What you have a fair right to is customer support. EBAY collects fees and so does Paypal for selling a product. Those come from the seller, not the buyer. Granted, without the buyer there is no sale, but without a seller, there is no product.
EBAY has slightly improved some aspects of doing business on EBAY, but the advantage of buyers is absurd. No feedback for buyers (even the worst criminals) that is not positive, and EBAY removes feedbacks that are negative in content against any buyer even if they are positive. No way to complain about a buyer. No way to deal with cons by buyers. No way to deal with buyers that lie like hell.
My cases are simple, and they exemplify how frustrating EBAY is. They lie to you on the front line telling you always there is nothing they can do, but in many cases, there are things they can do. The sentence is used with no completion. They do not define we. There is nothign we can do, (but a supervisor can help). Naturally, people would then ask for the supervisor, so the front end team lies to you by omission.
Never give up. Harass EBAY to tears. When you know a buyer was wrong, and you prevent that buyer from doing further harm on EBAY, you actually help EBAY and those that use EBAY. EBAY doesn't like it only because dealing with the frauds costs EBAY money, and does not help the EBAY bottom line. So EBAY tries to scare you away with 20 year old incompetents that are taught to lie to you.
Often there are other cases against the buyer you are dealing with or that buyer has a very weak representation. EBAY will say they have no idea if the buyer is telling the truth, but they do. They have your reputation. They are saying they can destroy you for having a bad reputation when they will not help you defend yourself from bad buyers. That is bull**bleep**. They have a legal obligation to provide you support. And the ambiguous lies they use are ridiculous.
One customer support lie is they can do nothign for you. Another is to state they are handing you on to their manager, etc., but that person they hand you onto is younger than they are and not their manager or a supervisor. The idea is to frustrate you to tears. Don't give in. Ask for the name of that person's "Supervisor" and when you can speak to that specific supervisor. Then file a complaint about the lies you were fed by the front end clowns.
Do not make it easier on EBAY by accepting their stance that buyer fraud is the responsibility of the seller when EBAY rakes in 10% and Paypal 13% of every sale, and you still have to pay all the shipping and overhead costs. IF you are paying for a store, it is even more important that EBAY treat you like someone worth having. They collect a fortune from store owners and give them short shrift.
Never give up. They lie more than they breathe. Eventually, I have usually gotten to a person geared to deal with a problem and that has key ideas and suggestions.
Fraudulent buyers have a particular pattern. Some of their scams can easily be identified and dealt with but the simplest one is difficult. The simplest scam is to claim the item is not as described, which is way too vague of a term and would never hold up in any court of law.
Buyers that have repeatedly scammed us usually want a refund (of some significant size) or have buyer's remorse. We recently stumbled on a buyer that uses the system to scam the seller to get the item cheap so they can resell it at a profit. Problem (that is against EBAY policy). You cannot resell items you purhcase on EBAY because the buyer/seller protection does not allow it. Use that if you can. If you find a buyer that purchased a pair of nikes from you that gives you beef, check to see what they are selling. If they do not split their seller and buyer accounts, and you find they are selling tons of nikes, that is a violation of EBAY policy and should end them permanently.
The key though is to insist on speaking to someone that makes sense. When anyone speaking to you on EBAY support makes no sense, you know they are lying. So let them for a few minuts to patronize them and say thank you I want your supervisor. Always keep going up the line as far as you can because there are people that do deal with real problems eventually, and when you do press EBAY, it costs them money, and it may change their minds about supporting buyer fraud.
I have a situation now, and I have been outright honest. Screw it. I do not care about this negative feedback. This person is a fraud, it is obvious why, and EBAY has tried to assist them. I made it cut and dry. This is fraud, why it is fraud and why I am going to address it as fraud. If you can find an EBAY policy violation, that is best. A buyer that says you did not sell him A somewhere when you sold B is nailed. A buyer that says he did something he did not, is done. A buyer that resells items of the type you sold may be a target for suspension if they pursue a case against you. Research the feedback. Unfortunately, the feedback cannot be negative (the first sign EBAY supported buyer fraud). But people often put in clues this buyer is a clown. Send each an email to determine what happened in that specific case.
THe problem is that most sellers give up. Make EBAY miserable. Make them deal with the problem and not push it back on you. Of course it is most profitable for EBAY to collect your money without consequence. It is not their right. Make them know you are dissatisified. Talk to them repeatedly. Bug them until there is no more way to deal with you than listen.
At some point, if people do this, EBAY will realize it costs them too much to allow buyer fraud to continue and use some common sense in their policies to protect from it.
