Classic ebay Scam - I want my money back now

[user0999]

I know this is going to the community forum and not ebay but that's because ebay won't actually allow mw to report the issue.   I purchased a printer part from a China-based seller.  Got a message that they were shipping gloves as a "free gift" which obviously they were doing just to meet the shipping deadline here.  Five days later, I get a message that they tested their "last one" of the part and it doesn't work but that the gloves are still on the way.

I cannot report this to ebay because they shipped something and the deadline hasn't passed, shows still in transit.  However, I want my money refunded today, as in, now.  How do I actually report this scam to ebay or are they complicit?  Or should I just go to the credit card company and be done with it?

[user0999]

Answered my own question.  Just filed dispute with credit card and they instantly refunded.  Ebay:  You need to police sellers like this or enable a way for buyers to report these scams immediately *AND EASILY*

[ebooksdiva]

Instead of going to your credit card you could’ve opened a case for NOT AS DESCRIBED.

But since you went the chargeback route it’s now moot. 

[mr_lincoln]

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@user0999 wrote:

Answered my own question.  Just filed dispute with credit card and they instantly refunded.  Ebay:  You need to police sellers like this or enable a way for buyers to report these scams immediately *AND EASILY*

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@user0999 

I agree that eBay needs to vet Sellers better than the current system but I suspect that presents some challenges.  Really glad to hear you solved the issue without eBay's involvement and that you received an instant refund from your credit card company for the obvious scam the Seller is running.  Did you review their Feedback history and were their reports of similar activity from other Buyers?

[mudshark61369]

@user0999,

By not going through your card provider and not through ebay's Money Back Guarantee (MBG) , you may have hurt yourself with ebay.  While you would have to wait until you receive something, before using the MBG, to file a not as described dispute, ebay has to do that as they have a duty to protect both buyers and sellers.

    By filing a charge back while the item (gloves) were still in transit, ebay could interpret that as an abuse of the MBG policies and restrict your ability to use it in the future.   You may also not get a full refund including the sales tax.

"You need to police sellers like this or enable a way for buyers to report these scams immediately *AND EASILY"

There is no possible way ebay can police/vet each of the millions of new listings posted daily,  or all of the millions of sellers.  They do keep track of sellers who constantly have issues with their sales, and have disputes filed against them.  The Seller's feedback profile page may have warned you against buying from them, if you had checked their feedback profile page, and clicked on the numbers of neutral and negative feedback they have received, to read only those comments, before buying from them.  The seller you bought from has a low feedback percentage for a high volume seller, by ebay standards. The cut off for many is 98.6% which would be lower if the neutral feedback were included in the percentage calculations.

[user0999]

"By filing a charge back while the item (gloves) were still in transit, ebay could interpret that as an abuse of the MBG policies and restrict your ability to use it in the future."

The MBG is not useful if there is no way to report something like this instantly.   The "item" that I ordered was not gloves and has nothing to do with gloves.  That's a ruse to meet the shipping deadline and then to keep the money tied up for weeks and weeks.   At this point, there's no substantive difference between ordering from ebay and just ordering direct from ali.  If invoking the MBG is this difficult for an *obvious scam* then I'd be afraid of trying to use it when the issue is more nuanced.

If the seller was not scamming then they would've refunded immediately and wholly.  I've had sellers with this same type of feedback profile have this exact issue occur, where an item is not found after ordering.  In those cases, the refund email frequently shows up before their message even arrives.  That's what a reputable seller does.  Of course, they also don't ship gloves as a free "gift" and send a message like this:

"we have sent you 2 package.
One is for gift (one pair of
gloves, you can use it during repairs working), the tracking number is
XXXXXXX
Another is the correct one you ordered, the
tracking number is XXXXXXX.
You can track it from
[[some third party tracking URL]]
If you have received the gift firstly. Don't worry,
the second package will arrive in 2~4 days later."

From a legal standpoint, there will be no dispute about getting a full refund.  I paid ebay for a product that was not and will never be delivered.  To the CC company, ebay is the merchant (that's who the charge shows up from) and ebay failed in its delivery of the product.  The issue is documented directly on ebay's platform through their messaging system.  The person that ebay allows to sell on their platform then knowingly shipped an item that was not ordered, eventually informing me that they're never going to ship the actual item ordered.  Ebay did not allow me to file a refund without waiting until January and then it would be more of back and forth, likely ending in the CC dispute anyway.

If ebay cared about it, they would address it.  There should be a mechanism for reporting whereby buyers can let ebay know that a seller is running this type of scam on their platform.  The ease with which a dispute was filed at the CC company demonstrates that the technological means exist but the problem is one of motivation and prioritization by ebay to address it. 

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@user0999 wrote:

Answered my own question.  Just filed dispute with credit card and they instantly refunded. ...

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Don't celebrate yet.  The credit card issuer can still put the charge back on your account if the sender provides proof that they delivered something. You should have waited and filed the "Not as described" claim with eBay.

[bctk5292]

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@user0999 wrote:

Answered my own question.  Just filed dispute with credit card and they instantly refunded.  Ebay:  You need to police sellers like this or enable a way for buyers to report these scams immediately *AND EASILY* 

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Actually @user0999 you did get a permanent credit, as your card issuer refunded you themselves. For cardholders with good history, the card issuer pays off and doesn't pursue small chargebacks.

[soh.maryl]

You received an item that's not as described.  Why not just open an NAD case?

[*lady*madonna*]

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@user0999 wrote:

Answered my own question.  Just filed dispute with credit card and they instantly refunded.  Ebay:  You need to police sellers like this or enable a way for buyers to report these scams immediately *AND EASILY*

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@user0999 

How can Ebay police sellers like that if buyers like you refuse to take advantage of the Ebay Money Back Guarantee by filing a Return Request when you received the wrong item? By going directly to your credit card company, you just let the seller avoid a defect on their Ebay selling account, and they can go on duping buyers.

[downunder-61]

You could have just done INAD when the gloves arrived, but I like your way better because this dude was out to scam you from day one.

[user0999]

I received the final letter from the credit card company in the mail and they accepted the dispute as-is, thus refunding in full.  In other news, the seller continues to contact me with formulaic messages which I've now begun reporting as "Unwanted" to ebay through their messaging system.  The seller has also created two other listings, among their 18,000-some listings, for the same item for the same printer.

It's a scam and it is indeed something ebay should be looking at.  This consumer space is prime for disruption with amzn and ebay pursuing increasingly convergent strategies.