eBay

erics577 · ‎11-06-2017

Long story short: I sold a CPU processor for $500.00 to a customer. He responds today, requesting a refund with a photo saying I sent him a hard drive. As I personally packed the auction and have never seen that hard drive in my life, I know that is simply NOT possible. I don't own a hard drive like that. I triple check EVERYTHING I send out to avoid situations like this.

Note: he didn't request me to send the correct item, he only wants to send me back this random hard drive and get a refund.

This is a nightmare scenario for me. I've contacted the customer letting him know I will alert the Post Office Fraud and file a police report to find out what happened so we can resolve the situation.

I requested photos, included the product in the box on a scale. He's been more than happy to comply. Everything checks out.

Looking at this from ebay's perspective this is a classic he said/she said case. It is a new ebay account with 2 feedback on it. Not sure if that helps or hurts.

So what do I do? Do I just refund him and move on with my life? Do I have him send back this hard drive(curious what's on it!) and then do a refund(I have no interest in receiving back an item that isn't mine)? Do I file all these reports? Please help so I can purge the profanity in my head lol Thanks!

kensgiftshop · ‎11-16-2017

Sorry you lost your item and money.

That is one reason I don't sell anything expensive on Ebay. The scammer will win every time.

Have a great day

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castlemagicmemories · ‎11-06-2017

Scout

07-25-2016 03:30:52 AM

On July 4th I sold an iPod Touch to a guest buyer. The buyer received the iPod touch (along with a couple cases and a charger) a few days later and filed an “empty box “ SNAD claim.

I called eBay and got the "we give the buyer the benefit of the doubt" and "this is the risk of selling on-line" routines. I called Paypal- no help.

I ultimately lost the case and filed an appeal.

In my appeal I referred to the User Agreement. Hopefully, this can help others .Here is the text of my appeal.

________________________________________________

“I feel eBay is in violation of the eBay User Agreement. Under Section: Policy Enforcement, it states: When a buyer or seller issue arises, we may consider the user s performance history and the specific circumstances in applying our policies. We may choose to be more lenient with policy enforcement in an effort to do the right thing for both buyers and sellers.

This buyer was a guest with -0- history and claimed the Empty Box Claim. I have 11 years on this ebay account and over 2500 feedback score. I am a Top Rated seller. When one googles "ebay buyer claims not received item empty box"

https: www.google.com/search?q=ebay+buyer+claims+not+received+item+empty+box&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 E

You get over 500,000 hits. This is a well known scam and the buyer played it perfectly as eBay looks the other way on this. Also, your agent claimed that eBay gives the buyer the benefit of the doubt . I don t find that provision in your user agreement. Please let me know if (Buyer’s email address redacted)@hotmail.com has active eBay accounts under various user names. If so, please provide me with those user names. This is allowable under the privacy policy.”

_______________________________________________

This morning I wake up to the following e-mail from eBay:

Thank you for contacting us about case XXXXXXXXXXXX for the following item:

XXXXXXXXX - Apple iPod touch 5th Generation Space Gray (32GB) Bundle with Survivor case!

We've reviewed your concerns and have reversed the outcome of the case. Within 48 hours, we'll credit the PayPal account used to provide reimbursement for this case. If you used another payment method, please open a PayPal account with the email address we have on file. This will enable you to claim your money.

The money hit my PP account about an hour later!

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castlemagicmemories · ‎11-06-2017

OP: While you may not get an empty box back, the premise of this seller's defense may help you as it applies to your situation.

New buyer.

erics577 · ‎11-06-2017

That's great advice. Would you just do nothing then and let ebay resolve it and then file an appeal? My thing is I don't want to admit that I am in the wrong by doing a refund, but I also don't want this to drag on.

I just wrote him back and said that I'd escalated the case with ebay and obviously can't do a refund for an item I didn't send. And that I'd let him know what they say.

castlemagicmemories · ‎11-06-2017

I wish you had waited and not done that.

NEVER ever escalate a case to Ebay when you are a seller. They don't want to step in, they want you to handle it.

You get a very serious case closed without seller resolution defect for that, and that can negatively impact your selling privileges.

If it was an item not as described case, you would do return for refund. You pay return shipping and send them a label to return or ask ebay to do it. When it shows delivered to you, then you refund.

If they opened an item not received case, you input your tracking that shows delivery into the case and you are covered.

Buyer may have opened wrong case; it should be not as described but they may have opened INR by mistake.

castlemagicmemories · ‎11-06-2017

You could ask the buyer if he has you confused with another seller as you know that you did not send a hard drive.

castlemagicmemories · ‎11-06-2017

OP, I don't know how successful you would be if it came down to you versus this buyer in using the new buyer vs established seller defense as I see that although you have been a user since 2003, your feedback as a seller is showing 32.

You could try it but at 32 you don't really have a lot of feedback.

As for refund, your call. You can ask them to return or refund or just refund.

You pay shipping both ways in addition to the original cost. Buyer may or may not return.

erics577 · ‎11-06-2017

Thanks again for the feedback. It just seems so wrong to me that someone can simply say: "he sent me something different than what I ordered" and just like that I am out 500 bucks. Even worse, I had to pay to get screwed because now I am out the product, the shipping fees, and ebay fees.

Part of me feels like just do the refund so I can move on with my life. I've spent 30 minutes going over any possible scenario where a hard drive I've never seen before(nor have any access to) ended up in a package that I personally packed. I can't come up with one! I even went and looked for the CPU and guess what? It's gone. He's probably requesting the refund on the computer he built with my cpu 😃

It also feels wrong to have him send back something to me that isn't mine. I don't want his hard drive.

Ugh. Live and learn I guess.

Is there anyway to avoid buyers with no feedback score?

this_n_that_n_somethin_else · ‎11-06-2017

Eric,

I think you're doing fine with this.

I would also CALL Ebay and let it be logged into their system that you CALLED them stating how SHOCKED you are in that this guy is trying to scam you and tell them what he's doing, and that he's a guest, etc...

My friend knew of someone who sold a very, VERY RARE mantle clock to someone on Ebay. They returned it to him, WITHOUT a very important part in it, which was nearly impossible to replace. THAT's why, (and for reasons like what happened to you) I don't sell anything of real value here. Too many scammers out there...

Terri

castlemagicmemories · ‎11-07-2017

No, there is no way to avoid zero feedback buyers. Sorry.

I might have been hasty in saying that that new buyer defense might not work for you. While you only have 32 transactions, that is more than zero, and I don't think you had issues with them, so you could try the zero buyer, established seller, shocked that they are taking advantage of you, etc.

It is worth a shot. Call CS and good luck. Before you call, report the buyer using the link where you would leave feedback. If you have already left feedback, report when you call Ebay. Ask them to note this on your account, ask for a supervisor, I am not sure if it would be Resolutions or Trust and Safety, ask them to send you an email with the notes added to your account, and get a conversation number to refer to again if need be, not necessarily in this order as my thoughts are somewhat scattered here.

chrysylys · ‎11-07-2017

Why did you post that ... whatever it is?

Forget keeping up with the Joneses. Be the Finklegrubers!
OK kids, time to get the Dodge loaded up again. I hear 'Poppy's By the Tree' calling. This trip might be a long one too.

thatsallfolks · ‎11-07-2017

“I requested photos, included the product in the box on a scale. He's been more than happy to comply. Everything checks out. ”

What does this mean? The hard drive and box match the weight of what you shipped?

hawgryders · ‎11-07-2017

@erics577 wrote:
Long story short: I sold a CPU processor for $500.00 to a customer. He responds today, requesting a refund with a photo saying I sent him a hard drive. As I personally packed the auction and have never seen that hard drive in my life, I know that is simply NOT possible. I don't own a hard drive like that. I triple check EVERYTHING I send out to avoid situations like this.

Note: he didn't request me to send the correct item, he only wants to send me back this random hard drive and get a refund.

This is a nightmare scenario for me. I've contacted the customer letting him know I will alert the Post Office Fraud and file a police report to find out what happened so we can resolve the situation.

I requested photos, included the product in the box on a scale. He's been more than happy to comply. Everything checks out.

Looking at this from ebay's perspective this is a classic he said/she said case. It is a new ebay account with 2 feedback on it. Not sure if that helps or hurts.

So what do I do? Do I just refund him and move on with my life? Do I have him send back this hard drive(curious what's on it!) and then do a refund(I have no interest in receiving back an item that isn't mine)? Do I file all these reports? Please help so I can purge the profanity in my head lol Thanks!

Find out if it was sent to a "freight forwarder" --- if so the possibility of an item being sent to the wrong buyer is plausable ...

castlemagicmemories · ‎11-07-2017

Crysylys:

When I copied and pasted, the pictures overlapped the beginning of the thread, but you can read the rest of it all right, if you care to try. This often happens when you copy and paste a thread on Ebay, I don't know why.

As you can see from that thread, I posted it because this seller won his appeal on the grounds that the buyer was a new user, and he was an established seller. He used the verbage, as you can see, from Ebay that states that they will consider the history of the buyer vs the seller and that the Ebay Empty Box scam is well known. The seller won this appeal.

While this seller did not receive an empty box, the basic defense might hold. New buyer, vs established seller, although OP does not have a great deal of transactions (as you can see, the seller in the article had 2500 feedback), he could still make the case that he has not had issues and his transactions have been successful. OP has been a member since 2003.

It's a very interesting and helpful thread that has sat on the favorite discussions section for a long time.

OP appreciated it and liked the info. So I hope this helps.

erics577 · ‎11-07-2017

Yeah, the weight was the roughly the same as what I sent. It looks like it's a picture of a laptop harddrive? It has an apple logo on it and says "fijitsu." Certainly nothing I've ever used.

Thanks again everyone for the feedback. Helps calm my nerves 🙂