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Seeking Feedback about eBays twisted Feedback Policy - plus a clever Scam for sellers to be aware of
eBay's feedback policy has been biased since Sellers were banned from leaving buyer's negative or neutral feedback. Although feedback still helps buyers screen for good sellers, it's also allowed buyers to commit fraud and scam sellers through negative feedback extortion. I've been a seller for over 12 years. On average, I've sold around 50k each year for the past 10 years while maintaining 100% positive feedback. Recently, I've had the worst selling experience of my life when I made the terrible mistake of selling a $439 Target Gift Card. This is how I was scammed...
When buyer received card, he messaged me very upset saying that he too was a seller on eBay with perfect feedback and couldn't believe he got a card with a ZERO balance. Wait, what? No, that's not possible! He then said he called Target and they said the card was reported lost/stolen and a new card was issued to the person who reported the card. I apologized profusely, reassured him that I didn't report the card lost or stolen, and would get this straightened out asap. He messaged back right away being very understanding and suggested it had to be a Target employee. I called Target immediately and got a great agent the first time I called. They explained that to report a card lost or stolen, you must have the original receipt numbers. I blocked out all information except the balance before posting the picture of the card with receipt on eBay. The card numbers weren't shown, obviously. The agent gave me all the information he had on the reporter (name address, etc.) and said it was reported the day after I mailed the card but before the buyer received, from a state neither me nor the buyer was located. I was the only one who ever had access to that receipt besides the Target employees who could have reprinted a duplicate. I was sure that it had to be an inside job. The card was in the mail when it was reported so there was no possible way it could have been the buyer, right? I spend countless hours talking to an investigation team and following up with the managers at the store. Having worked for Target briefly in college, I knew how seriously Target takes internal theft and they did indeed investigate for a week. At that point, I told the buyer the situation and let him know that it would take about a week to get it resolved with Target and asked him if he wanted a refund. To my amazement, he said no, he was willing to wait for target to investigate. Wow, that was nice of him, I thought. After the investigation, Target cleared the employee and denied my claim for a replacement card. Knowing a good bit about jurisdictional laws, my only recourse at that point was to press charges on the man who reported the card lost/stolen and received the replacement. I wrote to the buyer about the result and threw in there that he could go ahead and send me a return request and I would refund him so that I could press charges on the reporter. I noted that until I processed his refund, I couldn't press charges because the card wasn't legally mine anymore (being I sold it the day before it was reported stolen, it was legally the buyer's card). Once the buyer heard that, he said I could keep the money and just send him other merchandise I had listed on eBay that had the same value as the card. Huge red flag there. Would I really have pressed charges? If it was easy enough to do, I could have made a simple police report just to try to stop the scammers from doing it to other sellers, but other than that, I wouldn't waste my time or money going after someone for $400. Anyway, I called eBay for advice on how to proceed and asked the agent to see if that buyer had a history of gift card returns claiming a zero balance. The agent said YES! He had an odd number of returns on gift cards and advised me not to send him anything else, so I didn't. I blocked him. I assumed that agent reported the buyer but didn't. Of course, the buyer then left me negative feedback. So I called eBay and wanted to know why this buyer still had an account and allowed to continue to scam sellers. eBay agent explained one of their ridiculous policies... Buyers get 3 warnings before being restricted or suspended. He was on his 3rd warning! Agent assured me he would get some sort of restriction. I said he should be suspended permanently, but you know eBay... buyers can do no wrong. But here is the kicker... eBay denied my request to remove the negative feedback! **bleep**? I followed their instructions on handling the case and they aren't removing the feedback? I'll call eBay when they open today, but I'm just disgusted with all this. I'd love to get any suggestions or advice.
If you're still reading this novel, you may want to know how the buyer pulled off this impressive scam. How did he get the receipt before it was delivered to his house? The USPS has long offered a free service called informed delivery which allows you to see what mail is going to be delivered the next day. But that only shows you the outside of the letter. Well, there is a little-known higher service offered for a price that will open the mail for you and sent you an image of the letter or in this case, the card and receipt. To avoid suspicion, he has someone report it from another state. Also, in the first message, the buyer claimed to also be a seller on ebay. Upon closer inspection, that wasn't really true. Yes, he had 100% feedback and he had something listed for sale. It was a rusted piece of metal (a part of some kind?) listed for over $500. It's been listed for a very long time. But it gives the impression that he does sell and had 100% feedback. He hasn't actually sold anything for as long as I can see. All of his feedback is.... yep, you guested it, mandatory positive feedback as a buyer. With no other feedback option, of course he has all positive feedback. None of the sellers he scammed had any other option. Scammers are getting more and more clever. I will never sell a gift card online again. And if eBay refuses to remove my feedback, I may never sell on eBay again. I know I won't be missed out of all the thousands of sellers, but it's the principle. If all sellers banned together to demand a fair feedback system, eBay would have to comply. They treat buyers better than sellers, but sellers are their bread and butter. Without us, there would be nothing to buy.
