, as the overseas scammer techniques become clearer. Your payment dispute challenge was handled by bot, which no longer showed tracking delivered to the buyer's zip code.

popblox · ‎05-21-2021

@nono-8172

"You will, as the overseas scammer techniques become clearer."

This wasn't an overseas transaction. . .

"Your payment dispute challenge was handled by bot, which no longer showed tracking delivered to the buyer's zip code."
Yes. It does. I just showed you - the tracking number still shows as delivered. Are you saying there's a villainous robot out there that transforms valid tracking information into invalid tracking information for payment disputes on eBay? Do the robots only do it in May for transactions from January?

ittybitnot · ‎05-21-2021

But this is an "unauthorized transaction case"

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques

Just as an aside, there are TWO different cases that can be filed by the buyer.

"Doesn't recognize the charge"
or
"Unauthorized transaction"

The OP says that "doesn't recognize the charge" was the reason for this dispute.

Though they sound similar, apparently they are not Just from observation, sellers seem to be losing the latter. Indeed it may be due to a "stolen/compromised credit card" situation" where though the seller is shipping to the address provided, but the address is NOT that of the card owner, or the card was used in a triangulation scam situation. As more of these situations appear, we will likely get a better idea.

There is a distinction made on the Adyen website as well between these two claim types.

dhbookds · ‎05-21-2021

Seller protection for unauthorized transaction are the same as paypal. Even if the cc denies the claim, ebay will cover you......altho you may have to appeal to get it. Some sellers are being caught because they haven't uploaded tracking before the dispute......but if you've done that, there should be no problem.....it does seem to take forever.....and that's been brought up to ebay (and supposedly they are reviewing it)........that no matter what the cc decides......if the seller can prove the terms, it should be decided quickly for the seller.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/seller-protections?id=4345&st=12&pos=4&query=Sel...

When a buyer reports that they don't recognize the transaction

You provided proof of delivery that included all of the following:
Tracking number provided by the shipping company (uploaded by the date indicated in the payment dispute notification)
A delivery status of "delivered"
Date of delivery
Recipient's address, matching the address on the order (including the city, county, zip code or international equivalent)
Proof of signature confirmation if an order has a total cost (including shipping and taxes) of $750 or more, uploaded as an image while contesting the payment dispute.