eBay

afabdave · ‎01-01-2023

Ebay allows buyers to commit fraud by opening a return and saying saying their item is broken or not as described. Ebay then gives the buyer a full refund no matter what. Reporting a buyer seems useless also. Ebay clearly does not care about its sellers. Their one size fits all cookie cutter programs are nearly useless.

714ricki · ‎01-01-2023

Even the brick & mortar stores have the same porblem with buyers falsely claiming an item is broken or not as described. Its just a part of business. Pointing fingers at ebay or any online platform isn't wawrranted for a habit that has been going on & on. Fingers crossed that it doesn't happen too often for you.

Hang in there!

reallynicestamps · ‎01-01-2023

Did the buyer open a Claim?

Were you told to send Return Shipping?

Did you send Return Shipping?

When you got the (undamaged?) item back, did you refund promptly?

Did you relist the undamaged item ?

Did you Block the sketchy buyer?

Do you have an automatic Block on buyers with Strikes?

Do you have a No Returns policy?

Do you realize that No Returns does not mean No Refunds?

sapphire_studio · ‎01-01-2023

We just have to work around their policies and try to limit our exposure to the scamming. EBay is essentially shooting themselves in the foot my allowing item not as described cases to pretty much always be won by the buyer because they're losing out on a lot of high end items people would normally want to list but are afraid to.

They have made a system where you definitely cannot ever list anything that you can't afford to lose ( Especially because those type items are specifically the ones the scammers look for). That's judt hurting Ebay at the end of the day. Anyone on this forum right now are the lucky ones that have done their research to realize how easy it is for scammers to operate and can protect themselves by either listing elsewhere and/or sourcing differently.

For example (on another account I run with my friends) I stopped listing junk drawers when someone was able to claim an item not as described and take out the pokemon cards and return the rest of it and get a full refund. But today a Mario plush sold for $50 that was in one of the $60 junk drawer lots I took down... so in the end I guess I'm glad I decided to take them apart.

firesteel_surplus · ‎01-01-2023

@afabdave wrote:
Ebay allows buyers to commit fraud by opening a return and saying saying their item is broken or not as described. Ebay then gives the buyer a full refund no matter what. Reporting a buyer seems useless also. Ebay clearly does not care about its sellers. Their one size fits all cookie cutter programs are nearly useless.

You have almost 1,300 listings up and over 6100 feedback and you are just now realizing this? This has been a topic in here for probably the last couple of years at least. It's been a part of an eBay seller's business for quite awhile. eBay caters to it's buyers, shareholders, and stock price first. Then eBay tosses the sellers enough treats to keep us mostly satisfied and our growls low enough that everything runs pretty smoothly. This is the reality of it now.

DId you go down the line of questions that @reallynicestamps posted?

Mike

Firesteel Surplus

studiodeflores · ‎01-01-2023

I'm just a small seller but here's my 2 cents worth: I see that you don't accept returns. One suggestion is to allow returns and use ebay's automated return processing. Then the buyer must follow that process and return the item in the condition that it was listed/shown before you issue them a refund upon receiving it back. At least they have to put in some effort and do that much before trying to scam you. I guess it depends on what types of things you list, but for me, selling vintage collectibles, I have gotten almost no returns over the years and if I do, I can just relist it.

Anonymous · ‎01-01-2023

There is a universe of implications in your reply.

Thank you.

sayy_9592 · ‎01-01-2023

Without going into any particulars or details.

Your statement is true. Through the last few years I have experienced 2 or 3 situations similar to yours where EBAY sided with the buyers regardless. In one case, items were damaged by shipper, I immediately refunded all monies to buyer and still I got negative feedback.

Also another with a fraudulent exchange, returned a beat up item. i did send pictures and full explanation to EBAY but to no avail.... still I lost.

Cost of doing business......" Get out of the kitchen if it is too hot "

EBAY is a one way street and i will close shop when I get tire of it.

allen1853 · ‎01-01-2023

Yes they do. And the fact it has been going on for years does NOT make it acceptable. Most of us sellers are not Neiman Marcus or Nordstroms and fraud condoned by eBay is not easy to just suck up as suggested by the Rah Rahs. Between USPS disappearing packages with no explanation other than USPS employee pilfering or damage resulting in packages going in trash and eBay facilitating fraud by buyers, small sellers are being put out of business or are just quitting the platform. This may not be the plan of the knuckleheads and robots at eBay but it is the result.

fredcosales-4 · ‎01-18-2023

Sorry, but eBay condoning and facilitating fraud and theft is not right, now or EVER. I have 5 eBay stores and have been selling on the platform for many years. I just recently sold a brand new $50 model kit to a buyer. It came in a box with a sealed bag. My pictures showed the box from the front and the side and the box with the sealed contents. It was packed well and sent quickly and the customer got it safely in a few days. He then wrote and said that it was a piece of junk and that he wanted a refund. He lied about everything, no box, a picture taped to the bag, would not take glue, etc. In order to pressure the return, he immediately left negative feedback to harm me. I asked him to send me pictures and he refused. He opened up a Return Request and lied in doing so in complete violation of eBay rules. I notified eBay 3 times about what he was doing and was told to accept the return and notify them of what came back. I did so and informed the customer that he was required to return everything that was sent to him. What I got back was a few damaged model pieces, no box, no bag, no paperwork, but the most glaring part was that it was not even the model kit that was sent to him as it had connecting string that was black and the model I sent to him was all white. I took pictures of everything and sent it to eBay along with a long conversation informing them of the fraud and theft and about what I thought of my selling portal supporting such criminal conduct against myself and my wife. I already know what they are about to do to us by taking our hard earned money and giving it to a self admitted thief who acknowledges by his actions and his words that he has done this type of thing before. But if they think that I am going to stand by and be screwed and say nothing, they do not understand at all how angry I am nor how persistent I can be. Purposely facilitating fraud and theft that has been reported to them along with solid evidence makes eBay complicit and is in itself a crime. And the saddest part is that corporate eBay could not care less. Good luck all.

kyoshoplace · ‎05-30-2023

Its horrible problem that in all cases I have seen, eBAY should have clearly ruled in SELLERS favor. This jerk that stole from me filed a case immediatly after receiving the item. SAID not as described. Total **bleep** as I actually sent buyer multiple pictures before I even posted for sale. Buyer approaved the picutures IN WRIGHTING.

Then open case and said IN WRIGHTING he was opening case with ebay because they will give him all the money back and he does not care about the item I sent him.

So buyers KNOW they can scamm the seller because eBAY does not protec the seller

luckythewinner · ‎05-30-2023

@afabdave wrote:
Ebay allows buyers to commit fraud by opening a return and saying saying their item is broken or not as described. Ebay then gives the buyer a full refund no matter what. Reporting a buyer seems useless also. Ebay clearly does not care about its sellers. Their one size fits all cookie cutter programs are nearly useless.

If each seller had his own independent website, then each seller could decide each dispute on his own. And if he chose to screw buyers, then only that seller's site would suffer when buyers stopped buying there.

But eBay is a third party site, and the behavior of one seller also reflects on all the other sellers because buyers see eBay as a monolithic site and when the reputation of the site degrades it affects all sellers.

The fundamental issue with eBay's model is that as a third-party provider eBay, has no way to accurately determine whether it is the buyer or seller who is lying. So they do what is in the best interest of eBay, which is to retain buyers at the expense of sellers.

It's not that eBay does not care about sellers, it's that eBay cares about buyers MORE.

inmbri1 · ‎10-06-2023

I just had ebay remove funds from my bank to refund a return despite my pictures that prove the damage and theft commited buy the buyer. The excuse that it's just part of doing business is incorrect. Ebay stole my money to refund a thief!

fredcosales-3 · ‎10-06-2023

I have had this happen a number of times this past year. Be persistent in dealing with eBay customer service and demand an appeal of the decision to steal from you. eBay has protections in place for sellers (as they have to legally have to prevent themselves being accused of a crime) and now you have to demand that they take action to enforce their own protection guarantees based on the evidence you can provide. Those protection guarantees are part of the contract that you have with eBay as a seller and legally they must follow. Good luck in getting them to do so. If eBay made it as easy to fix a problem like this as they do to allow it to happen in the first place, we would all be better off.

inmbri1 · ‎10-06-2023

The eBay admonition to sellers to inspect returns before authorizing a refund is meaningless. No matter how much a item in damaged by the buyer eBay will steal your money from your bank account to refund. I know of no policy that tolerates that kind of theft. Sellers should unite to stop ebay theft.