Bad Return from a Customer

[discountcombustion2]

I sell a pair of parts (an ignitor and a flame sensor) for heating units.  I sold a pair and sent them as usual.  The customer started a return and claimed I sent them damaged/used/rusted parts.  This was absolutely untrue.  I would never do that and I wouldn't have good reviews if I did!  One of the parts they returned to me wasn't even the part I sell nor have I ever sold.  I contacted the customer and told them they had not received these from me and not to return them.  They returned them anyway and threatened to dispute the charges with their credit card company, leave me a bad review and open a case with ebay.  I waited until the parts were received in order to verity they had sent bad items back to me. I did a bit of research on the customer and found they had just opened their ebay account the day they ordered the parts from me and I was the only purchase they made.  Unfortunately, I had already left good feedback for them since they were prompt payers.  I opened a case with ebay and reported the buyer and asked no refund be issued since these were NOT what I sent them.  I opened the case within the 48 business hour window and got nothing from ebay other than asking me to refund the customer.  I responded again that the customer did not deserve a refund and that if they would do that to me, they would do this to other sellers.  Ebay then refunded them on my behalf and never responded to my case.  What in the world are sellers to do to protect themselves?

[lakefor94]

The refund process is all automated.  No eBay employee looked at your case. 

Unfortunately,  as sellers, we may run across a transaction like this.

Add the buyer to your Buyer Block List.

Just part of doing business through an online sales platform. 

[loose_goose_garage]

This is one of the times you need to actually call eBay and talk to a real person. I have had similar things happen and going through all the options on eBay by reporting them, etc. doesn't work, but calling, explaining the situation to a real person has helped almost every time.

[operationspirit4troops]

You might also want to file a mail fraud case with USPS. If you have the extra time. 

[orangehound]

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@discountcombustion2 wrote:

I opened a case with ebay and reported the buyer and asked no refund be issued since these were NOT what I sent them.  I opened the case within the 48 business hour window and got nothing from ebay other than asking me to refund the customer.  I responded again that the customer did not deserve a refund and that if they would do that to me, they would do this to other sellers.  Ebay then refunded them on my behalf and never responded to my case.  What in the world are sellers to do to protect themselves?

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@discountcombustion2 

You have limited seller protection from eBay, but you do not understand the eBay rules regarding customer interaction and returns.  These eBay rules do not always make sense to our standards of fairness, because they are designed to maximize buyer interaction and buyer satisfaction with the eBay platform ... not fairness, justice, or some notion of logic.

What you did against eBay rules.  You battled a customer, and eBay does not want sellers to battle customers.  By elevating the case and refusing to refund, you not only were forced to refund, but you lost more money because eBay now will keep the selling fees you paid ... and you will get a nasty seller defect.  Getting too many seller defects will hurt your account.

What you should have done, according to eBay rules.  Because you are a Top Rated Seller, selling with 30-day returns, eBay gives you limited power to combat return fraud.

1. First, you can withhold up to 50% of the cost of returns to recover your costs, according to the eBay rules.  This 50% is intended to cover the estimated wholesale cost of the item, and limit your loses.
2. Second, you report the buyer in the return screen for the item, indicating that they abuse the return ... this is vitally important not only to document that you were defrauded, but to flag the buyer account as dishonest/criminal/abusive.  You can still do this, even if you did not do #1.
3. If a buyer abuses the Money Back Guarantee to get free return shipping, you can report this about the buyer, and eBay refunds return shipping cost up to a certain amount (it appears on your statement at the end of the month).

This isn't a perfect solution for many sales, and many times you won't recover all your losses from the theft ... but it is a little bit of "teeth" you can sink into a bad buyer.