EBay costing both me and themselves by aiding and abedding an obvious scammer
I know many other sellers have probably had similar experiences, but I'm so angry and frustrated that I had to share this one, to blow off some steam.
I'm in the US. A customer in Germany won an auction on an Elvis LP, for a little over $200. The record was very, very common. A $10-$20 item at most. Inside the record was some rare promotional inserts. The value in this item was, without a doubt, in the inserts, not in the cover or the records.
When we listed the item for auction, we clearly stated that there was a small issue with the cover. The buyer wins the auction and, upon receipt of the item, demands a portion of his money back for the defect to the cover (I can't prove it, of course, but my strong suspicion is that this customer knew how he was planning to manipulate the situation, even before he ordered the item). Over a string of emails, the customer claimed our partial refund offer was 'insulting'. He was condescending at all turns, and quite aggressive. In the end, he wanted to return the item, and demanded that we reimburse him for the duty taxes he paid. We told him that we would be issue him a full refund upon receipt of the inserts, and that he could keep the record. He gave us some obviously **bleep** story, saying that was not possible (a clear sign that his intention was to return the close to worthless record for a full refund, and to keep the inserts that were of a $200 value). Once again, he was aggressive, condescending, and his behavior bordered on harrassment, imo. At this point, I called EBay (in America) to file a complaint against the customer. I was told to open a case, and the girl on the phone did say both that he was way out of line to demand we pay his duty tax (totally his responsibility) and, after reading all the communications, the EBay rep said she agreed that he had been overly aggressive. Being that I'm going to the trouble of posting this episode, you can probably guess how this ended. EBay Germany yesterday gave back this customer ALL of his money, and appealed their decision to do so. Immediately, we received a message back saying they were standing by their decision. I have said on a number of occasions that I'm thinking of no longer shipping items out of the country. I've been a party to too many instances where people do exactly this. They order and item, and then either ask for a severe partial refund, or to return the item, knowing full well that the seller does not want to pay for the very expensive return shipping. This may be the last straw for me with international shipping. I've been selling on EBay for over 25 years, with an almost flawless rating. I understand that EBay, and other online sites, need to go out of their way to keep the buyers happy. But, instances like this one are ridiculous. I'd definitely be willing to bet that this is a customer who knew exactly how to game the system, and took advantage. I'd also be willing to bet it wasn't his first time and, with EBay rewarding his bad behavior, I'm sure he is now emboldened to do it again!
kibble-net
·4 months agoParagraphs make long "walls of text" way more readable. Highly recommend breaking up your wall of text into paragraphs next time. I'll be honest, I didn't read most of this post.
kalyoth
·4 months agoYour very long story aside - how was this item shipped to the buyer initially? did the customer open a return with ebay? Did you reply to that process or let ebay just step in?