Buyer returned a completely different item than the one he purchased

[staplatoon]

Any advice on how to prevent this from happening and or how to handle when this happens.?

[stainlessenginecovers]

There is no way to prevent from happening and the only things you can do when it does:

1.) Deduct up to 50% if you are Top Rated and offer 30 day returns (for most categories)

2.) Report the 'buyer' (which only helps over time if other sellers also report- then buyer may be banned...later)

[pburn]

Was this for the Samsung Galaxy? I thought you already refunded that buyer.

[wastingtime101]

No real tips on preventing it - some categories are more prone to scams than others.

But advice on what to do after the fact:

- File a report with USPS for mail fraud

- File a report with IC3 (internet crime complaint center)

- File a report with the buyer's local police - not for them to actively investigate, but so you can get that report number

- Report the buyer here: https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/reporting-issue-buyer?id=4084

- File an appeal with eBay and give them the report numbers from all 3 agencies.

Edit: These steps should be taken only after you've made an attempt to communicate with the buyer and made sure it wasn't an accident where buyer mistakenly swapped shipping labels on two different returns or something like that. If this was about the phone you sold, then yeah, not likely buyer error.

[m60driver]

As a new/infrequent seller you will always be a target of scammer when you list an expensive electronic item.  Ebay should have never allowed you to list that item because they know full well there was a high chance of you being scammed and once scammed Ebay will do nothing as they hide behind the lie that they are just an innocent third party to the transaction.