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EBay always sides with buyers. What can I do about my strikes?
Summary: banditech shares frustrations about receiving strikes on their eBay seller account due to return and refund requests, some of which they believe are unfair. They express concern over the lack of support from eBay and the difficulty in appealing these issues. lady_madonna advises that maintaining excellent customer service is crucial for improving seller performance stats, noting that eBay's Money Back Guarantee often favors buyers regardless of the seller's evidence. banditech acknowledges these challenges and expresses concern over the potential for misuse of eBay's system by buyers.
I KNOW for a fact I am not the only one dealing with this type of issue. I deal with many buyers on a weekly basis and for the most part I never have an issue. Maybe 2 times a month I will receive a return request or a refund for an item, either it wasn't tested properly before sending it over, or we sent the wrong item. It happened more in the beginning when we were getting the hang of our system. I read those strikes remain on your account for up to 12 months.
Here comes my issue. Every beginning of the month I get a notification about my seller status being low. We try our best to make sure the descriptions are accurate, sending items on time, that they work, etc. But every once in a while we get a buyer, and every seller here knows what I'm talking about, that just has a lot of free time in their hands and are looking to start trouble.
Last month it was someone cancelling their order because it wouldn't arrive in time after purchasing it, but initiated the refund through an "Item not arrived" query. I rejected that query since he would've had to initiate it as "ordered by mistake" or something of the sorts so it wouldn't reflect as yet another strike. I mentioned it to the buyer, they get pissed, eBay sides with them, woe is me.
I move past this and assume whatever, I will read up on ebay and do a great job with every other order to get these strikes removed eventually.
Cue in today. I sell someone a CPU that had been tested and worked before I sent it. They initiate a return through the guise of the item being defective. I argue that if they want to initiate a return I would need more pictures and evidence that it was an error form our end. He didn't feel the need to do any of that and just said "Ebay doesn't require it" and mentioned he installed the CPU in a computer that, upon our analysis, ISN'T APT FOR TAKING THE CPU WE SOLD THEM. We didn't want to risk any further strikes or problems with our account so we just initiated the return.
This is my first post here but I want to know if it's something other people experience. It doesn't help one bit that actually trying to get in touch with a human that works in Ebay is next to impossible and their ai is... well I don't need to get into all of that.
We're trying very hard from our end to get rid of these strikes or at the very least minimize the amout of strikes on our account. We're not perfect and we admit to when we are at fault, but how do you all handle strikes on your accounts from potential scammers and grifters?
lady_madonna
Mentor1 week agoThere is no way to get rid of the strikes. You will just need to provide exemplary customer service in the future to improve your seller performance stats.
Ebay has a Money Back Guarantee for buyers that sellers need to comply with in order to keep their seller performance ratings. You needed to immediately respond positively to those 2 buyers.
In the instance of the CPU, you should not have argued. They did not need to provide more information ("evidence") to you, all they needed to do is provide info to Ebay.
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/handle-return-request-seller?id=4115
banditech
OP1 week agoThat... friggin sucks! Price of doing business here I suppose. Thanks for your reply.
banditech
OP1 week agoReal quick though, so if I sent a working CPU, the buyer said it doesn't work, he sends it back, I can prove it works, nothing happens except me getting ANOTHER strike on my account even if I did nothing wrong and provided excellent service?
So hypothetically, if someone wanted me gone from eBay they could make a bunch of orders with different accounts, report they never received something or that it got damaged, and enough of those and I'm out of eBay? I don't believe this is happening but it is definitely concerning. Thank you for your response either way.
lady_madonna
Mentor1 week ago@banditech
I know this is frustrating, but if the buyer files a return request and states it does not work, Ebay will side with the buyer since Ebay cannot test the item. You will need to approve the return request, and refund the buyer when you receive the returned item. That way you will NOT receive a strike unless you refuse and the buyer has to ask Ebay to step in to help them.
If someone said they did not receive something they purchased for you, all you have to do is provide proof via tracking # & tracking info that the item was delivered, and Ebay will find in your favor.
If they file a return request due to damaged item, you would need to cooperate with the return request in order to avoid a strike on your account.