Fraud

Question

I have been extremely frustrated trying to report companies that are listing items that either don't exist or items that will not grow true to type. I am specifically talking about ones that list "strawberry seeds". Strawberry seeds are sterile. You can plant seeds from now till doomsday and nothing will grow. Also plants that are grown from rhizomes listed as seed for sale. The seed may germinate, (maybe) but the plants will not be true to type. It is blatantly fraud but I don't seem to be able...

eburtonlab · Answer

If you purchased something that did not arrive or is not as described, you have recourse through eBay's money back guarantee.

If you are a verified rights-owner you can report infringing listings and have them removed.

If you are neither a buyer or a rights-owner you can report suspicious listings to eBay, but unless the listing itself has an obvious policy violation apparent to someone with no expertise, there is probably not much eBay will do about a report of something that might be a scam.

Many scams are not apparent until something is delivered (or fails to be delivered). As long as the seller could conceivably deliver the genuine item and fulfill the transaction, there may not be a policy violation that eBay will act on until a buyer or a rights-owner complains.

Buyers should not rely on eBay to spot scams in advance and remove scam listings; scammers can put up such listings faster than eBay can take them down. Buyers should vet their sellers and choose to do business with experienced sellers that have demonstrated the ability to deliver what they describe and avoid obviously untrustworthy sellers altogether if they do not want to have to use eBay's money back guarantee.

eBay is a good place to purchase physical items that can be fully evaluated within thirty days; it is not a good place to purchase virtual items, services, subscriptions, accounts, or anything such as seeds which cannot be fully evaluated within thirty days of receiving it.