I am a small time member on this platform since 2006 or so. Started as a buyer but eventually decided to sell a thing or two. Since the time I have been a seller I have been lucky enough to have honest buyers who pay promptly and are happy with their product. Over the years I learned more or less to post an item for sale, or so I thought.
Come this past week, I buyer by the nickname tjg_70 purchased one of my products. A Dell Latitude 7490, not the first one I sell here. I love those laptops because of their quality built and Dell because of their great warranty support, simply the best.
As a seller I know off the bat to sell something for what it is. If the item is damaged, sell it for parts and offer as many details as possible and even insist that buyers contact me in case they have any questions about my items so they really get what they pay for with me. If you guys check my track record, I have had 100% feedback since day one, buying or selling.
Back to the story, buyer tjg_79 from my home state, which by the way their return label has the name of a company which is a COMPUTER REPAIR SERVICE and who sells parts for this particular model and other DELL laptops, Purchased this 7490. The laptop not even a year old in mint condition and never had any issues and always taken cared of as I do with all my electronics and still has full ProSupport Plus until 2024 and for those who are not familiar with it, Dell will replace anything on the laptop next day if possible under this warranty even if it was accidental damage. Before I posted the item I ran dell's software and hardware test and I have proof that all test passed 100%. Upon buying the customer asked that I ship item ASAP, not an odd request but I already do as soon as possible once payment is made like always. Buyer purchased item in the morning, didn't pay until late afternoon so I had to ship the next day about 10am when the post offices are open.
Now before I package any item I check it one more time make sure its all good, give it a good clean and TAKE AS MANY PICTURES AS POSSIBLE. Always use excessive amount of bubble wrap so that I don't get complaints the item broke upon arrival, which I never had. All my items before have arrived and functioning.
The day the customer receives the item, I get an email.
Tjg_70: This machine doesn't turn on, what happened?
(I immediately think, very odd, being that machine is almost new but ok).
My reply:
Hello,
Sorry to hear that you're having trouble.. The machine should be working fine, we installed fresh copy of windows 10 right before shipping.. please check the machine is charged.
It should be working fine as the machine is fairly new and we had no issues prior to shipping to you. If you want I have video and photo proof.
Tjg_70: I repeat , The machine didn't turn on. So, please end me a return shipping immediately please. Thanks
At this point I am thinking its something simple. For those who install windows 10 and don't finish setting it up, usually there is no way to power off the machine other than pressing and holding power until it is powered off. So I figured maybe something happened when I powered off.
My reply:
Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. We wanted to know if you were able to turn the machine on? If the issues persist, please know we are in contact with you an eBay so that we can resolve your issue as promptly as possible. Please be patient with us as we try to resolve this matter.
Thank you Friend.
From there I sent more emails such as please try to reset battery to make sure its a simple fix and other emails such as:
Dear buyer,
Thank you for your patience while we try to resolve this issue for you. We would like to ask you if you could please provide a video from the item and showing that you are having trouble turning it on? If possible do a walkthrough of the item showing the condition and serial number so that we may be able to see in fact it is malfunctioning.
Sorry for the trouble and please be patient with us.
From their last response I never heard from them again. They filed a return claim and ebay took over from there, well barely since I don't think anyone is really working as it took forever to get someone to reply to my multiple emails. Whatever happened to being able to call them?
This whole time ebay sided with buyer claiming they cannot know if the item the customer received was indeed broken or not, so they have to side with them and asked me to accept the return and go from there. I accepted the return, paid for a label and a few days later I got the item.
When the item arrived, I had my girlfriend record me while the USPS truck drove up to the house so I could sign for the package, yes I waiting most afternoon by the windows so I would not miss it and in case ebay thought I tempered with the device once it arrived. So we recorded a video from the moment I signed the delivery to the point when I was checking the laptop to make sure what happened.
As the buyer claimed, the laptop did not come on upon pressing the button. Again, I thought odd but ok. I checked the condition of the laptop it all looked good so I proceeded to open it and reset the battery, now while I was doing this my girlfriend is recording me doing all this and I look around the laptop everything looks ok no damage done. Once we reset the battery the laptop powered up no issues. Which is what I asked the buyer to do in the first place thinking they never tried.
While I tried contacting ebay if I should return the item to the buyer given it was working and from there it has been working to today no issues, I also was looking at all the pictures I took from the laptop the day before shipping while I prepared it for packaging.
I then noticed something odd, I swear if it hadn't been for that one thing I would probably never noticed. On one of the pictures I took I noticed the display connector had a small white piece of paper/plastic, not sure what it was for since it is now missing. When I looked at the picture I took when I was inspecting the inside of the laptop I noticed it didn't have that white piece anymore. Then it is when I saw everything else and realized this person did open the laptop and tempered with it and then return it!!!
Once I looked over all the pictures I noticed the rest! BUYER Tjg_70 opened my laptop, proceeded to remove the display housing because when they put it back together all the cables were not ran the same way as it was when it was sent! At first glance its easy to miss since there's so much going on in the laptop, but from what I saw they did mess with it and I am wondering why they did this and what they tried to accomplish. From what I can see they changed my OEM DISPLAY HOUSING for a generic one or something of the sort and returned it! All they wanted to do was steal something, they never planned on buying my equipment. Which sucks because these laptops are in high demand and I know someone out there was looking for one and I wish it had gone to a good home.
Since I knew now the buyer was trying to pull on over me and they were not communicating with me anymore I immediately contacted customer support to provide the proof and evidence that the item was working upon shipping and that the item had been tempered with upon return.
I sent multiple emails stating my case, asking, begging to please review my evidence and to take action against the scammer. Pretty much their only response is we have no way of knowing if what you say is true and we have to side with buyer. They never reviewed the case, never wanted to even look at the evidence and proceeded to refund the scammer and not give it a second thought.
At one point they told me somewhere among the lines that if we had posted serial numbers and to proof that they were different then maybe they could do something. Please know that in laptops there are serial numbers for almost every part and only way to do that is take the machine completely apart, risking breaking it and voiding warranties just so that we have some sort of safety net in a case like this. So I told them that was a bit ridiculous to do.
Long story short, ebay sided with the buyer who intentionally purchased my item only to temper with it and then return it. They offered them a full refund and thru their emails pretty much told me "oh well too bad for you" and via their last email pretty much told me to go away for another 30 days as I cannot open another case about the same thing once the case has been closed by them.
To all the honest sellers out there, know that you may try as hard as possible to protect yourself against these type of buyers, but know that in the end ebay will most likely side with them per their policy.
Please keep an eye out for buyer/seller Tjg_70 who runs a computer repair service possible as a front to scam honest sellers and buyers. They figured out ebay will side with them no matter what and most likely will continue to take advantage of that.
Everyone please stay safe out there.
