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Hi everyone! Thanks for joining us for the Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. We don't have a specific topic this week, so feel free to share any general buying or selling questions you may have.
The chat thread will remain open until 2 PM PT at which point we'll close it from additional responses. After that time, we'll continue to work on responding to any queries that might still be unanswered.
To post your question, click Reply in the lower right corner of this post, type your question, and hit submit between 1-2 PM Pacific Time. The format of our chat mirrors the format of our Community Discussion Boards, where each post will appear in the thread chronologically. The Community Team will review each question as it comes in, and will quote the original question in our reply. This quote and the reply will appear later in the thread, so just keep scrolling down to see our answers.
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@bouncemobiletech wrote:
Hi - 20 year eBay member and 15+ year seller here, I'm hoping someone can help me out on a case where I have been scammed by a Russian buyer, as eBay customer service has been extremely unhelpful.
The buyer purchased a $770 smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra) on 1/16, with a shipping address in Russia. I thought I was fully protected by shipping UPS International and paying extra for insurance and signature confirmation.
On 2/4, the buyer messaged claiming that he received an iPhone 6S (worth less than $100) instead of the S20 Ultra we sent him. I personally verified the contents of this shipment before it went out, and recorded the IMEI (serial number) on the S20 Ultra I sent. The iPhone 6S is not a phone I even have in inventory, the last one I sold was in 2018. Furthermore, the buyer sent pictures that show a European charger, not a North American one.This is a clear case of fraud, it is not possible I could have mistakenly sent him a phone that I haven't had in inventory for years with a charger from another continent.
That same day (2/4), I responded to the buyer to let him know I would open an insurance claim with UPS and keep him updated. I wrote to him again a few days later with more details on the claim, and asked him to keep all packaging and respond to any inquiries from UPS as soon as possible. However, UPS told me this claim was closed the next week because the buyer was not cooperating - he did not respond to repeated contacts attempts, and they needed to inspect the package in order to proceed with the claim investigation. I have uploaded documentation confirming this, it states "UPS is unable to investigate this damage claim as we were unable to view the damaged merchandise and the packaging materials. Recommendation: Please contact UPS if you are able to provide access to the package contents and the packaging materials used for the shipment."On 2/8, the buyer opened a return request. I communicated with the buyer multiple times asking him to contact UPS so they could inspect the package. In one of his messages he claimed that he contacted UPS, but when I spoke with UPS the following day, they told me they still had not received any contact from him. I would have been happy to issue a full refund if I knew I could receive an insurance claim from UPS, but it appears I will not be able to do so without the buyer's cooperation.I've spent hours communicating with eBay customer service without any kind of resolution, other than telling me I needed to respond to the buyer with either a return shipping label or payment for return shipping, or the case would be automatically closed in the buyer's favor and count as a defect against my account. In order to keep this from happening, I sent the buyer payment yesterday via Paypal for return shipping, then sent him a message with a screenshot of the Paypal payment, plus screenshots from the Russian Post website quoting this amount as the cost for a 500g shipment from Moscow to the USA.This morning, the case was closed and a full refund issued to the buyer. I am extremely frustrated and disappointed with eBay right now, and hope that someone at eBay reading this message can make this right. Can you please help me to appeal this claim, recover these funds, and remove the defect from this case?Thank you,Nick
@bouncemobiletech we're not able to assist with account specific questions here, but I can provide general information.
When eBay is asked to step in and make a decision on a Item Not As Described case then we'll typically approve a return, which is what happened in your situation based on your post. We do expect the seller to cover return shipping costs prior to the item being sent back to the seller. If the seller does not follow the decision eBay made within the specified timeframe then the case will be closed in the buyers favor.
Since you didn't cover the return shipping cost as instructed the case was closed in the buyers favor.
There are times when seller protections cover situations like the one you've described. However, the item does need to be returned to the seller first. Once the seller receives the item then they can contact customer service to discuss their concerns and see what options may be available. There are also seller protections that allow for partial refunds. You'll find more information here.
@nuclearomen wrote:
brian@ebay
Last week I talked about issue where not getting receipts for purchases of shipping labels for Media Mail. That is still happening. It’s now a month and tech support hasn’t fixed the issue. What did you find out about this problem?
@nuclearomen I don't have any new information yet.
Easy one today -
It is my understanding that if an item is advertised as shipping from a US location, the seller must provide a US address for a return.
I wanted to quote policy on this, and could no longer figure out where it was. Anyone know?
Thanks!
_____
Edit: A reply to your post can be found here
@bimmerpc1 wrote:
A customer refused delivery of an eBay item that we sold to them.
What is eBay's current policy on the seller's responsibility to the buyer?
By refusing the delivery, the shipping carrier charged us again for returning the item back to us.
Hi @bimmerpc1 - well that's frustrating!
From an eBay perspective if you ended up with both the item and the money we'd want you to work with the buyer to a more equitable solution for both parties (some sellers offer a partial refund, purchase price less re-shipment, etc).
From a purely eBay Money Back Guarantee standpoint: an Item not Received claim would typically be found in your favor (with a few exceptions*), we wouldn't force you to refund.
Thanks!
*exceptional situations to this would be things like an item arriving with postage due so the buyer refused it, hazardous to deliver, etc.
@coinslabz26 wrote:
I have 2 questions regarding managed payments. I know that calling them is better but managed payment support is unreachable.
The first should be an easier one. When I signed up in managed payments I used the bank login feature. I had no problems and everything went smoothly. My question is though....If I ever change my banking password on my bank website would that sever the "ebay link to my bank account" or do I need to link the account again? Is this a token system? Does the token ever expire? Or was it a one time login for verification of name/address/account/routing numbers?
The second is I keep seeing a message that "you don't have any upcoming payouts" when I have funds available (not on hold or processing). Is this a glitch?
Thank you in advance.
Hi @coinslabz26 - First, as you know I am only able to provide general information on payments. This is the information I have on linking bank accounts:
"eBay does not collect or store the bank account access credentials you provide during the registration and onboarding process. Access credentials you supply are used by your bank to verify your identity and establish a connection with eBay to deposit payments to your bank account.
Following your registration for managed payments, you may view and update your account information in the Account tab of My eBay. You may change the bank account associated with your account at any time, subject to eBay’s compliance processes and verification procedures. "
Second, I haven't run into that error before and I would recommend contacting the payments team directly for more information if you continue to see mismatched information for your payout info.
@bimmerpc1 wrote:A customer refused delivery of an eBay item that we sold to them.
What is eBay's current policy on the seller's responsibility to the buyer?
By refusing the delivery, the shipping carrier charged us again for returning the item back to us.
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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here
@bimmerpc1 In addition to Brian's answer... the way I handle would handle this type of situation is to refund the buyer for the item price ONLY less shipping BOTH directions.
Be sure to add the buyer to your blocked list
