Empty return scam

[potero63]

Be me...

Receive notice of a return, okay, that's fine.

Customer mails the same day... wow! A real pro.

Return arrives, its a used medical mask, and not the $170  item I was expecting. Hmmm.

It's New Year's Eve, no eBay support staff to talk to, I have 2 days. ???

Look for some way to resolve this with eBay and "Report Bad Buyer". Watch message disappear into an apparent black hole?

Talk to eBay support on January 2nd (the day I must issue the refund). They suggest that I let the request expire, then see if the buyer opens a new request at which point eBay will step in. IDK, does it work that way? not sure, but I'll try. lol

January 3 the refund is automatically issued, and now the "case is closed" and I cannot appeal it. Okay then.

So... how, exactly, was this suppose to go???

[compscrap]

You must be relatively new to Ebay. That will not do you any good. The buyer is going to open a return using defective or not as described as the reason. Even if you do not offer returns, they will still get the money back.   and because, according to the buyer, you sent them a bad item you'll be on the hook for the original shipping . 

[compscrap]

that's a shame. Even though I've seen a huge uptick in fake returns on my sellers account. A slow day for me is selling 30 items ( usually around this time of year).  in reality, I would say my return rate is somewhere between  a little less than one percent to a little bit over 1% .  So few of my sales are return scams.   I may have a lot more cushion than you.   but given the dollar amount you're talking about, unless you're selling a large number of items  of the same value t good  profit I certainly wouldn't blame you for quitting   

[compscrap]

you have to do enough volume to compensate for internet shop lifters.  same as any other retail.  

[compscrap]

The one time I wasted my time by calling Ebay the 50% return was suggested to me. I explained to the Ebay personnel that the only thing the buyer would then have to do is escalate the case and Ebay will refund the additional 50%.   

    I have already been through that.  it won't help unless the scammer just doesn't escalate. 

[potero63]

Very weird update:

tl;dr --> Genuine customer ordered my item from WalMart through eBay. Somehow the scammer filed for the return between my customer and me using WalMart as the proxy. Not sure how they benefited or how they did it???

It's a long story --> Yesterday I got a phone call from one of my "scammers". Guess what? She was the nicest older woman I could have spoken with. Probably 70 years old as far as I could tell by the sound of her voice and general decorum!

I was incredulous. She wanted to order the same item as before (5lbs of Pinon pine nuts) and said she had eaten and enjoyed the previous ones... and that they were the best she had ever had! I will say that the nuts I sell are top shelf, and I only buy from the most particular and experienced pickers. I really do have the best Pinon.

Anyway... so I gingerly ask whether she knows that her last order filed a return and claimed the Pinon were defective? She flatly refutes this, saying, "No! Of course not. We ate them all." Then she goes on to say that she ordered them from WalMart but that when they came from eBay she was a little confused, but figured that eBay and WalMart had some kind of deal...

Well, I took her payment and sent her more Pinon. Unless she was the smoothest criminal ever (MJ had no idea), there is no way that she was involved in the fraud.

So, it appears that a third party is relisting my ebay listing for 5lbs of Pinon on WalMart.com. Anyone know how this works? Maybe its this listing (?): https://www.walmart.com/ip/Nuts-Pine-Nuts-1X5-Lb/36287850 ...who knows.

Then, when the legit customer buys the item from WalMart, the order is proxied through eBay and I ship it. Almost always the order comes from a customer with no feedback on an account that is about 5 or 6 months old and uses a name (and often a location) that is completely different from the name on the order.

Once the customer receives the order (as per tracking), the return for "defective item, not as described" is filed, and about 3 days later I get the return envelope with a "thanks, your item is coming" note from (always) NORTH HOUSTON TX DIST CTR, 77315. Is this near a major walmart.com warehouse, or is it just incidental?

So, there's your weird tale of the day... maybe someone can shed some light.

[potero63]

Wow, I just read the reviews of the WalMart seller I linked above. They have terrible reviews and some of them mention packages sent from eBay! Wonder how I report them to WalMart?

[stephenmorgan]

I have not heard of this scam. That would probably explain why you were getting the strange tracking information. 

There are people who do what you describe fulfilling their orders by having the item shipped from eBay to their customers.  I just never heard of it being a fake return scam.

Did you file the FBI report yet? If you did can you update it with this new information.?

[potero63]

I didn't file an FBI report... to me there is not really any point.

I did, however talk to walmart.com for a while, and they were quite interested and are "investigating" the seller. I also talked to eBay and they I guess are investigating it as well.

Not sure any of it will make any difference, but I am impressed with the number of "sales" I get from that crappy listing on walmart.com. Maybe I will sign up with them as a seller as we, hahaha.