Multiple buyers return different item and ebay SYSTEMATICALLY doesn't care!!!

[samaxautoparts]

We have a small business with 2 eBay accounts for selling used auto-parts. We have been increasingly getting cases where buyer (accidentally or intentionally)  returns a different item or sometime an empty or unrelated item and eBay sided with thew customer every time. If the customer does this intentionally, it is called FRAUD and THEFT in a legal terminology. The only tool we have as a seller is to report the buyer. Practically, that never got me anywhere on my 7 years of selling on eBay (except one instance that was 4years ago). eBay refunds customer every single time without even requesting an evidence for any kind of investigation or contacting us about our claim. As of 2024 (after 1000 staff cut) there is not even a way to reach eBay phone customer service about these cases.

Note to eBay Management:  As a seller we pays monthly subscription to eBay. It should be your basic obligation to at least protect us against fraud and theft. The misusing of returns by customers happen way too many times for you to label as "cost of doing business". I understand that you like to keep customer happy but that should not apply to a fraudulent customers. The fact that you turn a blind eye on a fraudulent activity of a customer and give our small business no chance to protect its assets is quite frankly demoralizing and humiliating. Providing security and stability to sellers is as important as keeping happy customers for maintaining a business in a long run.

[kensgiftshop]

Since you're a TRS and offer 30 day returns, you should be able to deduct 50% off the refund when they send back a different item.

[biscuitandgravy]

We as sellers should Boycott Ebay Just 1 day with no sales.If everyone would do this something might turnaround.I have had the same problem twice in 6 months.

[samaxautoparts]

I didn't know about that. Are you sure? Even if the return reason is wrong item sent or doesn't match the description?

[kitschy*loot]

How do you expect eBay to know who is a fraudulent customer and who isn't? What evidence could you show them that would prove you are the honest person in the transaction? Nothing you can say or do will ever prove what you actually shipped or what the buyer actually returned.

It's horrible that people take advantage of good sellers, but when a choice has to be made and a buyer's money is on the line... to put it another way, how many times would you keep buying from an online venue where a seller could just say you returned a different item and that was that? No refund for you. You wouldn't like that would you? I wouldn't either as a buyer, but of course as a seller I would be on the opposite side of that feeling. 

[samaxautoparts]

For me it was around 7 times in the last 6 month. The reason this is unacceptable and bothers me so much is because eBay force us to pay that cheating side and doesn't even bother to investigate. At the same time we lost product and we paid for the shipping out of pocket. On the other side the fraudulent customer is probably proud of what they did and (I am not a physiologist) very likely motivated to do this again to someone else. I had a customer who returned a pair of shoe lace instead of a $80 auto part we sent him.

[biscuitandgravy]

I know and it stinks like heck..I believe..it's usually the buyer because they were the one that forked out the money..as a seller many wouldn't fraud because we didn't put much money into the item..some times we pay a $1.00 for something and get $100 of dollars out of it or more..My best sale I gave .25 cents and got $670

[samaxautoparts]

Well I am sure there are multiple standardize ways that ebay can come up with that can be used as a evidence. For example, we record (with time stamp) our shipping process. We also use security stickers on our parts. But the problem is that when customer starts a return it is not even up for a discussion... ebay doesn't even try to gather evidence... All of the security measures we take is just useless... because ebay doesn't even recognize them and doesn't care.